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This is to those of you complaining about Apple limiting the functionality of the iPod Touch (specifically the lack of a Mail application). It is in response to this article at TUAW.

Apple has chosen not to include this one application (Mail) because this is an iPod, not a laptop or a PDA. Sure, you can argue that it wouldn’t be more work for them to simply include it, but you could argue the same about them not including a cup holder on the TV (Apple TV)… It’s simply not the function of the device. Yes, I’m sure it is also partly the fact that it would hurt their iPhone sales. Can you blame them? They want the iPhone to be big. To be honest, if I were them, there is no way I would have released an iPod Touch AT ALL!

Now, let’s have a look at what Microsoft does. They produce about 60 different versions of their operating system, many of which are exactly the same for a different price just to test the market and see how much people will stand to pay. They severely handicap the cheap versions of the software, down to a point of non-functionality. Every single one of these costs them the same amount to produce: a few cents for the box and the disk, and a few cents a day to some guy in China or India to burn the proper version of the OS onto said disk.

I fail to see how anyone can make an honest comparison between Apple and Microsoft. I also fail to see how anyone can say Apple is a monopoly when they very clearly, by definition, are not. They own about 57% of the MP3 player market share in America, and shy of 5% of the computer market share. Monopoly means that you own 100%, or extremely close to it. Microsoft isn’t even a monopoly. Apple certainly isn’t. Be careful about throwing words like monopoly around.