The following are the secret weapons a few companies believe will serve them well in their respective battles against the iPod, the iPhone, and iTunes:
Microsoft has revamped the Zune, the train wreck of product that Andrew Ross Sorkin and Soledad O’Brien could barely disguise their (completely warranted) disgust for while promoting last year on CNN. Though in its second go, the Zune is smaller than a boom box, the revamped product offers no “radical” breakthroughs that suggest anyone would choose it over the iPod, unless held at gunpoint. The sharing feature remains useless, because the chances of the two people who own a Zune being in close enough range of one another are extremely slim.
Sony recently came out with a new version its Sony WALKMAN. This one has the ability to play digital video. I’m sorry, were you not listening because you were distracted by the fact that I’d just said “walkman”? Same here.
Amazon launched a “snazzed-up” music-downloading service last month. Who downloads their music from Amazon? This reformed music-embezzler uses iTunes exclusively, and I hate Steve Jobs so that’s got to mean something (or nothing).
Verizon unveiled the Voyager, manufactured by LG, today. Sort of unsurprisingly, Verizon Chief Marketing Officer Mike Lanman said he thinks “it’ll be the best phone…this year,” and then proceeded to take it to an even less realistic but much darker place in commenting that “it will kill the iPhone.” Bringing things back down to earth was Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart, who said that while the phone may attract a few people not willing to switch to AT&T, it’s highly unlikely that the Voyager will “pull anybody away from an iPhone.”
Nice try to all of you who gave it a shot, and definitely take an A for effort. Maybe not Microsoft though, because seriously, the Zune? We've got more money on the Walkman. It’s almost as though you could *not* actually give a shit.
In other news, the date of the Apple backlash has been set for March 21, 2008.
Verizon unveils iPhone rival [Reuters]
Apple's iPod Still Rules, But Rivals Are Circling [cnbc]
Posted by John Carney , Oct 03, 2007 6:44PM
Due to understaffing, there will be no Write-Offs today.
Posted by carney makes bess due the heavy lifting , Oct 03, 2007 6:48PM
fuck you, fake john carney. obviously they're coming, but since it's a one-woman show today, they seem to be coming a bit later.
Posted by Walkman , Oct 03, 2007 7:54PM
I see people with walkmans everyday on the 1 Train north of 79th st.
Posted by raytoei , Oct 04, 2007 10:10PM
the most obvious answer is Nokia.
Posted by Jose , Oct 04, 2007 10:51PM
Wow, I do not know who would let a dum-ass like you run a website. Obviously you are one of those guys that blow jobs. If you like apple fine man but dont' be getting people in miss leaded ways. True the zune sucks, but how about the Archos? or gigabeat? and for that matter the new walkman. True they were in a slump with their walkmans, but this mp3 players are actually very good now. Check out the Nw-919 that allows the user to watch tv and videos and offers 16gbs and the other walkman the a series. They both sound better than any ipod and include high quality noise canceling headphones.
amazon? itunes? people actually just p2p the music now adays, IM glad to inform you and lastly Verizon.
That thing sucks, there is no phone that could compete with the iphone, hands down. That is only true however if you are talking about design. I have a sonyericsson p1 that definitively doesnt' look like the iphone but has a lot more functionality than it.
That said I think my point is made and dude, they are just trying to get share of the market, someone has to do it. If not then why apple sells computers and software?
to compete with microsoft, and let me tell you this is a 90% to 5% ratio in that department which apple has not grown even when they talk to much about how great their operating system is.
Posted by archos what..??? , Oct 05, 2007 9:21AM
Jose @10:51 is an example of a person who doesn't have enough money to buy $1 song at iTunes. The potential of him buying any of these gadgets he mentioned is pretty slim, hence why would we even listen to him talking about stuff he can't even buy.
Posted by JBOMB , Nov 15, 2007 3:09PM
While this article is worth a read for it's entertainment factor, it is a little too biased towards apple products to take seriously. The author has gone out of his way to bash these other products but forgot to name some of the many flaws the iphone has.
Apple will continue to lead the industry with the ipod, and the iphone has been a great success with version 1. .. but the iphone is missing several basic features which have been offered for years. I look foward to news on the iphone2