I wasn’t going to write a word about the new Zune player from Microsoft. Make no mistake, this is an Apple blog. But it becomes Apple related when one of the perhaps most read and respected newspapers in the world writes a headline saying it’s is an iPod competitor. I’m talking about the New York Times and their article yesterday.

I guess it all depends on how you define “competitor”. NYT probably defines it as a product that can take a small bite of the market cookie. Sure, of course Microsoft is competing with Apple and the iPod. So is iRiver, iAudio and a lot of other players (even though they may have their unique selling points, such as iAudio’s superior sound quality). But the question we need to ask is: are they really competing to win?

Zune is a competitor in the sense that it’s in the same market as the iPod, but it’s not actually competing for the first place. Since Bill Gates and Microsoft pours money into this project of theirs, it’s obvious that it is a distant dream of theirs to become the market leader in portable media players. And I’m not all too biased; I think they’ve been doing a pretty decent job so far.

But as long as Steve Jobs doesn’t choose the wrong CEO as his successor, the chance for Microsoft becoming anything other than second best is small. Again, I’m not saying this because I hate Microsoft. I don’t hate Microsoft. I just think they have overlooked certain things in their products that are becoming more and more important these days.

The iPod is a cultural phenomenon. Part of why the Zune player won’t become number one is that the iPod is backed up by the enormous power of culture and lifestyle. Microsoft doesn’t incorporate that into their products and ideas. Apple, on the other hand, puts perhaps most of it’s focus into creating an experience that goes along with their deep rooted culture.

By doing so, they create products that are a larger part of our lives than any of their competitors. They create products you can love, rather than just like. It is this culture that encapsulates all aspects of their products, in which style and simplicity play the leading roles. We can often draw more concrete conclusions by looking at the companies behind the products, than by looking at the products themselves and their features.

If Microsoft hired me as a management consultant, I wouldn’t take the job. But let’s presume I did. Then I’d give them the advice to think less in terms of competing and more in terms of creating truly great products. Apple is confident because it’s people create the best products, not because it’s big and powerful. It’s all about philosophy.

For now, Zune may compete with the iPod but it’s not seriously challenging it.