With reference to this iPad post last week, a regular reader writes:

Actually, there was an iTunes before the iPod – iTunes came out January 2001, the first iPod was released October 2001. And I make this point not just to be a nitpicky bastard, but because I think it’s really important to understanding why the iPod succeeded.

iTunes allowed the iPod to offload complex functionality to software running somewhere else, whereas all its competitors needed UI for things like adding music to the device. It wasn’t just that their UI was worse, it was there was so much more of it.

And I should probably have noted that about 75 percent of those three billion app-downloading transactions involved zero money changing hands.

That said, I’m still hoping for a few armchairs at the Apple Store on W. 67th St. so customers can replicate the living room experience of just sitting comfortably with the device for a few minutes.