I don't see Zune as a competitor to the iPod, as i don't see Apple a competitor to Microsoft, sure their both in the same markets but in the fields of expertise they seem to have locked up the critical markets. MS in business and Apple in entertainment. I see Linux as a challenge to both and in this economic climate Linux could blossom.
I suspect everyone will be dropping the prices on almost everything for some time to come, and Apple is no exception.
The highs will lower the lows will get higher and at some point a balance will be found. It will no longer be a great advantage to use cheap labor elsewhere and pay high shipping cost to bring it to market. Being closer to your market will become a great advantage in the coming years. GM for example is doing a brisk business in Russia because their manufacturing the cars on location. Shipping will become very expensive in the coming years. It will become harder to lock future fuel prices in, which we benefited from in the last price spike, but those futures will be exhausted and new prices will make domestic products more competitive.
I'm waiting for the court to find the IPS service providers guilty of price fixing and as a result have the market find it's true value on pay-for-what-U-use pricing model.
