I haven't yet blogged about Apple or iTunes so here it goes …

Have you recently counted the number of times per week or per day that someone is offering you iTunes? or the chance to win an iPod device?

Today alone, a friend sent me two codes from Mountain Dew bottle caps. Even my friends who don't have an iPod recognize the value and are sending them my way.

By giving Avaya my name and email address (which they obviously already had), I earned 10 iTunes even though I told them I won't be buying any corporate telecom equipment. If I were willing to spend an hour with their sales team, they would give me a Shuffle out right. By filling out a feedback form for a magazine that I once subscribed to, I was offered the chance to win one of five iPods – same offer for filling out a feedback form for a conference that I attended last month. These were just the offers presented to me TODAY.

I think that iTunes has emerged as the premier non-cash give-away. I feel as though I can estimate the value of my feedback by the number of iTunes they give me.

In contrast, my wireless carrier offered me 15 free talk minutes for filling out a customer survey regarding how happy I am with the service, who was my last provider, etc. So, by my estimates, my feedback was only worth 15 cents to them. Why can't my carrier give away a free ring tone or game – something that might be of use to me.