Just a throwaway thought: ever since iTunes was released for Windows, significant numbers of Windows users have had problems with the software and/or their iPods. Much more than with iTunes for Macintosh. This might be due to the sheer numbers of Windows users, rather than anything inherently wrong with either Windows or iTunes.

But I doubt it. Judging from this, predominantly PC-oriented feedback on iTunes 7, I blame it on two things: PC hardware configuration is essentially uncontrolled (and uncontrollable), and with thousands of additional bits of software that every user plonks on their PC, it stands to reason that there will be problems, because Apple cannot possibly test every hardware and software combination.

When Zune comes out, and these unhappy iPod and iTunes users start moving over to Microsoft – and some will – this isn’t going to change that fact. But it will expose the reality of the situation to more people.