Ludic Dreams

Allow me to explain myself a little bit: Yes, it is known that I foster a “hatred” for Apple products. I use quotes around hatred because it isn’t really hate; I mean, I hate certain things because at their core, I see them as just flat out wrong, possibly violently wrong(a great example would be my thoughts on Creationism). Macs have fostered my anger due to several factors; a premium price point, the static nature of their operating system and hardware, and most of all, the people who use Macs. It’s like Ghandi said of Jesus: “Love your Christ, Hate your Christians.” Of course, this is not a blanket term, because there are many people who use Apple products that aren’t mindless drones, following the glowing fruit. Let it be said that every time I see some Beret wearing dude at starbucks chatting away on his Iphone while clicking away at his white macbook, I want to walk over and rip it in half, destroying whatever screenplay/term paper regarding gardening that he was working on.

Steve Jobs is a great man, and what he has done is something to be admired. But then, I see him spout something like this, pulled from CNBC:

I told Jobs that I had sat down with Microsoft’s Robbie Bach last week at the Consumer Electronics Show. I mentioned that Bach was particularly optimistic about the new Zune, that it was now a worthy alternative to Apple’s iPod.

Asked Jobs: “Was he inebriated? Do you even know anyone who owns a Zune?” Touched a nerve, I suppose. .

Man, what an arrogant thing to say. The Zune has not toppled the might iThrone yet, that is for sure. But for a marketplace so bloated with small white clickwheels, the zune (in all it’s various flavors) has managed to penetrate to a point of percentage. While official statements like sales figures, market shares etc. are not made available, I can say that as a college student, I have begun to see Zune’s on campus. Several a day. These people are not on the ‘front lines’- sure, maybe they didn’t pick it out, maybe they don’t fight for the cause like I do- but they own them, and are obviously using them with some degree of success. I cannot find the original source, but I am fairly confident that it has been established that the Zune occupies the same amount of space as non-ipod players, which it has accomplished in a fairly short amount of time (comparative to how the iphone has absorbed the marketshare of the non-blackberry/wm smartphones, mentioned in the CNBC video).

The Zune is a decent piece of hardware, a piece that I believe out-trumps the Ipod in terms of pure features. It’s sophomore effort has evolved past the shortcomings of it’s first incarnation ( a Microsoft trend) to something really great. Bill Gates has said several times that he looks at what Steve has accomplished with great regard, and now he just turns around and says, what is essentially a fourth grade burn. After this and his horrifying views regarding reading, I can’t wait for his reaction if the Zune ever becomes as popular as the iPod; “Mr. Jobs, What do you have to say about the sales figures regarding your ipod’s competitor, the zune?”

“Your mom’s a Zune.”