Apple iPod

Lots of advertising for the new Apple iPod.
Certainly, for the price, it offers a ton of memory. I'm sure
it's easy to use, as most Apple products are. I see many
problems though. I don't know that MP3 players are really
essential gizmos for anyone I know. They fulfill a niche
market right now. I'm skeptical of static memory buffers
on hard-drive MP3 players because I use them primarily
when I'm exercising and if they skip while jogging that's
an automatic negative in my book. Maybe the 20 minute
buffer is sufficient, though. That's a lot.
But mostly, it's the Apple-centricity of the thing that
makes me wonder how lucrative it will be as a product.
The thing doesn't support Windows PCs right now, and
hey, all my MP3 tracks are on my Windows desktop
and that's probably the case for millions of users in this
country. The firewire interface which is embraced and
supported by Apple on its PCs is rare on PCs today.
Most Windows PCs require installing a firewire card
to support that, and that automatically the chance that
95% of Windows PC users will have firewire.
I love the way Apple computers look. But Macintoshes
are doomed to be niche items by economics. Any
product created for a Windows platform sells into
an installed base a gazillion times larger. It is
difficult to justify sinking heavy R&D into creating
products for Macs when you first should commit that
budget to Windows computers. Sure, OS X might
be easier to use than Windows XP (I don't know if it
is since I don't have Windows XP and haven't
really figured out all the nuances of OS X) but
it's not enough of an advantage to outweight the
economics.
That doesn't mean Mac lovers can't enjoy the Macs
they use, nor does it mean that Apple doesn't make
great products. It's strictly business.