Motorola Chief Slams iPod; Users Not “Savvy.”

Is it just me, or is there anyone else tired of hearing how stupid iPod users are? I have an iPod. My iPod plays 3,000 songs and displays 8,000 photos. I like it. I’m educated. So, why does Motorola’s head think I’m not ‘savvy?’

InfoWorld is running an interesting article and interview of Ed Zander, former Sun Microsystems big wig, now Chairman and CEO of Motorola?

You remember Motorola? They used to be a good chip-making company. They used to be a good cell phone company.

Zander’s been on the job at Motorola just less than two years. By most accounts he’s done a good job turning around a company that had lost its’ way. The stock is up 50-percent (always a good sign) and MOTO cell phones are hot again.

Hot is the word for Motorola’s RAZR phone. Hot is also the word for the new iTunes playable MOTO ROKR phone, though critics have panned the feature set.

So why does Ed Zander go to bed with Apple and iTunes and Steve Jobs and then turn around and slap us poor old iPod users in the face? Beats me.

By most accounts, there are about 25-million iPod users in the world and they’re growing at the rate of nearly two-million users per month. Almost any company would want a slice of that pie.

Of course, cell phones sell in even bigger numbers; almost two-billion cell phone users world wide, so an iTunes-enabled cell phone is a natural product. MOTO should be happy they’re allowed to partner with Apple.

Instead, MOTO chief Ed Zander says iPod users are not ‘savvy.’ In fact, about Apple’s hottest new iPod product, he says, ‘Screw the nano.’

Uh oh. A lovely, attractive, svelt, functional, affordable, and dependable product that I’m buying multiples of (for gifts) is worthy of a ‘screw?’ What’s up with that? Ed doesn’t even know me. He probably doesn’t even know an iPod nano owner.

Maybe he’s just frustrated. After all, Apple’s iPod product line owns about 80-percent of the portable music market and sales are skyrocketing; spilling over into rising sales of Macs and Apple software.

Maybe he just doesn’t ‘get it.’ As a child of the 60s, you’d think he’d understand what music means to people. Maybe he’s just pissed at Steve Jobs because he expected the ROKR to be top dawg at the announcement instead of retarded cousin to the hoople of the iPod nano.

What I do know is that I’m tired of being called stupid by executives who have an axe to grind and a competing product to sell. The Naptser folks? They think iPod users are stupid.

THe Real Networks folks? They think iPod users are stupid. The Creative Zen folks? They think iPod users are stupid.

One of us just doesn’t get it. Except that there are 26-million iPod users and far fewer of the competing products. I’ll be kind and not say that users of other products, Windows, PCs, or Naptster to Go, or Real, or Creative Zen, are stupid buyers, users, people.

InfoWorld quotes Zander, “Screw the nano. What the hell does the nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs? Then he goes on to say that people want a device that can do more than just play music. OK, that’s true. I have a digital camera. And a cell phone. And a Mac. And a scanner. And a web cam.

I don’t have a device that can do all that.

How about some icing on the cake of assinine remarks, Ed? About those multi-use device users, Ed says it’s something that can be seen in other countries. You know, those with ‘more advanced mobile phone networks’ and ‘savvy users.’

If you’re in the US and use a Motorola phone, then you don’t use a ‘more advanced mobile phone network.’ If you’re an iPod user, you’re not ‘savvy.’

Oh, Ed. One more thing-- I’m not a Motorola user, either. Thanks to you and your senseless, thoughtless, rude, and insensitive remarks, it’s not likely I’ll be a MOTO guy any time soon.

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