This is a followup to my earlier blog entry titled Zune Birth: Does it Already Suck?

And now to explore the other avenue: Zune won’t suck. It will take some market share from the iPod, and “cannibalize” perhaps half of the other 30% of the market. I use the term “cannibalize” because there’s the iPod, and there’s the others. This is not snobbery; everybody’s gunning for the iPod. To wit, a Google search for “iPod killer” shows over four million pages indexed.

Competition is good.
iPod and iTunes Store pricing is then likely to feel a little more downward pressure than it would otherwise, and iPod storage capacity might creep up a bit faster than it would without the major league competition of the Zune.

Apple stock will suffer, and feelings will be hurt. Bragging rights will be split evenly between the good guys and the bad guys. Hands will be wrung, and blogging revenge will be exacted for years.

Ancillary Effects
Interestingly, even if iPod sales are halved or worse, it will have fulfilled its quiet mission: to sell Macs. Although the margins on Macs are not as lucrative as the margins on iPods, Apple is first and foremost a PC company, and selling more of its core product is always a good thing.

In addition, the iPod, once beaten back to less than half marketshare (let’s face it, it will happen one day), will have helped Apple see that the Mac is still the center of people’s electronic lives, with music entertainment, video entertainment and the like playing related but ultimately satellite roles for the foreseeable future.

Plug: buy an iPod Shuffle from Amazon and help this site.