Everyone knows what an iPod is, right? Apple’s music and movie player, iconic white (although the nano is available in colors now), easy to use, everywhere? <a href="
http://www.apple.com/ipod”>Here’s a link, just in case.
OK, now, how about the Zune? Microsoft’s Zune? Anybody? Hello? I can hear you breathing out there, people!
The Zune is Microsoft’s answer to the iPod. It hasn’t shipped yet, so Microsoft has announced a bunch of features for their iPod killer*, like built-in WiFi so you can share songs wirelessly, and it comes in the blandest, most boring color of brown (yes, brown) that you’ve ever seen. Although if you’re old enough, and you had one of those hand-held Mattel football games, you might recognize the color. So you just know that Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer had a personal say in the exact color they’re using.
Yes, yes, and it’s going to run on the batteries forever and a day, and you’ll get laid, and it’ll even julienne fries. Yawn.
So Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and coolest guy in the tech industry, gets asked about the Zune. Specifically, if he’s worried about it:
“In a word, no. I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.”
…Um, yeah. Is it any more obvious that Steve Jobs gets it? And Microsoft doesn’t?
* Tee-hee! I have to giggle everytime someone uses that phrase, and not just for a Microsoft product! EVERY music player that comes out is described as an iPod killer. Except that, y’know… they don’t kill anything, and Apple just keeps making money hand-over-fist with iPods.