[dewey]

In my experience iTunes isn't really necessary to manage the iPhone any more. At the beginning it was needed to set up a new phone but now all that is done in the setup process on the phone itself.

If you just want to use another player for your music why not just install one of the many iTunes replacements and just ignore the installed iTunes? I doubt the few MB of space or bandwidth to update every few months are a big enough hassle to warrant such an endeavour especially if you have to re-engineer it every time there's a major version update.

[Tekker]

I'm not worried about managing my music (I know there are alternatives); I'm more frustrated by the ridiculous process of managing the phone.