Boy, is the market for phones different than the market for MP3 players. I was there at the launch of the iPod, and I immediately saw it was a game changer. But it had a massive exposure; there were three other firms in the space — S3, Creative Labs, and Sony — and the iPod only worked on Macs. It took these competitors at least a year to understand what Apple had done and to come out with similar or better offerings. Now, over 5 years later, S3/RIO has exited the market, Creative Labs still doesn’t get it, and Sony seems to be doing its level best to commit suicide by overuse of DRM.
Digital Trends
