I heard this story yesterday on Marketplace and the last line angered me no end. That line is "The key to Apple's success she says is that it's always a step ahead of the competition when it comes to new ideas." This is a load of bunk. The IPod has never been ahead of the competition. Never not once. Where Apple made the right move was in focusing on the software that communicates with their player and of course tying that into an easy to use music store.
I'm not saying that IPods aren't good players or any of that stuff, but they market themselves and people who don't know any better buy into this idea that they are doing something with their players that no one else has done. What I think you will see since they now control so much market share are more products like one put out by Nike that connects to your IPod to give you data while your working out. Is this Apple innovation, no this is what happens when you control 76% of the market.
For real innovation look to an IRiver or Creative product that will work with Yahoo's music service and Netlibrary. Or get a PC with Windows Media Center and a media player from Creative. Then you can use your PC to record your favorite TV shows and download them to your player.
