The Power of iPod
This NY Times Article really captures the iPod phenomenon. In the article U2’s Bono describes their recent relationship with Apple:
Speaking just after the event, Bono, U2’s lead singer, said the band was not charging Apple a penny to be in the ad. (The band says it had turned down as much as $23 million to use its music in other commercials.) In its three-year life, the iPod has achieved such “iconic value,” Bono said, that U2 gets as much value as Apple does from the commercial, by promoting its music and the new Red and Black U2 edition of the iPod, for which the band gets royalties.
Until the iPod’s myriad competitors figure out that this is what they are competing against, hardware specifications be damned, this is going to remain a one horse race.