Oh My iPod

In a partnership that was originally announced months ago, Hewlett-Packard - the folks who brought you the Light Emitting Diode, among thousands of other patented inventions - is now shipping Apple's iPod to customers around the world. You may have seen the new ads premiering at this weekend's MTV Music Video Awards. SFist would like imagine the conversation over beers at some Cupertino watering hole:

"Well, HP wants a digital music player as part of their new line of media products for the home user."

"Hmm. Over at Apple, we want to distribute our products to people who are scared of the intimidating modernism of our retail stores."

"Well, HP does have one of the best world-wide distribution networks for computers and electronics."

"And Apple does have the best digital music player in the world. I wonder..."

While we were originally concerned this could be some sort of unholy union - after all, HP will be shipping Windows Media Center on it's new entertainment-centric PCs - Apple is practically supporting their niche-market computers with money from iPod sales, and as a Mac user, whatever keeps the sleekly designed, loveably reliable Apple computers coming is fine with us. We think this could be a good move for both companies, since Apple's expertise is in digital media and HP's in research, manufacturing and distribution. We can only hope this is making Steve Jobs feel better and covers some asses in HP's boardroom.