Zune Answer to iPod?

Here's hoping, but I'm not holding my breath. The iPod has such a hold on the marketplace that I can't see any other product chipping away at that dominance. Even experts are at a loss as to why the iPod is so huge with consumers.

That's because they're idiots. The iPod is hot because it's hot. Markets are driven by themselves. The iPod was not the first MP3 player, but it was the first to have any kind of style or chic. Before then the MP3 player was a total geek toy and had nothing to offer the hip generation. It's the same chic that had driven Myspace to the top of the marketplace. Coolness. Myspace became populated with cool people rather than techy geeks. Coolness breeds coolness. If something is "cool", everyone wants it, hoping that it will make them seem cool. This isn't rocket-science. Maybe that's why the rocket scientists don't get it.

iPods are cool because they are cool. They look cool. The one thing that Apple does really well is product design. Oh, and marketing. Seems that's all you need.

Zune will never make it if it looks like a glorified Walkman.

With Zune, The Empire Strikes Back Paul Korzeniowski, Investor's Business Daily

iTunes Sales Fall

Well, to say they fell is like saying Michael Jackson's a little odd. They plummetted, and I for one, could not be happier. iTunes is one of the most evil and foul creations out there. It, and many other Apple products, is the antithesis of what the information revolution is all about. With it's possessive and proprietary nature driving its place in the market, it completely deserves any failures it garners.
The very idea that I can buy music, BUT only play it on approved devices and computers is so abhorrent to me, if I had known it before I had recieved my iPod as a gift, I would have told the gift-giver to take it back and get me something else.
Not only can I not play the music that I spent my own money on, unless that computer has been verified by the all mighty Apple, I can't play it at all on a computer that is not connected to the internet, because of course, that computer can't be verified. To add insult to ignomy, I can only verify 5 computers to play iTunes purchased music.

So yes, I wish failure upon iTunes. Gladly and happily.

Apple's iTunes music sales collapses in H1: survey Yahoo and Reuters