iPod is the Toyota Camry of MP3 players?
posted December 3rd 2004 3:17PM
Andrew Kantor has obviously never faced the wrath of the Apple Nation before, because in his column in USA Today he thought it'd be a good idea to compare the iPod to a Toyota Camry. We rarely ever blockquote, but this is way too good not to:
I just don't get the overwhelming appeal of the iPod, Apple's MP3 player. It's a beautiful device to be sure, but it does exactly what many, many other similar players do: It plays MP3s. Other brands are better, less expensive, have more capacity, are easier to use, and so on. But the iPod has something more than 85% market share. That's incredible - that's like finding that 85% of people in the country drive Toyota Camrys. It just doesn't make sense.
The rest of the column actually has hardly anything to do with the iPod, it's mainly about the evolution of storage. There are a lot of complaints you can make about the iPod, but comparing it to a Camry?
"What we're moving towards and what I want is a portable laptop hard disk with an embedded Winamp. And with driverless USB mass storage support and USB Host support. And finally a 2.5" LCD. And that embedded winamp should be extendable by the community to add modules as we think of them."
This is what all of us techies want and exactly what the 90% of the world buying iPods don't want -- another computer to deal with. Folks seem to forget that for much of the world computers are a pain to deal with. Assuming people want direct management of files, etc presumes that they would actually find that easier. I'd suggest things are going the other way -- you're going to see more document management systems becoming like the iPods metaphor, and a move AWAY from the file paradigm on desktops.
We're all very comfortable with the memory/hard drive/folder/file paradigm, but it's a fustrating and arbitrary system for many users. You can already see the move away in XP with the transition to the "My Documents" folder and the popularity of tools like Google Personal Search will only continue that transition.
For those that doubt this is a sustainable advantage for Apple, how long did Sony hold the walkman market dominance? 20 years? Until there's some fundamental revolution in how we listen to music from portable devices, the iPod is likely to remain the dominant brand -- it's at 90% in HD players, and still climbing, and they'll probably release a flash-based player early next year to start taking over that space. Good for them, it's nice to see a product winning on daily usability for average users rather than feature laundry-lists.
Julian Bond:
Do a little more research next time: To take your points one at a time:
> Poor, battery life, no replaceable battery and on previous models (maybe current as well), batteries that just quit.
Wrong. The iPod battery life issues are an urban legend. A frigging myth. I have an original iPod and the battery is still fine. Many many hours of use. And they just keep getting better; the current model I just bought has 12 hour life. If you listen for 12 hours then you need to get a life.
Regarding "irreplaceable" - Apple has a battery replacement program. Considering what most batteries cost for most consumer electronics, it's quite reasonable. A bit inconvenient, granted, but most folks don't care. By the time it dies for most folks, it'll be years in the future...if they haven't bought a better iPod before then anyway.
I would like it if the hard disk and battery were user replaceable....but that would make the unit fragile and problem prone. More users would have trouble with it than do now.
> Requires drivers to copy music across.
No it doesn't. Use any of a variety of GUI tools, no drivers required.
>Why not driverless USB mass storage support?
Already present. Also firewire.
> Awkward and difficult to move music off the iPod onto a PC.
No, it isn't. You can copy the files or use programs to make it easier and more user friendly
> Impossible to copy tracks iPod to iPod
No, it's not. Again, it's possible from the command line or any of several GUIs
> Impossible to delete tracks on the iPod without using PC software
No, it's not. Same as above.
> iTunes on Windows sucks. It crashes skips or even just plain won't play.
Baloney. Works perfectly for me on my Dell at work. Perhaps you need to upgrade your 1995 PC?
> no Ogg or WMA
Seriously...who give a fig. Despite the huge number of WMA selling sites, Apple sells more than them all combined. Plus most people use MP3s anyway. And Ogg...don't make me laugh. A couple of hundred people probably use Ogg. The rest of humanity could care less. And you can play unprotected WMA on the iPod/iTunes (or at least convert it to MP3 or AAC, I forget which.)
- expensive
Nope. Try again. Even if it were, you get what you pay for. The market has spoken. People say the same thing about Windows vs. Mac. Get used to it. Apple owns the market and will continue to do so despite what Microsoft fanboys say.
> iTMS sucks. Expensive DRMed tracks. Serious questions about backup and the effect of hardware upgrades.
Now you're just blowing smoke. Trying the old F.U.D. route, eh? Besides, you can always do what 99% of ipod owners do and just rip your CD's to MP3s or AACs on the iPod.
