Not so irrelevant. I have no dog in this fight, I prefer linux over either, but the image that those companies project is very important in their contact with their target audience.
When given a choice between an ipod and a zune with twice the storage capacity the majority of teen-agers would probably pick the ipod.
When you sell consumer stuff 'cool' matters.
Microsoft always has to balance their business image with their 'cool' image and in most (hardware) consumer products (other than the Xbox) they seem to fail at that. Phones that run windows CE are (rightfully) seen as old fashioned, the zune was dead on arrival and so on.
