I'm buying my granddaughter an iPod for Christmas so I did a bit of surfing and came across this  'prescient' piece by David Smith, technology correspondent of The Observer:

Why the iPod is losing its cool:

The iPod, the digital music player beloved of everyone from Coldplay's Chris Martin to President George Bush, is in danger of losing its sheen. Sales are declining at an unprecedented rate. Industry experts talk of a 'backlash' and of the iPod 'wilting away before our eyes'. Most disastrously, Apple's signature pocket device with white earphones may simply have become too common to be cool.

This piece was dated September 2006. I expect Mr Smith is still pulling a decent salary for his insightful scribblings. I'd stick to writing strictly about technology if I were him and leave marketing and business commentary to the grown -ups. The demise of Apple is predicted every year by certain tech journalist and every year Apple comes back and bites their collective arses. According to Smith the reason he was sure the iPod would fail is because it's not cool. And why was it no longer cool?  - because it's been too successful!

You've got to laugh.

You can now buy iPods in vending machines in the US. How uncool is that? Ha, ha!