MSNBC’s NewsWeek has an article where Steve Jobs talks about the evolution of the iPod and iTunes, and why he isn’t scared of the Zune.

There are some interesting points he makes in the article:

On convincing record labels to invest in the iTunes Store:

Let’s talk about the iTunes store. How did you get the record labels, which had been resisting digital music, to sign up?
It was a process over 18 months. We got to know these folks and we made a series of predictions that a lot of things they were trying would fail. Then they went and tried them, and they all failed, for the reasons that we had predicted. … they started to believe that we might actually have some insight into this…”

And on the Zune:

Microsoft has announced its new iPod competitor, Zune. It says that this device is all about building communities. Are you worried?
In a word, no. I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.

He talks a lot more about the iPod and iTunes and it makes interesting reading, but of course, take it with a pinch of corporate-agenda salt.

Read the full article.