How iTunes is Paving the Way For Switchers

Trojan Horse—figurative, a person or thing intended secretly to undermine or bring about the downfall of an enemy or opponent.

Ladies and gentlemen, it finally hit me during the keynote: iTunes on Windows wasn’t about selling iPods, it was about selling Macs. I know, I know, it seems counterintuitive, but it’s true. Though I must admit, at first, when iTunes came to Windows I just thought it was Apple trying to expand the iPod’s install base. And maybe that really was the initial design, but oh how times have changed. By the way, in case you missed the keynote allow me to explain. The new Finder interface is almost identical to the newest iTunes interface.

Curious…

Why would they do that, do you think? Well, one explanation is that the iTunes interface is just so good that, after almost two years, the Apple engineers couldn’t come up with anything better.

Well…maybe…

Here is another theory. What do you think is the biggest hurdle preventing wide-scale adoption of OS X? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not price! Nope, it’s experience. Almost all current computer users are familiar with some version of Windows. And even with the massive gains OS X has made in recent years, the vast majority of the public has no experience with Macs. But, because so many people have iPods, they do have plenty of experience with iTunes.

If only the iTunes interface was identical to the Find-...oh wait, now it is.

The biggest issue for Windows users, namely an alien way to access their files, has suddenly been greatly minimized. Because now using the Finder is just like using iTunes. So, let’s look at things from a Windows user’s perspective. They are used to using Quicktime, they are used to using iTunes, now thanks to iTunes they are used to using the new Finder, and if that wasn’t enough, Apple just announced that they are giving away Safari for Windows as well. Oh yeah, and GAMES, that last big reason for using Windows over Mac, just took a big step towards becoming a non-factor thanks to these recent announcements.

Apple has drastically stepped up its attempts at capturing market share and that means they are all but declaring war on Windows. There just isn’t any nicer way to say it, Apple has now become so aggressive that a conflict with Microsoft is all but guaranteed. How can anything else happen? Apple just announced that they were going to try and take a big chunk of IE’s market, then they announced that (with simultaneous releases) games will soon be a non-factor in choosing an OS; hell, the only way they could have made a more aggressive stand was to announce they are going to produce their own game console.

Microsoft has to react to all this. I haven’t a clue as to what they could realistically do to counter it, but I know they are going to have to do something because Apple is dangerously close to grabbing a lot of Microsoft’s revenue.

To say the least, this should be interesting.