ATLANTA—The new iPod Nano is hot. But one Douglasville man said his old Nano got even hotter—hot enough to burst into flames. So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest, said Danny Williams. Williams said the burn hole from the pocket of his pants marks the spot of his 15 seconds of flame. He said he had an iPod Nano and an glossy piece of paper in his pocket. He believes the paper shielded him from being burned.
I haven’t read too many stories on exploding iPods (as far as I know, Apple doesn’t employ Sony laptop batties in the Nano), but there are of course thousands upon thousands of disgruntled iPod users who run into problems with the LCD and battery issues. If the new iPods havent addressed those problems added to a what seems to be a heat issue maybe Microsoft will be able to make some hay.
The appearance of Apple’s long head start could well be less of a challenge as first seems obvious. As we like to say here at Jon Peddie Research, Microsoft functions like an army of ants. It takes its losses and it keeps coming. Witness the success of the Xbox. Witness the possible misteps Apple has made with the iPhone and in managing relationships with content providers. Yes, if Microsoft is going to win this one it’s going to be a long, brutal battle. That’s the only kind of fight Microsoft understands.—CRD