It's only strong for distributors. Have you ever met an end user who said, "Gee, I love iTunes! So fast, so responsive, so awesome!"
The only reason I still use it, really, is because the last time I tried using something besides iTunes to sync my music to my iPod, it nuked the whole library. As far as I know, it's the only fool-proof way of synching my iPhone with my iTunes library (which actually lives on my iPod, because its audio jack died.)
I love iTunes, both on Windows and on the Mac. It's reasonably fast on Windows (and very fast on Mac), it does a great job organizing my collection, it makes sharing and streaming between devices extremely easy (Mac, PC, Apple TV, iPhones etc.). It let's me easily subscribe to podcasts, shop for music, and sync with iOS.
I'm not aware of another media program that does half these things half as well. But feel free to enlighten me.
The only reason I still use it, really, is because the last time I tried using something besides iTunes to sync my music to my iPod, it nuked the whole library. As far as I know, it's the only fool-proof way of synching my iPhone with my iTunes library (which actually lives on my iPod, because its audio jack died.)