twilly's Profile

I'd like to weigh in on this with my opinion. I agree with the last post. Apple's target market for the iPod are those who don't understand computers. They want to be told "use this software and buy from here" which is precisely what they don't get with non-Apple players. There are over a dozen music stores offering music in Windows Media format, and none of them are run by the device manufacturer (with the exception of Sony's proprietory music format, store and players). I think in the end, the fact that there is too much choice hurts the non-Apple devices. They just don't have the same level of integration. Now in regards to Job's comment about vertical integration... This works for Apple since they have always been a very proprietory closed company. I don't think this would work for Microsoft. We all know if they had a product just like the iPod, that also used a proprietory DRM and file format, and could only use their store, they'd be in court the day after it came out! We will see an MTV-powered music store app in the next version of Windows, but it's hard to say whether or not the other manufacturers will jump on this or not.