PC users get to play with iPod

CNET News.com reports that software company MediaFour will launch xPlay on Monday - an application to let PC users hook up Apple's stylish iPod MP3 player to their machines. The story also quotes an analyst who claims Apple will release its own software to do the same job soon, and that the move could lift Apple's share of the MP3 player market to 10%. There will doubtless be grumbles among the Mac faithful about this being a bad move - the device was intended to draw people to the Mac platform - but it was always unlikely that many people would buy a £1500 computer system in order to hook up a cool MP3 player. It's maybe just a little more likely that PC users will, over the medium term, be tempted to take a second look at the people who made their MP3 player when they come to replace their Windows box.