Backup: Copy the files to any media you want, either manually, or with iTunes.
Hardware upgrades: No problem: you can have severale machine registered to use the same purchased tracks...and you can deregister and reregister any machine at any time. Apple can do it for you if you forget to deregister a machine you sell. Plus, you can burn the tracks to a normal audio CD and re-rip them later if you want.
>What we're moving towards and what I want is a portable laptop hard disk with an embedded Winamp.
You live in a dreamworld. We are most certainly not moving toward that. We're already there. It's called an iPod, doofus. Just hook it up. Although it would be cool if you could dock your ipod INSIDE a laptop. But that would require laptop makes to ALL standardize on removable drive/media bays. Dream on.
> And with driverless USB mass storage support and USB Host support.
Already there. No driver required.
> And finally a 2.5" LCD.
Actually, I want a much larger LCD, like that on the Sony Clie NX series.
> And that embedded winamp should be extendable by the community to add modules as we think of them.
What a maroon...
>Right now what we've got is some amazing gadgetry where every single device for sale has a lock in or limitation somewhere. The iPod's not bad but it's seriously flawed and locks you into the Apple way. And the exact same criticisms can be made against Creative, iRiver and tons of others.
Nope. You can always use MP3s on all of these players. No lock. Anyone who actually purchases DRM'd tracks is stupid. RIAA and MPAA need to look at eBooks. The only ones making any money and selling any are the ones WHO DO NOT LOCK THEIR MEDIA. Baen. Fictionwise.
>> Poor, battery life, no replaceable battery and on previous models (maybe current as well), batteries that just quit.
>Wrong. The iPod battery life issues are an urban legend. A frigging myth.
BILL: it's NOT a frgging myth AT ALL! my iPod's battery (iPod 1st generation) was good for only an hour MAX after one year of normal use. I call that a BIG downside indeed! Do a simple search on Google and Forums and you'll see it's not an urban legend. It's not because it didn't happened to you that it doesn't exist.
Walter: the Archos pretty much does all of that w/ the exception of iTunes support. I don't consider iTunes important because the files come in with unfair DRM (some would argue otherwise, but it's truly not free enough) and I'd probably remove the DRM before moving it to any player anyways.
my first gen ipod still has 5 hrs, bought it the day they came out. thats pretty good for any battery, cant say that for my cell phone batteries, they die in a year. and its true, by the time it got to 5 hrs i already had a 3rd gen, i gave my 1st to a freind of mine, never heard him complain about shoddy battery life. but like someone said - there IS a reason the iPod enjoys 85% marketshare. face it, its better in some way, shape, or fashion. quit trying to be different, and ... think different?
Bill. Thank you for pointing out where I was wrong. A couple of points.
- Battery life. Last week I read about somebody having to defrag their iPod disk to get the battery life back. wtf?
- Glad to discover that USB mass storage is provided. Just as long as you've formatted the iPod for the OS you use. Want to plug your full Windows iPod onto your friends Mac? Does it work?
- USB Host. So you can plug a USB cable into two iPods and copy files across with no Mac or Windows machine in sight? I'm amazed.
- Recently saw a post on one of the podcast lists asking how to delete a file on the iPod. They were told you could only do it via iTunes. It's obviously lies from misinformed people.
- Copying files off your iPod onto a PC? So what was all that fuss about iTunes 4.7 and iPodDownload then?
- iTMS and Backup? Ask Cory Doctorow why he thought it was a problem in his famous speech to Microsoft against DRM.
- iTunes crashes on Windows? It may work for you, it didn't work for me. Fully patched XP SP2 on a 6 month old Tosh laptop not a 95 machine still running win95. Perhaps it was the LAME --presetStandard MP3s. Whatever, it was pretty consistent. The CPU usage went through thr roof, the fan kicked in, then the song stopped producing any sound. Consistently. Since I'm happy with Winamp, iTunes got junked.
- Price? UK Amazon. 20Gb iPod £207.99, Creative Zen Xtra 30Gb £169.99 Zen Touch 20Gb £169.99 I rest my case.
"Wrong. The iPod battery life issues are an urban legend. A frigging myth. I have an original iPod and the battery is still fine. Many many hours of use. And they just keep getting better; the current model I just bought has 12 hour life. If you listen for 12 hours then you need to get a life."
Really... and to think some transpacific flights last for more than 16 hours! So you're saying I should just listen to music for 11 hours and 59 minutes and sit there for the remaining 4 hours?
