(I wrote most of this in my head last night, but my girlfriend was a bit ticked that I spent as much time playing with my new toy- 30GB iPod- as I did- so I figured I better shut the computer off and spend some time with her instead of posting, so it’s late. Ah well.)

As I shopped at the Apple Store in University Village last night, I was struck by something. Apple has this core (haha) of evangelists that are as bad, or worse, as any religious fanatic in their insistence upon the superiority of All Things Apple.

I think Apple stuff is pretty cool, and it’s often good stuff; after all, I laid out a few hundred bucks for an iPod over one of the other MP3 players. But it came to me that the decision I made had more to do with two factors than true technical superiority.

The first factor is that Apple sells more iPods, so there’s more accessories, more support, so I snagged one for that reason. This isn’t really a compelling reason that something is *better* than something else; it just means they got a huge headstart on everyone else and now leverage that into an advantage. Kinda like Windows on computers.

The second factor is that iPods (I keep wanting to type “Ipod”, as I usually do, so forgive me- obviously I’m not a true Apple-vangelist) are just plain cool. The click wheel, the design, the cachet that comes with owning an iPod- they’re just plain cool. They’re what people want, and people want them because people have them. Their ads are cool. Their store displays are cool.

Well, again, this doesn’t really prove that the product itself is any better; it just means they hire good marketing people. And they do- it’s really quite brilliant. The box the iPod comes in is the size/shape of a dual-CD box, so it’ll fit right in on that shelf. The store is staffed by hipsters (although my original salesman was an old guy who didn’t know much, since he was so new) who have those funky little headset jobbers wired into their ears, like some of the yuppy clothing stores you see.

(Speaking as someone who wears a headset on the job, I can’t see the point of people *wanting* to wear one if they’re not using it frequently. I do it because I have to, not because it “looks neato”- in fact, when I see people in a store wearing them and they’re not using them frequently, I think it just looks stupid.)

Anyway, as I play with the thing, I realize that the marketing is great but some things are not. I’ll be damned if I can figure out, simply from messing around with the software, how to put a video onto the iPod. I mean, I’m a fairly smart guy, and if I can’t figure it out just from dorking around with it… maybe I need to read the manual. Oops, there is none. Songs, no problem- I managed that.

Not much of a thought for the day, but a thought nonetheless.