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MSN.com has has a crap-load of stories lately that basically all say the same thing:

Starbucks is screwed.

Mortgage crisis, rising food costs, competition, solar flares, blah, blah all spell disaster at $4 bucks a cup, apparently.

Anyway, they tell the story of a woman seduced by the dark, frothy, alternative of Nespresso.

Hmmm. If you're thinking Nespresso sounds like Nestle, you're right. All I can associate with Nestle is horrible instant coffee consumed at EVERY breakfast with cold lunch meat and white dinner rolls; such was my introduction to Nestle in 2001, on a missions trip to Peru. They drink that stuff like water down there; they love it, maybe because they don't know any better.

While devotees of the Nespresso eschew Starbucks in favor of their counter-top version, all the other similarities remain:

"Nespresso is "an experience" rather than coffee, Nestlé told analysts last year and, boy, is it all-enveloping."

Sounds like another Seattle-based coffee experience that I know, originally marketed as a premium, luxury experience, unlike, say a $1 cup of joe at Dunkin Donuts.

But I digress.

So this lady goes on to talk about the specific things she loves about her new machine:

"One is the dozen shiny-colored "grand cru" pods the machine takes. When I buy them online (as one of 3.1 million members of the Nespresso club) they will be delivered to our home by a UPS man in a uniform of a similar brown to the "Livanto" pod, which holds a 'uniquely rounded and well-balanced espresso characterized by delicate woody and cereal notes.' "

She says it best herself:

"There is an obvious similarity between this and Apple's iPod/iTunes combination, which comprises a physical device and an online service to fill it up. But Nestlé does not even have to share its revenues with others in the way that Apple does with music companies, apart from paying coffee growers for beans and film stars for endorsements."

Sounds pretty smart to me.

"There must be lessons here. One is that there is surprisingly strong demand for goods and services that are a step below luxury but a cut above the ordinary -- call them premium, luxe or "affordable luxury." It did not occur to me before the Nespresso came along that I ever needed such a thing. Now that I have it, however, I am attached to it."

Sounds like Starbucks. And the iPod.