[DNA man]

With all the flak that the iPOD, SJ and Apple is getting. I thought I mention that one of the die hard wintel guys at work really wants an iPOD. This guy hates (will did) all things Apple. But the iPOD might just make him buy a Mac to be able to use the iPOD. He is well off and is always spending his cash on the latest and greatest things. The next may well be a Mac and iPOD. I suppose when I think about it, Apple should keep the iPOD Mac only, so long as we get the Wintel die hards to convert.

Anyways, I thought I'd mention it as a postive comment for Steve and his iPOD!

DNA man

[cpt kangarooski]

It won't. It's basically a $1,200+ mp3 player.

Without, shall we put it, intimate functionality, I think that you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to make the investment in a Mac, replacement software, possibly network infrastructure, and time learning the system, _JUST_ to have an mp3 player with functionality that can and will be duplicated by other hardware manufacturers in fairly short order.

Perhaps if there were TONS of things like this, produced by a host of different vendors, you might have a case. As it stands, it's not going to sell to anyone but Mac users until it supports Windows _well_.

[michaelb]

For the very rich, maybe. The sort of people who would buy a Flower Power iMac because it looked good with their van Gogh...

For the rest, maybe there's the subliminal message:

The iPod is cool.
Apple makes the iPod.
Apple makes cool stuff.


Then, further down the track, when they are sick of getting milked dry by Microsoft Product Assimilation, the customer may just consider a Mac as their next computer.

Wintel users are so narrow minded. The iPod is just the start of something bigger, but they can't see it. I suppose Wintel users thought Windows CE is crap because the Nino was so limited in use. But look at Pocket PC now, with multimedia functions. The point is the iPod is the start. With firewire and playing MP3. The next iPod iteration should download movies and play them on a color screen. And play MP3s. So 1-2 years down the road after the iPod has worked out its bugs, just think:
The iPod can store files, store and play MP3, store and play quicktime or Mpeg movies, downloaded from your DV cam, or digital still cam. Sounding more like a digital hub?
I understand now why it has to be Mac only. Apple can only exist if it does not compete with Wintel PCs. They can never match the price of the beige box, nor should they try. So by creating a unique and wonderful world within themselves, people have to join them, or miss out. It's your choice. You can have your commodity PC and faceless peripherals, or you can have digital products that seem to have a soul. Something a Windows machine can't really ever hope to have.

[cpt kangarooski]

There is nothing special or unique about the iPod. All of the functionality can be duplicated, probably at lower cost, with better features. (indeed, it's not even revolutionary -- mp3 walkmen have been out for ages; at best it is an evolution of that concept)

Apple will never be able to match the beigePods either. They could've at least tried to gather for themselves all the advantages possible by making it platform agnostic, but they've once again shot themselves in the foot.