They have a good point, but seriously beating iTunes isn't exactly hard. QuickTime has been the most pain in the ass media player on the PC for a long time, it was even worse than Real for a long time. I mean Real is full of crap that slows down your computer, but QuickTime used to be outright slow.But iTunes isn't about just the software. You can't forget the Music Store, which is the largest music retailer in the country. iPods, the best-selling brand of MP3 player, and arguably the best, require it to run. To beat Apple, you need to compete on all 3 fronts at once, and chances are you have to be breakthrough in all three fields.
Apple has certainly improved, but I don't see iTunes as much more than a well written library program with an MP3 player tacked on.
If I had the money I could easily build and design a better, sleeker MP3 player than Apple. It's just the fact that all the companies who are coming to compete in the MP3 player market don't have a history in it.
Because Apple did have history in MP3 players? And, theoretically speaking, say you have a ton of money. Who exactly are you going to make design it? Because you're competing against Jony Ive and his team, which is regarded as the finest industrial design team on the planet. No, they don't have the battery, but they have better-looking hardware and they have better-looking software, things don't break, and not only do they have a set of gorgeous products (for the record, most Apple products win Red Dot awards in every iteration, which is unheard of in consumer products), but they have an incredible ad firm working to promote their products. You're competing against all that, and all of the best minds are at Apple right now.
I could easily use the iPod's example and build a better MP3 player. It's quite simple; use a slightly wider LCD screen and display in widescreen, which should all blend together in a deep black so that you can't see the difference between the LCD and plain black when it's off
So... the iPhone? Or the iPod touch?
The front plate should be a single piece of unbroken electrically conductive glass so that you can operate the controls (similar to how the iPod works) but without it ever, ever being able to get dirt stuck between the cracks. The back plate should obviously be scratch resistant aluminum.
iPhone/touch? It sounds like you're just parroting what Apple's already had out in the market for a year and a half.
You seem to think that Microsoft and Sony aren't already launching the absolute finest minds they can at this. Make no mistake: Microsoft and Sony have some brilliant people working on this problem. And they're throwing money like Apple couldn't have afforded to do. And yet, Apple's still wiping the floor with the competition. Now every cell phone company is losing market share to the iPhone, and it's the same thing over again. A lot of big, smart companies are trying to beat Apple, and they're all failing. And you think you could do better by throwing money at it?