Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

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Wednesday, May 22, 2002
14:43 - iPod for Windows? http://www.thinksecret.com/features/ipodwindows.html	(top)
Should Apple make a Windows version of the iPod? That's a question that people have been asking now for months-- ever since the November introduction of the device. "Sure, it's great," everyone agrees. "But it's Mac-only! Why in the hell would Apple artificially lock out 95% of their potential market?" Well, first of all, they've sold hundreds of thousands of the things, just to Mac users and to Windows users who are willing to use XPlay. And, not to forget, a significant number of Windows users who have then gone on to buy Macs. They're not having trouble moving the things off shelves, even at their prices. The iPod is really just that good. (Today at lunch: Johnny, who had never used an iPod before, was looking up a song on mine that I wanted him to hear. He was muttering, "Bad! Bad interface! I can't figure this out!" So I reached over and twirled the dial-- and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh!" It's that millisecond of realization, when suddenly you understand how the rotary-dial interface works, that it isn't all clumsy push-buttons like everything else-- and suddenly, a few more seconds of exploration and you understand the interface from top to bottom so well that any other way of doing it seems completely brain-dead. By the time he was done listening to "Zero to Phantom", he was saying, "Okay, that's it-- I want one of these. Next paycheck. I will get one of these." He'd had a Rio and an MP3/CD player, and he'd stopped using both because the interfaces were so dumb. But now he's in love.) But here's the decision: Does Apple a) make client software for Windows that opens up the iPod to the rest of the Windows market, so they can get the full ease-of-use experience that Mac users enjoy? Or b) keep the iPod's full functionality limited to the Mac platform, so Mac people will feel justified in using Macs, and Windows people will have an incentive to switch? According to Think Secret, the Infinite Loop marketeers and engineers have been toying with option a)... and not just as described above, but in the sense of creating a completely different device for Windows users. It'd still be an iPod, it would still use FireWire, but it would involve "hardware and design tweaks" specific to that model. In other words, Mac-only and Windows-only models. Fortunately, that idea seems to be in the scrap heap now. I say "fortunately" because I think it would be a spectacularly bad idea. Here we are trying to be the paragon of interoperability and open standards adherence and playing nice in a heterogeneous environment, and look-- iPods that actively widen the divide and can't be shared by friends across platforms. Yeah, brilliant. No, I like the original choice better-- whether it would be more lucrative to simply make Windows software for the existing iPod so as to sell millions more to Windows users, or else to keep it Mac-only and sell more Macs to converts. The latter is what they're doing now, and it seems to be working awfully well. Besides, if they do Windows software, it'll be very hard to put a positive PR spin on a later decision to kill the Windows version if that should come to pass. Remember how much outrage there was when Steve Jobs killed the clone market? He destroyed the business plans of five or six companies with a stroke of the pen. So personally, I'd like to see Apple stick with the current plan. The iPod is another Apple perk-- just like iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto, something for David Coursey to mutter and smirk about and jerk his head suggestively in its direction. Sure, it makes people grumble when you say "Yeah, it's Mac-only"... but that's what makes Macs desirable, and not just expensive PC clones that do the same stuff. With some eight people (soon to be nine) in my company now toting iPods, only three of whom have Macs (though more and more of them are buying Macs because of the iPod), I think it's a sound plan. They're doing just fine.