[quote name='Strell']It's not popular because it's bad, it's popular because it's made by Apple and interfaces directly with the iPod, which is the most popular MP3 player out there at the moment. (Don't start the "iPod is popular because it is bad" argument here - that's not what I'm getting at.) Therefore it's easy for Apple to cram it down the throats of all those iPod owners, which helps create a firmly dominant platform.
On top of that, it was the first "buy-each-song" service available, and really the first widespread legal digital download source. I remember people saying it would fail within a few months, and instead it's gone on to become a huge success.
I'm sure there are more objective reasons why it's so popular, but I think the point is made.
Please note I am not saying it is a great program - it's bloated, runs slowly, locks you in with DRM, and generally isn't as well featured as other players.
But let's not be silly about it and proclaim it's only popular because it's bad. Hell, you can look at the classic argument re: how a game is rated versus how well it sells to see that there is absolutely no correlation between quality and sales.
If you don't like it, that's cool. But at least don't make up a "reason" when it's really just a subjective bias.[/QUOTE]
You're right, I am being quite bias. I honestly can't help it though. I have a strong hatred towards Apple for the road it's taken. It seems to take pleasure in knowing that their sales are driven my the uneducated masses. I'm not going to doubt that Macs, iPods, etc aren't good at what they do. But that's really the problem, beyond that there's nothing good about them. You pay 500-100 dollars mor for a mac that to par with a PC. For the same money you buy something much better spec wise. As far as the OS goes, anything a Mac can do Windows can do too. The only real difference is that you're deprived of certain things like gaming and other things. You give those up to have an idiot friendly OS. It's not that hard to avoid all the problems report of Windows. Window's biggest fault is not assuming that everyone's an idiot. As far as the iPod goes I'm not going to doubt that it's good. It is. But simply because you pretty much control the market doesn't mean you can inflate the price about 50%. It's simply not right to take advantage of your customers like that. I've alwys grown up believing theft is wrong, but I honestly don't have any sympthy for Apple if it gets an entire shipment stolen.
