SanDisk CEO: The iPod Wars Are Over
Jun 3rd, 2009 | By James Lewin | Category: Digital Music, iPods & Portable Media Players 
The iPod Wars are over, and if anybody should know, it’s SanDisk CEO Eli Harari.
The founder and CEO of SanDisk admits what just about everyone else has known for a long time: the iPod wars are over, and Apple won.
“You can’t out-iPod the iPod,” says Harari.
Harari’s facing the facts. In April, Piper Jaffrey reported that there was zero interest among teens in portable media players besides the iPod.
Somebody forgot to tell Microsoft, though. While Apple’s clearly moving on from portable media players to establishing a wireless handheld computing platform, Microsoft’s Zune HD announcement reveals that it’s still trying to make a better iPod.
Is it time for Harari to have a heart-to-heart with Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer?
Image: williamli1983
Did any of these other companies make a profit from their devices? I favored iRiver before I got an iPod. (Okay, now the truth: I couldn’t afford an iPod, so I purchased an iRiver. But the iRiver had another feature I was looking for at the time, a feature more important to a beginning podcaster than any that the iPod had to offer: the ability to record good sound.)
Lets NOT tell Balmer.
I’m having so much fun watching Microsoft flub it again and again, and again and again.
The concept of consumer devices is so going over their head because they just don’t get that people don’t want to be treated like tone-deaf corporations.
Their concepts are all wrong.
From sticking a radio in there when we the listeners are trying to avoid commercials, to songs as a subscription service where your tunes last as long as the credit card payments are coming.
Given the economic turmoil can you say that you’ll never miss a payment?
Nah, lets not tell Balmer.
I’ve had both an ipod and a zune, and let me just tell you, the zune is waaaay better. @msbpodcast, you are missing a critical element in your criticism. Yes, most radio programs come in podcast format but what if you want to listen to a live event? A sporting event, Obama’s inaguration, etc. At work, all my colleagues were so jealous of my zune because they couldn’t get the election show with their trendy ipods. Trust me, a radio is still a big selling point. Plus, my brother and I use the wi-fi, zune-to-zune sharing feature almost everyday. I can’t ever imagine going back to the over-hyped, trendy piece of junk that is the ipod.
Are you kidding? the Ipod touch has wifi, and a web browser so… what’s your point?
Zune??? are you serious? lol
Thomas
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