Great example of Trend watching that can be Applied to other Niche Chatteling...

Originally Posted by Bill

I love my iPod, but check out the Slacker media players that will be released at slacker.com. Very interesting...

Hey Bill,

Not too long ago, Richard Branson tried to take on the iPod with Virgin's brand of mp3 players. They failed miserably and lost millions of dollars. (I like Branson - I hated to see it)

Now Microsoft has entered the market with the Zune. They are also failing miserably and their loss will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. (and I LOVE to see it - HA)

I've never heard of Slacker and I'd imagine that not many others have and I think their chances of even making a dent in the mp3 market are about the same dent as any one of us would make by starting our own auction site to compete with eBay.

The market is already owned by Apple and I don't think anyone will be able to stop them from continuing to gain market share in it. Their product is too good and everything that have built around it is too good. (iTunes - AppleTV - tons of accessories)

It's fun for us Apple nuts to watch others try - but it just ain't gonna happen.

Jim