It Seems To Me

Thoughts and Rants on Technology, Business and Politics

I opened Windows Media Player recently and immediately understood why the iPod is rocking the world. According to Steve's keynote address at the recent MacWorld, Apple has sold 42 million iPods so far. I have done my share.

I have owned 6 iPods and my partner is on her second. Two of my previous hard-drive based iPods died after hitting the hard floor one too many times, and one was stolen when our house was robbed. Now, according to my (distorted) calculations, 42 million iPods sold equates to a penetration of only about 6 - 10 million households. But lo, I digress.

Everyone marvels at the elegance of the iPod and the intuitive simplicity of the interface. I can't disagree. The Nano is an amazing device - perfect size and almost weightless. I carry mine everywhere.

But it is not the iPod's design (and it certainly isn't its price) that is driving iPod sales. No, the reason that Apple's iPod continues to trounce all of its competitors is because of the ultimate simplicity in loading the iPod with things you want to hear. Most other MP3 player makers rely on Windows Media Player, WinAmp or their own applications to enable you to transfer songs and audio files to your portable player. Unfortunately, these other media managers pale compared to the simplicity of synchronizing your iPod with iTunes. You install iTunes, you plug in an iPod, and you choose what music / playlists you want, and you take it with you. Of course, buying new music from the iTunes music store couldn't be much easier as well.

In contrast, I opened Windows Media Player the other day and it immediately started copying MP3 files to a USB thumb drive that I happened to have connected. This was going on in the background until, 250 MB of copied files later, I figured out what was happening. Navigating and organising your music in iTunes is much easier than in Windows Media Player. And iTunes only tries to add music to a connected iPod, not every portable storage device that might be attached.

Computers still have a long way to go towards being simple and easy to use but iTunes is the star player at the moment. No one will usurp iPod's market dominance by making a better, faster, cheaper, easier, more elegant, more stylish, or larger capacity player. The iPod's dominance can only be threatened by someone who can make it even easier to get what you want on your portable player when and where you want it.

All this is not to say that the iPod / iTunes combo is not without its shortcomings. But I shall leave such rants for another day.