Apple has evidently made a decision to prevent iPods from working without iTunes, and to prevent iTunes from working with non-iPod audio players. We must assume that Apple's executives have weighed the pros and cons of this decision, and have decided that the pros (maintaining a reputation for a seamless experience) outweigh the cons (losing some sales to Linux owners, Palm owners, etc.). That's an ordinary business decision.
"You'd think they would want to sell more iPods, not block a certain percentage of their market out," says mdeslaur in this post.
Maybe the Apple executives have made the wrong decision for their company's bottom line, and maybe mdeslaur, and many of the commenters here, would have made a better decision that would have increased Apple's profits. But given that (a) they have access to a lot of data that you don't have, and (b) they're executives at Apple and you're not, I wouldn't bet on it.
Good point. There is a difference between saying "Apple made a bad business move here" and "Apple crossed the line in my opinion and I will not buy from them in the future."
"You'd think they would want to sell more iPods, not block a certain percentage of their market out," says mdeslaur in this post.
Maybe the Apple executives have made the wrong decision for their company's bottom line, and maybe mdeslaur, and many of the commenters here, would have made a better decision that would have increased Apple's profits. But given that (a) they have access to a lot of data that you don't have, and (b) they're executives at Apple and you're not, I wouldn't bet on it.