andywar's Profile

Mine will end up serving two roles: (1) As a spare, backup phone, or 'primary' when I'm out and about in places where I might not want to take the newer one (e.g. clubbing or in a bar, etc.). (2) As a test platform for work-in-progress iPhone applications, which I have promised myself I'm going to learn how to write. Re-use is partially the fact that even old Apple hardware can be re-purposed past its original use and remains viable for many months/years, and partially the fact that the phone was a 40th birthday present off my family, and I don't want to sell it on.

I think what you are all missing (or perhaps not touching on, relative to it's importance), is that for the vast majority of the public that don't follow the computer press, iPod = music player. The name iPod has reached the point like hoover or sellotape, where a single manufacturer's name has become synonmous with a product category. How many of you have parents or grandparents that call your Macs a PC (or just use the name Windows), because that's their understanding. They aren't into the 'scene' enough to distinguish the difference. That's why most players still play MP3s rather than other, more open and better standards; because for a large proportion of the market MP3 = iPod = music player. MP3 has entered the public lexicon to mean *all* music saved to protable players. I bet there a load of people out there call *any* brand of music player an iPod. Go into any electronics store and listen into to parents discussing what to buy little Billy for his birthday. They'll ask for an 'iPod' despite the fact he wanted a Sony, because to them the name is generic and descriptive of the type of device rather than the manufacturer. That's why Apple has been so 'hard' on people using the trademark loosely and generically (stopping 3rd party stores from using it). If they fail to defend the copyright, there will be nothing to stop it becoming legally generic, and you'll see Sony, Microsoft, et al start using it to describe their own players. That's the real threat to Apple; making sure iPod continues to be the name associated with the niche, yet remain in control of it's use. And whether deliberate or not, the name iPod was a good move, as it doesn't suggest music, video, or any other kind of media, unlike a lot of the competitors' branding. So as the capabilities of the line, and number of models increases, they can still be called iPods. How many people think Sony sold a *lot* of Walkmans because *that* term became generic for all manufacturers' portable cassestte players, and ill-informed grandmas, uncles and parents bought the model that had that word on the box...

Of course, you then have to ask the question would Intel be willing to develop a 'custom' chip specifically for a customer with such a small share of their market; after all, IBM wouldn't do it for Apple, so why would Intel? Unless they really, really want to break up their intimate link with Microsoft... And who'd want to do that :)