> iTunes is showing its age and over the years has become a bloated collection of functionalities ...
iTunes 'bloat' is a huge competitive advantage. Apple can make changes to their digital stores and instantly release to tens of millions of customers, including Windows users who aren't going to install a half-dozen discrete applications if Apple chose to split up iTunes.
Honestly, years of using iTunes daily on Windows completely turned me off of the idea of switching to a Mac or an iPhone. Without exaggeration, it is one of the worst pieces of software I've used. It's bad enough that my next MP3 player probably won't be an iPod, despite generally being happy with the one I have.
Edit: and so this isn't just me ranting about iTunes (yet again, sorry), I think iTunes can actually harm Apple's image. It's tolerable if that's all you've used, but when compared to pretty much any other music player, it has glaring flaws (at least on Windows). To make a terrible continuation of the analogy, a Trojan Horse doesn't work if the Trojans hate your crappy horse and decide to never speak to you again.
Interestingly, when it first came on the scene as SoundJam, and in its earlier incarnations at Apple after it was bought, iTunes was by far the best music player out there[1]. The overwhelming favorite MP3 player on Windows at the time was WinAmp, whose UI was a ghastly collection of inscrutable, tiny fonted palettes. Compared to that, having your entire collection of music in a smart, scriptable database with a slick interface was a dream.
Performance problems on Windows and tacking on one new non-music playing feature after another seems to have doomed the experience and reputation.
Considering iTunes is the desktop companion for iOS it should be a showcase of excellent UI and efficiency. I use it all the time and while it (eventually) gets the job done it's a pretty average experience.
People keep complaining about it on Windows, and on the Mac it is one of Apple's last Carbon apps that can't run in 64 bit. Just inspect it in Activity Monitor and see all the Carbon library goodness loaded into memory.
The only thing that makes sense with iTunes in its current state is that Apple are going to reduce the emphasis on iTunes and sync via the cloud, hopefully with a Dropbox-like LAN sync.
I commented a couple of weeks ago on a thread where I talked about brand equity, and iTunes is a perfect example of this -- it hasn't been solely about music in years, it has a half dozen bolted-on functionalities and it's in desperate need of a refresh. And yet the iTunes brand is so strong that none of that matters.
It's only strong for distributors. Have you ever met an end user who said, "Gee, I love iTunes! So fast, so responsive, so awesome!"
The only reason I still use it, really, is because the last time I tried using something besides iTunes to sync my music to my iPod, it nuked the whole library. As far as I know, it's the only fool-proof way of synching my iPhone with my iTunes library (which actually lives on my iPod, because its audio jack died.)
I love iTunes, both on Windows and on the Mac. It's reasonably fast on Windows (and very fast on Mac), it does a great job organizing my collection, it makes sharing and streaming between devices extremely easy (Mac, PC, Apple TV, iPhones etc.). It let's me easily subscribe to podcasts, shop for music, and sync with iOS.
I'm not aware of another media program that does half these things half as well. But feel free to enlighten me.
I wouldn't say the iTunes brand is so strong - I think the iPad and iPhone brands are strong, and Apple forces you to use iTunes to use those products. I've never heard anyone say they love iTunes, either. I'm surprised Android and Microsoft haven't exploited this weakness more - I don't have faith in Motorola or Nokia to create good desktop integrations, but a software company could do it.
It's software, and a music store and an app store. (Plus podcasts and TV shows.) Having a strong brand doesn't mean everyone loves it. It means everyone knows it.
iTunes 'bloat' is a huge competitive advantage. Apple can make changes to their digital stores and instantly release to tens of millions of customers, including Windows users who aren't going to install a half-dozen discrete applications if Apple chose to split up iTunes.