It’s all about simple design, says Pogue.

David Pogue: I am really excited about the Apple/Google effect, which is the companies who’ve been doing cruddy work and shoddy work and ugly interfaces and multi-step procedures look at Apple and Google and Sonos and TiVO and say, “What are these guys doing that’s making them make so much money? Hmm. Maybe we should stop going for feature count and maybe we should start saying what they’re doing is looking for areas to simplify and create something more beautiful.”

And you have seen that. I have seen that.

The mp3 players nowadays, for example, are largely easy to use and pleasant to use because of the iPod. After awhile, they stopped banging their heads on the doors, “But we’re 20 dollars cheaper than the iPod. Why are we not selling?” You know, people are finally beginning to realize maybe there’s something more to it.

Recorded on May 15, 2008