Apple leading the way

As Longhorn gets more and more delayed, Apple is really taking advantage of that by introducing some cool apps for all the new hot trends. After nailing down the music market they are aiming to extend iTunes to the video market.  Starting from podcasting support they will no doubt go all the way to make vlog look good on iTunes.

So what's next ? Going to Apple store to rent out Sundance movies ! Or may be on-demand download of hard to find movies !

I think this lead by Apple has very important implication for the developers  market.  Developers market will eventually become a three way contest.  Split along  -

Superior aesthetics       (Mac platform)
Superior convenience  (Windows)
Superior economics      (Open source)

It will be hard to avoid any of the three platforms but aesthetics will come around to differentiate every developer's innovation. Importance of aesthetics will grow suddenly, more so in the highly commoditized IT landscape.

So my advice to developers- dont just pass on ipod and iTunes by saying its all about music and video ! Time to include audio and video in your good old  enterprise app is now ! Atleast start thinking about it.

If I have to borrow developer's jargon then I would say Apple is successfully transforming the basic data type of the development from text to rich media (sound and video). Implications will be significant.