Love/Hate

I was just reading another review of Microsoft's Zune. This one is published at Digital Media Wire and was written by "jay."

It was pretty clear early on that jay's "review" would be a bit biased. The third sentence of the review reads, "But I still prefer my video iPod."

Interestingly though, jay then spends the rest of the review describing the advantages that Zune has over the iPod, all the while still insisting that the iPod is better.

"If only Apple could just find a way to make the screen a little bigger" is followed by "In the end, I prefer the video iPod when it comes to size and design."

Jay then describes some of the other features – he gives a nod to the Zune on its UI, and iTunes takes the cake in the 99 cents vs. points argument.

In his conclusion though, jay sums it up very well: "The video iPod is the clear short-term winner."

But wait, jay then says, "If Apple manages to fit in a larger screen, add wireless capabilities and possibly a subscription service to iTunes, it will also likely be the long term winner."

Huh? The iPod is the winner, but it doesn't have a nice large screen, wireless capabilities or a subscription service. The Zune does have all of those features but is the loser?

This brings me to my point. All of this "fanboi" behavior, cult-like allegiance and fire spitting hatred is getting old. It's the same thing regardless of what the product is. Microsoft people will trash Apple stuff. Linux people will trash Microsoft stuff. It's all so sophomoric.

Here's an idea. Let's all realize that there is a place in this world for each of these companies and their products. Linux has an important role in shaping the "open source" world. Microsoft makes great software that millions of businesses rely on every day. Apple has the most elegant and well designed products I have ever seen.

iPod is great. Zune is cool. Sansa is sweet. OSX rox. Vista kix. Oracle works. SQL Server works. PeopleSoft is a great product. So is SAP.

They all have their place, and the competition between these companies and products will continue to drive those companies to give us better and better products.

Apple will respond to Zune with a better iPod screen and perhaps an FM tuner and WiFi capabilities. Microsoft will continue to improve the Zune and will release new versions with bigger capacities (hard drives) as well as smaller capacities (flash-based Zune).

All fanbois will benefit from this!

It's all good!