Apple kills iSync in a strange move of counterintuitive software development

Apple just did something (both with the release of 10.4 and today’s release of iTunes 4.8) that disappoints me. It doesn’t make any sense to me that the chief of usability would do something so counter intuitive.

With 10.4, Apple moved .Mac synchronizing from iSync to a System Preference Pane. Then, today, with the release of iTunes 4.8, they have now moved synchronizing contacts and calendars to your iPod into iTunes. What? isn’t iTunes a music player? What does it have to do with my calendars? If anything was going to change, I would have pulled music synchronizing out of iTunes and put it in iSync with the others instead of the other way around.
I understand that iTunes is a multi-platform application and that Apple is developing for platforms that did not have iSync, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. iTunes is not a iPod-digital-stuff-hub, it is a music player! or is it? iTunes already displays video (music videos and movie trailers) and 4.8 now has a new button to view them full screen. So, is iTunes becoming iMedia? Once again, I am not sure why iTunes does this when another app already exists for it. Remember Quick Time?

I don’t want to try and guess at what they have up their sleeve, but I also don’t want them to compromise one of the things that they did the very best: intuitive, efficient applications. The strength in Apple’s software is a simple, effective application for each task. The opposite of that is Microsoft software: cram ever feature and function possible in. If iTunes synchronizes my tunes to my iPod, shouldn’t iCal synchronize my calendars to my iPod and Address book synchronize my contacts to my iPod?

No, that doesn’t make any sense to have to launch each app. So use one app to synchronize them all: iSync!

Thanks for the time you gave us iSync, I’ll miss you.