Bonzi: You make a good point. I myself have visisted the Apple site at least 5 times in the last couple months because of iPod. Prior to that I almost never went there. Yes, the new Macs with OS-X look temping to me as well.

Still I maintain we are the minority. Most PC users I deal with would feel a $400 portable music player is too expensive when you can get a portable CD player for as little as $30. Many of these people use WIndows PC at work at and are very unwilling to use anything else. Mac is almost a dirty word to them-- they don't take Apple seriously. Apple has a serious image problem to overcome here. iPod will not overcome this bias and cause a major increase in Mac sales.

And if anyone thinks that any Japanese electronics giant will ever release an MP3 or music product to rival what we have in the empeg and what Apple has in the iPod, they're seriously delerious.

Bruno: Wow. Now that's a pretty bold statement to make! I wonder how they got to the point where they are today??? It doesn't matter if they're innovative or not, they're damn good at copying and perfecting given enough time. (Kind of reminds me how a certain company with the letters MS operates). These MP3 products are relatively new so I'm not really surprised the Japanese haven't come up with many good products in this area yet.

You give some interesting examples of European and American dominance in certain markets. Let's look at them (I won't even bother to list the countless other areas where American companies have been eliminated from the marketplace)...

Cellular Phones
The West and Japanese cellphone markets have always been very separate. From what I have read, the West largely keeps Japan out its design meetings and vice versa. In Japan, the market place is dominated by Japanese cell phones, not American and European nameplates. And there are many Japanese cellphone models that are smaller with better battery life and features than what you see available in the US. The Japanese are not behind in this area at all, and quite possibly ahead of their western counterparts in terms of technology.

Handhelds and PDAs
This is market has not matured yet. I own several of these devices and in my opinion, they all have a long ways to go. There's also a certain "compatibility factor" with these devices. You basically have to be either Palm or WindowsCE compatible in order to servive. Since Palm already has the user base, why would Sony do anything but license Palm? At least Sony is making a PDA. Where's the Apple Newton today?

That being said, I think the Japanese will have to continue to license Palm and/or WindowsCE from US companies for a long time. They really have no choice because of the software compatibility issues. However, there are no major compatbility issues with an MP3 player. When a consumer goes looking for an MP3 player they won't be asking "Does it run Palm?, Does it run Windows?" No. All they'll care is that it plays their music colleciton-- something that can be easily achived without any need for a software platform provided by western companies.