[Sigia-l] Strategic vs. piecemeal design

[Listera]

For the devotees of the iPod story and how the quality of
strategic/integrated/systems-oriented design coupled with UX as the primary
focus can and does overcome quantity of choice:


Technical glitches by Microsoft and the digital music device makers have
hampered Napster Inc.'s ability to close the gap with Apple's iTunes, the
dominant online music service, Napster's chief executive said on Tuesday.

"Our business does rely on Microsoft's digital rights management software
and our business model also relies on Microsoft's ecosystem of device
manufacturers," he added.

Microsoft Corp., he noted, had to grapple with the complexities of dealing
with a number of different services and device makers.

"It's a lot more complex to get organized properly than it is to build one
device and one service as Apple has done," Gorog [Napster CEO] said.

"Apple set the bar ... it just worked," said a spokesman for RealNetworks.
"That's one of the things -- it's hard to make it easy and easy to make it
hard."

Napster rues Microsoft, player glitches
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060301/tc_nm/summit_napster_dc>

Strike one for hyper-specialization! :-)

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Ziya

"Innovate as a last resort."