New York Times Sees iPod, iTMS As Weapons Against Microsoft

In an article at the New York Times, Apple is likened to David to Microsoftis Goliath in the personal computer industry, but according to the article, Apple has a secret weapon in its sling: music. The iTunes Music Store sold a million songs in the first week (Apple announced today that 10 million songs have been sold), and the popularity of the iPod is evidenced by the fact that an iPod shares equal screen time with 50 Cent during the first half-minute of his new "Pimp" music video. In addition, according to the article, iTMS competitors such as BuyMusic are just making the iTMS look better. From the New York Times:

Whether [the prominent placement of the iPod in a 50 Cent video is] a paid endorsement or not is beside the point. The iPod looks like it belongs in the video. As Microsoft has been cast in the role of Goliath in the personal computing wars, Macintosh has been playing David. And right now the stone in its slingshot is music. Not only is the iPod the top digital music player in the field, but earlier this year Appleis iTunes Music Store became the first legitimate music downloading service viewed as a success in the business, with one million songs downloaded (at 99 cents each) in its first week. The figure is impressive considering that less than 1 percent of the countryis home computers are Macintoshes that are compatible with the iTunes Music Store.

This season, the iTunes service will be faced with several competitors in the PC world, among them an industry-sanctioned incarnation of Napster. But so far, its imitators (like Buymusic) have only made it look better by comparison.

You can read the full article at the New York Timesi Web site, or sans registration via Google News.