"Really... and to think some transpacific flights last for more than 16 hours! So you're saying I should just listen to music for 11 hours and 59 minutes and sit there for the remaining 4 hours?"
Honeslty if your making trans-pac flights all the time then buy the extra battery pack to make it go for 24 hours or whatever....I've flown some pretty long flights and I don't know why you would want to listen to music the WHOLE way.....so for that 1 billionth percent of people who NEED to have music on for 16 hours straight for that trans-pac flight they do every other day...well they can just buy something else.
Yup, the Ipod is all hype. It's expensive, poorly manufactured, has poor sound quality, and I personally think it's ugly. I don't understand this 80's white-plastic equals beauty thing. I'll take sexy black anyday.
The only thing I do like about the Ipod, the scrollwheel. But that's hardly enough to justify everything else. I swear, Steve Jobs could take a dump in a white paper bag, label it "I-Krap", and Mac-heads would line up to buy it. (Mmmm, Corn!)
And owning %85 of the market in Hard-drive based MP3 players, when hardly ANYBODY owns a Harddrive based MP3 player, isn't a great accomplishment. The Ipod is a Mac Peripheral, plain and simple. People buy them because they are perfect addition to a Mac. If I had a Mac, I'd own an Ipod too.
Unless of course you're sheep, hooked in hype. If you drive a SUV, your favorite beverage comes from Starbucks, and you dream of a Segway for X-mas, then I guess the Ipod is right up your alley...
I have a 3G ipod, and while I like it, I have some reservations.
- the sound quality isn't all that, at least not with my in-ear phones (Shure e5s). My HD600s are more forgiving, and the ipod drives them remarkably well, but either way I hear noise over the input while navigating etc.
- the interface has some issues - it's sometimes unresponsive, and some downright bugs. For instance, if you are trying to get to the last song on an album and press fast-forward one time too many, it goes all the way back to the main menu. Pressing play again starts playing all songs from all albums. Then there's the amusing bug whereby if you pause a song before it starts playing, the ipod ignores you and starts playing the track anyway. Nice.
- not being able to charge it over USB - argh! I was told when buying the ipod (in an Apple store) that USB didn't supply enough power - clearly BS, especially as the 4G fixes this. Anyway, my laptop (IBM T41 - because I appreciate quality) has no Firewire. And to make matters worse, the stupid power adapter doesn't work with the built-in table power points as found in library tables. Which sucks.
- iTunes. Why does Apple keep inflicting their software on Windows users? Quicktime sucks (I'd say precisely what I think of it, but I'd like to keep this PG-13). iTunes sucks harder. I installed it to install the firmware upgrade (the day I got it - yeah, the upgrade that should have been pre-installed), saw it, and uninstalled it right after the upgrade. EphPod is pretty good, though, as long as you don't want decent contact management. The iTunes music store is a joke - who the hell is going to pay a dollar for lame DRMed 128k or whatever AAC files when they can get 100 megabytes of 320k or better MP3s for the same amount from Allofmp3.com?
- battery life. It sucks. It *REALLY* sucks. 8 hours tops. It's horrible on transatlantic flights, which is when I *really* want to listen to music. My *old* (1999) Minidisc player has better battery life.
Despite that, I like my ipod a lot - but it's certainly got a lot of room for improvement. Car-wise, I'd compare it to a BMW 318i - looks nice but overpriced, not that functional and not all that much fun to drive. Comparing it to a Porsche? A Boxster, maybe. Or a 928. Certainly not a 911, though.
Julian Bond,
>> Last week I read about somebody having to defrag their iPod disk to get the battery life back. wtf?
the filesystem on your hdd get fragmented over time. it makes magnet head to do more movements during operation. which means more_power_consumption. that appies to each and every device that contains a hdd, I guess.
>> Want to plug your full Windows iPod onto your friends Mac? Does it work?
yes, it does. with mac os x at least.
>> 20Gb iPod £207.99, Creative Zen Xtra 30Gb £169.99, Zen Touch 20Gb £169.99
Did anyone arguing about the price actually held in hand ANY of "cheaper alternatives"? they are not just larger, they are really huge. don't trust these pictures on amazon.co.uk. I have no problem carrying my SE T630 in one pocket and 4G iPod in the other, I don't even notice the weight. and believe me, I tried a lots of other devices in the same way, and, well, there IS a difference(tm). heard an old joke? is that an iRiver IHP-320 in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
not that much of a joke, actually.
back to cars analogy: Porsche 911 is expensive over Toyota Camry. iPod is not. it's worth every cent.
