“Here is the deal. For over a year now I’ve been trying to look for a device that is > the iPod. In that time Apple has constantly moved the needle forward in a number of areas. We are still far behind, and in all likelihood, when we catch up, Apple will have something like this,” Omar Shahine, Microsoft employee and blogger, wrote last Friday. Shahine’s been on a long quest (17 months and 22 blog posts) to find a better product than Apple’s iPod.
Shahine ticks off reasons why the iPod dominates the market:
• The new generation of iPods and Nano are smaller, prettier and more feature rich
• All iPods have a readable color screen with album art
• The UX and Interaction Design are still better than anything out there
• The iPod [adds] new features as an FM radio remote
• There are about 100,000 new accessories that have appeared since I started looking for a replacement. many of these are just awesome.
• Staying at the W Hotel? forgot your iPod charger or Sync cable? They have some for you to borrow in the same way they have plug converters if you are in a foreign country. Have some cryptically named Philips device with a massive brick? You are out of luck.
• Staying at your friend’s house and forgot your iPod? Yeah, well they have a charger too.
“I’m beginning to change my mind about things. Even though we have a great eco system for music stores etc, the reality is that our OEM partners are never ever going to create a product like the iPod. They are simply no match for the iPod Dock Connector, which as generated an ecosystem of hardware that’s probably more lucrative than the online music business,” Shahine wrote. “Game over.”
“I’m not such a zealot that I’m simply going to go out of my way to make myself miserable when the answer is probably an iPod. I don’t sync my music very often (like once a month) so using iTunes might not be so bad (eeek I can’t believe I said that). All I have to do is have my PC transcode all my music to MP3 or AAC in a few days,” Shahine wrote. “For now I’m going to hold out for the Gigabeat S. But if it’s big and ugly and has crappy battery life or a bad FM radio I’m out. I’m 90% of the way there. I’m also going to hold out for urge.com and Windows Media Player 11. But if any of these things suck, I’m off to the Apple Store to smack down a few hundred on some bling bling.”
Yesterday, Microsoft employee Shahine reported that he bought an Apple iPod nano and installed Apple iTunes. Find out all about it here.
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Leave the dark side, Shahine. One step at a time.
http://musobs.blogspot.com/
Now if he really comes to his senses he’ll buy a Mac and go to work at Apple!
How long before he is a former MS employee?
Great read; looks like he actually gets it!
Interesting that he give kudos to Apple for both the Mac and the iPod, Sony for the PlayStation in addition to his own company for the Xbox, I bet Bill will drop him an unhappy memo.
Somebody please tell him that he doesn’t have to convert MP3 to AAC.
Good for you Omar. Enjoy your iPod! Oh, and may I suggest Craig’s List for your job hunt?
I was NEITHER an Apple fan, nor an Appel user until OS X…
But after years of using Apple as apunch line, I started using one as a home computer (PowerBook G4).
What a great experience it has been the past six years! I have NEVER had to reinstall the OS (something I did with Windows once a year) and OH the ease of use!
Why this MS employee is so brain washed that Apple’s iTunes would be a horrible thing to install is beyond me. Windows Media Player is fine – a standard windows app – but iTunes is, just like the iLife apps, how things should be!
In the same way that the iPod has an unbeatable ecosystem, Windows will never lose significant market share to OSX!!!
That was a nice read. But one thing concerns me about Apple and it is summed up in this sentence:
As I was walking to the store, I heard a bunch of people say, “lets go to the iPod store”. That’s right, they don’t even call it the Apple store.
Apple has so successfully branded the iPod and not (in my opinion) effectively marketed their computers (and OS) to their full potential that the everyday non-technical consumer will only think of buying iPods and accessories from Apple – not an iMac, not OS X, just an iPod. The retail presence is nice and it definitely helps the bottom line, but not everyone lives near an upscale mall to go to the Apple store. Apple’s computers and the OS needs more mass market penetration. But if Jobs and company are content with where they are headed and how fast they are going to get there, then there is nothing wrong with being known only as the iPod company.
How long before he is a former MS employee?
Not much…
Candidly written, and even thoughtful.
Once again we’re reminded of the Nimitz-class advantage Apple now has with its rich ecosystem of support gear, and seamless experience.
1% is significant market share in the personal computer business.
Windows lost more than that to Apple Mac in 2005.
Windows will lose even more in 2006.
Never say never.
You know he just doesn’t get, it and will probably never get it until the words and concepts associated with “feature rich” are wiped from his noggin.
“Somebody please tell him that he doesn’t have to convert MP3 to AAC.”
I believe he said that he has to conver TO MP3 OR AAC. That would suggest he has a bunch of WMV files.
Omar is a decent fellow, and actually gets much of why Macs are better. Used to be part of the “cult of Mac,” as he puts it. If you read his post in full, you will see he gets it.
DanielN,
He never said he wanted to convert mp3 to AAC. Try again.
me,
Where did he say that iTunes was difficult to install? He didn’t.
It’s always funny to see the microserfs try to justify their existence when they write about Apple in their boring blogs. This guy’s a perfect example of the hard headed-ness and refusal to see common sense of these drones. The only difference is that he finally, after torturing himself with shitty hardware/software, admitted that Apple’s iPod is the best product. Good for him for stating the fscking obvious. May his employer continue to suck though. Microslop’s shitty software has been paying my bills for a decade.
wait till he plugs an airport express into his network & starts streaming to his stereo. He’ll be hooked for life.
In the same way that the iPod has an unbeatable ecosystem, Windows will never lose significant market share to OSX!!!
—
Just as the iPod makes the case for closed architectures.. Windows makes the case for.. er… Open?
Sure, with driver crashes and 25 year old code like swiss cheese.
God MS Employees are out to lunch.
Pls tell BIll n Woo that resistance is futile!!!
“After all we are a platform company?”
Interesting comment. Who has the preferable platform? I use both. One at work because at work I am part of “the machine.” At home I an Apple seedling. That is the choice I make. My platform of choice.
Anyway, what a nice article. Pretty flattering and very right on.
The whole charger advantage never occurred to me, but it’s true. I can charge an iPod almost anywhere.
Read the article –
I didn’t say the installation would be difficult…I said horrible. As I read the article, i tsays to me that he cringed at the though tof installing iTunes, and I inferred that meant it would be a horrible thing to do (use iTunes, not install iTunes).
What’s the deal with the “>”? Doesn’t he know how to spell “more than”?
“Pls tell BIll n Woo that resistance is futile!!!”
You seem to have fogotten that little cyborg that everone loves to hate…
Bill Gates of Borg!
http://slashdot.org/topics.shtml
http://www.gksoft.com/a/fun/borg-gates.html
“I am Microsoft of Borg. Resistance izkx GPF 0x5654 8820
Application RESIST.EXE has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.”
http://users.vnet.net/schulman/USSHornet/1liners.html