I don’t want to beat a dead horse but the iPod is not akin to Apple in the late 80’s and their Mac OS strategy. Robert, you’re a good guy but you’re not correct here. Let’s take your points one at a time.

1. WMA files are not smaller, they can be encoded at a lower bit rate which sounds about the same as an MP3 encoded at a higher bit rate. In the age of hard disk players, this isn’t an issue for most people. About 30% of the market is solid state flash devices and they often don’t get used over time as it’s a hassle to keep uploading new songs to them.

2. Exactly. You can convert to MP3 with one click if you don’t want to leave your music in AAC format. Seems like a reasonable compromise to give users flexibility.

3. As long as the rights remain the same and I can convert to MP3 and rip into CD format, this is just not an issue

4. There are always price sensitive markets and room for price elasticity. That applies when a device does a good enough job. $30 DVD players do the same job as $300 ones. Most consumers will never see the difference in quality so they sell in quantity. Not so with portable media players, there’s a big difference in what you get with an iPod and what you get in $30 players.

5. They’re both good programs but iTunes is far better integrated in with the iPod for syncing music.

6. No comment here… you’re a MSFT employee and you should be vocal in support of MSFT standards.

7. Not a fair comparison, Apple is IN the music store business. MSFT isn’t (at least not for a little while).

This doesn’t mean that the iPod is the perfect device, it simply means it’s  the best device on the market and as long as the iPod and iTunes directly support .MP3, there’s really no issue of lock in or other silly arguments. PMC has the potential to drive the market further by adding new features that consumers have interest in as long as they adhere to the three core things that made the iPod a success. What are those three things? Well, let’s save that for another post.

1) I use MP3 too. But WMA format files are smaller. I have an older solid state player, so size was important to me.

2) If you want to buy music online (millions of songs have been sold on Napster, which uses WMA, and iTunes, which uses AAC/Fairplay) from mainstream studios, you'll need to accept DRM. Why? Cause the RIAA is forcing both Apple and the rest of the industry to protect its music from being easily copied. Yeah, both WMA and AAC can be converted into MP3 with a bit of trouble. I know some people with 60GB worth of music files. It takes time to convert and you need hard drive space after you convert that many. Luckily 60GB hard drives cost $60 at Fry's right now.

3) Don't tell the RIAA that Apple's DRM is easy to break. Keep in mind that Apple has already upgraded its DRM and will probably do so again if RIAA insists.

4) Lots of you are arguing that having a high price, but great user experience, is a good thing. Interesting. Then why did Wallmart sellout of $30 DVD players within a few minutes the day after Thanksgiving? I think many of you misread where most users needs are.

5) I'm playing with both iTunes and Napster. They really aren't that far apart in usability. But more on that some other day, I already have enough people who hate me right now.

6) Some of you took swings at me for "turning my blog into a commercial." Um, that's not fair. In the past 24-hours I've pointed at Linux. I've pointed at people who strongly disagreed with me. I've gone out of my way to show you that there's two sides to the story. I don't see this happening on Apple employee's weblogs.

7) Someone said that if you buy a song on Napster, that Microsoft makes a buck. That is absolutely not true. You can read our licensing agreement here. Go ahead. Read it. Now, scroll down to "costs." Note how much we get. ZERO. NADA. NOTHING. For audio use or distribution fees in WMA format.

Now, ask Apple what its license is for AAC/Fairplay. Anyone got the terms? Can you post them? Can you tell me how much Apple gets from every song sold on iTunes? It's a lot more than zero.

But, no, evil old Microsoft is out to get you, right?
[The Scobleizer -- Geek Aggregator]