I swear that Digital Audio Player (DAP) choice is becoming a more difficult subject to discuss with people than religion. People are positively insane when it comes to defending their DAP of choice. In some ways it reminds me of the Mac vs. Windows discussions but they are much more volatile. If you don’t believe me, just go to Engadget and look at any article discussing an iPod, a Zune, or a player by iRiver or Creative. What you’ll see in the comments is abhorrent.
I have a theory but it’s groundless. I’ll share it anyway.
For years when Microsoft Windows pummeled all other operating systems out of existence and almost killed the Macintosh, the anger in any given discussion was on the Mac side of the fence. People who liked Macs fiercely defended its superiority over Windows. And some Windows users would even concede that, yes, the marriage of software to hardware did make for a better experience but the mind-blowing market share of Windows meant that it simply didn’t matter. They could smugly point out that the OS they chose was winning and that the Mac was going to be put out of existence sooner than later.
In the DAP market, this is very much a flipped scenario. Although the iPod doesn’t have the market-share percentage in DAPs that Microsoft has achieved in operating systems it still has the ire of the people. Note: Last I checked the iPod accounted for around 70% of all DAPs sold in the US, compare that to roughly 90% of Windows installations. So now these same Windows people that have been arguing with these same Mac people find themselves on the other side of the fence. They kick and scream and vehemently deny that iPod is a superior product. They believe to their core that there are better solutions, especially when connecting to a Windows machine, that if people would only try them they would see how superior it was and it would swing the control back to their side of the camp. Both sides of this argument are guilty in some way. Mac people are guilty of being smug about Apple’s dominance and Windows people are acting like their universe is crashing in because people won’t listen to them.
I’ve tried to get into these discussions with people and point out that maybe if you like your Creative Zen Vision M then you should be happy with that. Why do you need to make fun of someone or put them down because they don’t share your point of view? Why do you feel the need to point out how many songs iTunes has sold when you’re trying to prove that an iPod is better than a Zune? None of this makes any sense. You like Creative? Great! The use it. You like an iPod? Great! Then use it. But that’s not how people feel about this issue and it’s getting to the point where we’re all going to have to keep our DAP preference to ourselves the way we do with our religions and our politics. It’s just too personal for most people.
The only thing more disturbing than the DAP debate is the next-generation video-disc debate.