There’s a he said/she said going on in the blogosphere this week about the seeming demise of Apple due to slow uptake of the iTunes store. This is because, according to major research organizations:

It seems like somebody got a calculator out and did something like the following: capacity of 60 million iPods sold / 1 billion plus purchased songs ~ 20 songs per iPod.

So this, in essence, means the iPod will fail. Remember, however, that the iPod is not a music store. It’s a way to get Apple back into the hearts and minds of millions of college students and high schoolers. It’s a way to make little girls ask for pink iPod minis before the start school along with a Pink RAZR or a bejeweled Sidekick 3. I’ve been talking a lot about “good will” this morning, which is an intangible economic benefit. Good will is a form of loyalty in which consumers come to equate your product to something pleasant and pleasing. Barnes and Noble generates good will because it doesn’t kick your ass out even though you sit in a corner reading Henry Miller books all afternoon. Eventually you’ll buy something, B&N is sure, so why not let you cop a squat.

Why is Linux gaining in popularity? It’s because HAX0RZ depend on Linux to keep them from destroying their own PCs. This love translates to a love of Linux and, when these HAX0RZ put on chinos and go into the workplace, it turns into an uptick in Linux installations.

The same goes for iPods. Hipsters love iPods. Hipsters need computers. Hipsters buy Apples. That’s the formula. The music store is nice, but it’s most probably a loss leader, just like CDs at Best Buy. Who goes to Best Buy to get Chingy? Nobody. But a cheap copy of the new Clay Aiken’s latest makes people happy enough to pick up an SD card, an extended warranty, and an HD TV. So stop hatin’ on Apple, people. They’re doing a few things wrong, but most of what they’re up to is right.

Zune will take off. Microsoft will see to that. But it will be a long time before it starts to touch Apple’s market share.

“News” Flash: iPod and the iTunes Store are doomed [Arstechnica]