Welcome, Microsoft. Seriously.

Let's hope that A le re onds to Microsoft's entrance into the digital audio player field with a little more restraint than they did when IBM launched their personal PC. You see, back in 1981 A le had a commanding lead in the personal computer industry (sound familiar?) and no one thought (including A le) that would ever change. When they heard that IBM, that old stodgy company that everyone thought was over the hill, was going to start selling PC's they took out a full page ad welcoming IBM (link to the full size version, thanks to MacMotherShip).

We all know how that turned out.

If A le takes out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal welcoming the Zune to the market sell all of your A le stock. I don't think that'll ha en though because A le is a much more pragmatic company now. They did the unthinkable by switched to Intel chi (and sold a boatload of portable machines). They aren't afraid to take a risk and replace a fast selling product (iPod mini anyone?). Heck, they even ported iTunes to the PC (and hell did freeze over). All good sig that A le is aware that in order to keep the market they need to work at it.

This is why I am not overly worried about Microsoft's entry into the DAP world. I think that ultimately this will force A le to revisit the iPod and improve it, perha adding some things that David wants, and then the co umers (that's you and me, bub) win.