A bit of bitchiness going on over there in the world of IT - the chief executive of computer firm Dell has said he is not worried about Apple's dominance in the digital music space, dismissing his rival's iPod as a ìfad".
Speaking to silicon.com, Del CEO Kevin Rollins said that while
Apple was good at grabbing headlines, it wasn't in the ìsame league" as his company - even with its "one-product wonder" music player.
Rollins:
"It's interesting the iPod has been out for three years and it's only this past year it's become a raging success. Well those things that become fads rage and then they drop off. When
I was growing up there was a product made by Sony called the
Sony Walkman - a rage, everyone had to have one. Well you don't hear about the Walkman anymore. I believe that one product wonders come and go. You have to have sustainable business models, sustainable strategy."
Although admitting Apple had ìdone a nice job" in the digital music space, he said he did not fear the computer firm would be able to use the popularity of the iPod to make a serious dent on the home computer market - something commentators say
Apple is trying to do with the release of their new £350 mini-Mac model. ìWhere they've been making success recently is not in the computer business, but in the iPod music business.
So this might be an interesting new product but I'm not really believing this is going to turn the industry upside down."
Rollins doesn't say much about his own company's recent moves into the digital music space with their own MP3 player and download platform, instead seeming to downplay the importance of digital music products in the wider IT industry: "Our strategic focus has been on corporations and institutions, and selling them large server clusters and huge SAN installations - the data centre isn't very sexy to write about but, frankly, that's where the money is. Number one is corporations and institutions".