Apple iTunes a Problem for Microsoft

The previous post show that the price tag for an iPod with all accessories may be pretty high. But in the same article we see an interesting reason Apple should be pretty happy.

The iPod is selling millions of units every month. And each new iPod means a new user installing iTunes in a Windows machine. What might be otherwise be viewed as good sign of Windows support, may be in fact troublesome for Microsoft, with the following immediate consequences:

* Each new user of iTunes is faced with a new paradigm of software, given the simplicity of Apple iTunes. This may be addicting for the normal computer user, which is exposed to such software beasts as MS media player... Certainly, users will be curious to see what is in the other side of the fence, what is not what MS wants.
* The iTunes means that the user is now able to have access to high quality media (music, podcasts, video), while at the same time bypassing normal windows/MS channels. Steve Jobs is doing great in finding new deals with content creators. Pretty soon, even windows users will feel that the iTunes is the best way to get good video and audio content.


These are great points for Apple, but may have bad consequences for windows. It is clear that this was the original goal of Apple, but if I was from MS I would be pretty upset by now...

Technorati tags: Apple, iTunes, Microsoft, iPod