Macworld was a fantastic time, as it was last year, but each show I attend there are more and more white earbud on the expo floor and around the city. When I left home, I knew 10 iPod owners in my city and all Mac fanatics. There were also 4 iPod owners at the gym I work out and that is all I know of for our area. San Francisco is synonymous for tech (since in the heart of Silicon Valley) and you see more Macintosh computers and iPod than anywhere else, from my experience. This year, iPod headphones were much more prevalent. Every fourth person I passed on the street had something Apple made going into their ears and when I was spending time with the owners of other Mac enthusiast websites, it seemed they had developed anger towards those wearing the headphones.
While at home, I embraced iPod users since they were very few in my neck of the woods but when I visited the big city and everyone had them, I could see how these Mac users felt. I have been a hardcore Mac user for a long time now and when the iPod came out, I saw it as a niche player that will achieve a small share in the market and will only be for Mac users and something PC users will envy. Even six months ago I still had no fear since Apple had only sold five million iPods worldwide and were slowly growing. After Apple released a Photo iPod, U2 SE, and now a Shuffle I am shaking in my boots. Then when Steve announced 10 million iPods sold and shortly after hearing 20,000 iPod shuffles sold in one day, I am really thinking of switching to a player with less market share. I switched to Mac because they had that community feel and the lack of viruses made it even more appealing. I have always been a Mac user but never a full time user until OS X and the discovery of an underground community of users that were comrades instead of haters like in the PC world.
IPod was just an extension of that community but of course Apple had to make money so when it went to PC, that was the end of another Mac exclusive. I dont hate Apples success because that makes for more innovative products for Mac users but it is a shame that 2/3 of iPod users are PC ones. It used to be fun to see an iPod user and start a conversation with them about their Mac and only 1/20 said, I use Windows xp. Now the iPod headphones do not mean you are going to meet a new Mac user but instead you dont know what kind of platform they use. What is even worse is when they talk about Steve Jobs and Apple and how cool the company is yet when they get home, the poor iPod is docked with a bug filled Windows OS. I feel like slapping them, hopping on their stomach and yelling, you have no idea what it is to use an Apple. Macintosh is a way of life and a members only club. You have been given a taste of our community with the iPod and now you flaunt it like you are one of us! You dont know Steve and you dont understand Apple. Of course I never do that but instead wear an Apple related T-shirt while iPodding just to tell other Mac users that I am one of them.
So whose iPod nation is it? It is not the Mac users or the PC heathens. In fact, the iPod nation belongs to Apples executives and the stockholders for whom have gotten rich of this phenomenon or fad. It will not last long but will change the industry forever. My fear is that Macs will get above the 15% market share with the iPod-halo effect and Mac users will really be screwed. There goes the community and bring on the viruses and hackers. As secure as OS 10 is, the vulnerabilities are there it is just the market share is so low; coders dont see a need to expose it. So this is my call to help me find a new MP3 player. I dont know of any that work with iTunes but I want a player that works with Mac OS 10 and can play videos, pictures and AAC, MP3 and WMV/ WMA. Any suggestions, seriously?