PS - what's going to happen when iTunes for Windows is released then? Are you guys prepaing for the battle?! ?
Bah!! Let the battle come!
I've used iTunes. It's a very nice program. It operates primarily on the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). You can rip your music, play it, tag it, and make playlists/smartlists with it. That's about it.
No TV tuner. No HTPC front-end. No playback of video files. No advanced tagging or custom fields. Limited smartlist criteria. No customizable view schemes (you browse ONLY by Genre, Artist, or Album).
I anticipate the arrival of WinnieTunes with much enthusiasm. I forsee a domino effect that works a bit like this:
1. WinnieTunes is released. It is compatible with Windows iPods in the same manner that regular iTunes is compatible with Mac iPods.
2. Thus, Apple re-enables all of the things that they've disabled on WinniePods (sound check, playcounts, last played date, on-the-fly ratings).
3. Steve builds the newly-enabled features into MC with the quickness.
4. MC is still more robust and full-featured than WinnieTunes and has perfect iPod support.
WinnieTunes will definitely be a boon for "normal" users. An iPod out of the box with WinnieTunes is better than one with Musicmatch Jukebox. But for power users or users that want more than a "barebones" program like iTunes offers, MC will still be the hero of the bunch.
Heh. Bring it on.