Reading the news today I saw an article that boasted something along the lines of Apple Could be "Microsoft of music". After reading this I was thinking that, in a way, that could be quite insulting to Apple.
First of all, I realize that the author was probably talking in scales of market share and the kind of dominance Microsoft has in the desktop OS realm. However, to call Apple the "Microsoft of music" suggests to me that they have made it to the top by putting out an inferior product. Not so, unlike Windows and the VHS format before them, iTunes and the iPod are the "best in show". They are winning the battle not because of bullying or flooding the market with cheap products but by putting quality first. Not just the quality of the iPod, which is by far the best Digital Media Player out there, but the quality of the user experience with iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. They way they work together is nothing short of elegant.
That being said, however, it is also quite insulting to Microsoft as well, come to think of it. To be so quick as to declare Apple the runaway winner when there are still a lot of players to enter the game, mainly Microsoft, is absurd. Nobody should ever discount what the behemoth from Redmond can do. Remember the browser wars? They can force their digital music format right down most of our collective throats. Joe PC-User isn't going to have to go too far to buy music online once Microsoft puts "Buy Music" on the desktop or in the Start Menu of the up-and-coming "Longhorn". I actually am getting pretty annoyed with the fact that companies like Microsoft and mostly like Wal-Mart and Amazon, feel the need to enter they digital download marketplace in the first place. For no other reason to dominate yet another market and to see how far their brand can take them.