@Charles Way to be a hipster, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never even seen an advertisement for iPods, let alone a celebrity endorsement. Maybe they exist, but the iPod has been popular for a long time now. They became popular because of innovation and word of mouth. They weren’t the first MP3 players, but they were much better than the original MPMan and Rio (which most people don’t even know ever existed). Also, a Zune is more expensive than an iPod, so it’s hard to call the iPod overpriced. The first iPods were pretty expensive, but new technology is always expensive. It’s the price of innovation. That’s how capitalism works (but maybe you’re a Commie).
As for WMA, it’s an inferior format. Who cares that iPods can’t play it (especially since iTunes has a built-in converter)? Listening tests routinely show that consumers prefer MP3 to WMA except for one Microsoft-sponsored event that has never been duplicated. That’s straight up science disproving your point. WMA is only better at low bit rates (which nobody uses). So basically, if you have a shitty WMA file and a shitty MP3 file, the WMA file will be slightly less shitty than the MP3 file. But if you have a high quality WMA and a high quality MP3, the MP3 will be far superior. That’s not really great news for WMA.
I get that you don’t like iTunes. That’s fine. People’s tastes differ. But it’s not really an objective criticism. The only real complaint is that Apple takes DRM (digital rights management) way to seriously. They make it very difficult to use the iPod itself as a means for trading music, but really only inconvenience their customers because it’s easy to get music for free in lots of other ways. I agree that the syncing stuff is weird, but that alone doesn’t warrant calling the iPod “overrated garbage.” It’s one flaw in an otherwise solid product.