Apple says it hasn’t decided to develop iPod compatibility software for Windows, but AnchorDesk columnist David Coursey thinks we’ll see an official Apple-endorsed model, complete with Windows software for downloading music. And, in offering his two cents on the matter, he thinks the Windows iPod should be black, not white, a la the Apple version.
“The arctic iPod will not, however, go over so well in PC land, where the most common color for a portable machine seems to be either gray or black,” Coursey writes in his latest column. “That would immediately differentiate it from the Mac version, which is white, and solve a few problems as well. First, the white color is initially startling, but looks great sitting next to an iBook.”
Not only would the color differences differentiate the two versions, but “who could resist the irony of having Mac users in the white iPods and Windows users in the black ones?” he adds.
The other option for Windows users who want an iPod is to wait, “but not for Apple,” he adds. Eventually, when enough Wintel systems have FireWire ports, someone may develop an iPod-like device for Windows users.
“So getting a Windows-based iPod, or at least equivalent functionality, won’t take too long, one way or another,” Coursey says. “But once again, it was Steve Jobs’ Apple that made the Windows world gasp — and then scramble to catch up.”
Meanwhile, a company called Mediafour is planning a product that will let Wintel users take advantage of iPod: the XPod.