Gidds's Profile

You can't compare WMA to VHS. VHS was a fixed standard, and one that anyone could use. WMA is a moving target; M$ has shown time and time again that they can keep tweaking their formats to lock people out, or have them forever playing catch-up. The other aspect is that with iPod's and iTunes' market share, Apple have the chance to [i]affect[/i] things. Should they roll over and give M$ yet another monopoly, or stand firm and do their bit so that [i]everyone[/i] will be able to enjoy relatively open file formats and a level playing field? Yes, Apple should definitely support open formats like Ogg Vorbis. There's no risk to them, and great benefit for some folks. But to support WMA hands over far too much influence and control to the opposition. Also, I think people put far too much emphasis on paid-for tracks. Nice though that option is, I suspect that the vast majority of tracks played on iPods are either ripped from the user's own CD collection, or downloaded for, er, free. And all [i]those[/i] tracks will work on any MP3 player there is. The iPod is not necessarily tying you into anything. Otherwise here in Europe, where we don't know if we'll [i]ever[/i] get the iTunes Music Store, no-one would be using iPods at all!