Why iPod will beat the crap out of Zune this holiday season.
October 13th, 2006
Today, Apple announced the debut of iPod RED. If you're too lazy to read the press release, here's the gist: Apple is going to start selling a red iPod Nano to support (RED); for every iPod sale, Apple will donate $10 to (RED)'s African AIDS relief program.
My visceral reaction to this was: What the hell is Apple doing teaming up with Bono and Oprah? Could they possibly choose pop culture icons who are any less hip? But this was quickly overcome, of course, by the warm fuzzy feeling that one of my favorite companies was publicly reaffirming its commitment to Doing the Right Thing in the world. My only remaining qualm was that they didn't choose to donate $20 per pod. Or $199.
And then my final realization: Wow. This new iPod is going to make sure that Apple comes out on top of Microsoft in the portable audio player market for the Christmas season. What yuppy (or really, what thinking person) is going to drop $249 on a Zune for a gift when he can drop $199 on an iPod that says in bright red, "I am against AIDS!" I mean, sure the Zune comes loaded with The Thermals' "Pillar of Salt," but seriously. My intuition is telling me that this red iPod is going to be the new Livestrong bracelet.
Then again, my capacity to reason tells me, "Dude, you totally bought into the hype."
Download: The Thermals – A Pillar of Salt (More Thermals and other great bands from SubPop!)
- Greg
Posted by Greg
2 Comments »
October 14th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
I don’t know. that Zune looks pretty interesting and they seem all for file sharing, which apple certainly is not into with their protections on iPod’s so its hard to transfer files from computer to computer. I probably wouldnt buy the first generation until i see how they do but I’m excited to see some real MP3 competition besides all that crap that can barely play music and breaks after 2 weeks. and by the way does that riff to The Thermals song remind anyone of “action and action” by the Get up kids. No. Ok
-Drew
October 15th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Who would want AIDS? It’s worth $40 to have an AIDS free player. Plus every single thing designed by apple looks like a retarded 1972 version of a lame plastic future and is as dated as platform soles with fish in them.