"If I wanted to walk around with something that looked good, I'd take a walk with my girlfriend, she's just as fashionable as an iPod and cheaper too."
This guy got the whole fad down to a tee. Just a case of style over substance.
"Honeslty if your making trans-pac flights all the time then buy the extra battery pack to make it go for 24 hours or whatever....I've flown some pretty long flights and I don't know why you would want to listen to music the WHOLE way.....so for that 1 billionth percent of people who NEED to have music on for 16 hours straight for that trans-pac flight they do every other day...well they can just buy something else."
Let me clarify what I said. I didn't phrase it properly.
I don't believe that a consumer should be forced to pay for an additional battery pack. You're already paying a premium for the iPod when many alternatives already include extended battery life at a similar or lower price.
As well, I realized that even on a trans-pac flight you end up maybe 1-2 hrs going to and from airports, 2 or 3 hrs at airports, 12-18 hrs in flight which adds up to around 15/16 hours at least. Sure you won't be listening to your player the whole time, but it's good to know that your player is reliable to provide enough juice without an outlet in the vicinity. With the iPods it's tricky because mine maxes out at 12 hours. You need to jack up the volume louder anyway with jet engines humming in the background and its more of a drain on the batt. With other products there's more of a guarantee to work properly when travelling long-d.
Sorry for throwing a 6 year old tantrum in my last post.
>Well I still use my minidisk player... =P
MINIDISC FOREVER!
although my new mini does tag-team my listening needs... MD will always be near-and-dear to my heart!
Face it, the ipod is overpriced and has the sound quality of a gramophone, if you are willing to pay for it, that is your decision, but you are therefore an idiot
Any anybody that thinks that itunes is the best thing since sliced bread obviously hasn't tried the realplayer, it is incredibly refined player that makes itunes look like a POS port.
This Kantor guy responded to this attention on his site http://kantor.com/
On that site he refers to Engadget as "Some little website"
No wonder people are mad at him (but don't tell him that he's stupid or anything).
Actually the iPod is the Ford Model T. It is good enough and cheap enough. It was the first mass market digital music system that provided a complete buy music, store music, play music solution that worked for 1,000s of songs. The Model T was not the best car on the market. It was not the cheapest. It lacked lots of important features like windshield wipers and a starting motor, but it was good enough.
That's how industrial design works.
first of all: isn't diversity a pretty thing? isn't it great that we can all buy whatever player we want? or just refuse to buy one? and each be happy with it? sure, there's a certain pleasure when convincing someone of your own preference in mp3 player, yet isn't this really what it is all about.
in senior year, my high school got 25 emacs for their computer lab. i was stunned by the ease of use of itunes... it just made so much sense. i had been using winamp before, now i was using itunes on a mac. so when itunes came out for pc about a year ago, i installed that. there my be other ways to organize a music library, some ppl prefer winamp orr wm or real or whatever but i am completely satisfied with the way itunes works, imports my music, burns cds etc. i strongly dislike the windows media player so i even get around wma files.. which i would never buy either.
the thing that really caused me to buy an ipod was the fact that you carry around a 1 to 1 copy of your itunes music library. and since this library is enormeously organized, i can find everything in one place. the other day, i bought a cd, imported it, synced my ipod and went to by bike. listening to that new cd on my ipod. and that is what i find stunning.
sure, the ipod looks nice too. and i like the navigation. i do, however, admit that it could be imporved. when trying to find an artist beginning with "m", you are scrolling for quite a while until you can find it. but i am fine with that because it is after all a portable device. and writing text messages on my cellphone isn't much easier.
the battery has never been an issue. never. and i have a 3rd gen ipod which is only supposed to last 8 hours. i have never listened to music for 8 hours straight. and i hope that you haven't either. there's more to life than that.
I have a 3G pod, but do feel limited by a number of things. I hate that Apple forces me to find 3rd party apps just to move music from pod to my laptop. Like I'm a crook when I just want to move my music around. The average user isn't savvy enough to figure this stuff out; I've shown a bunch of friends how to do it, but it's just not that easy for most people.
I'd like to make playlists on my pod without being bound to my laptop for that function. Other players do that, so come on, how hard can that be to add to such an expensive toy?
iTunes? I'm maxed out on my "authorizations" even though I did deauthorized machines that Apple clearly thinks I didn't. Can't play that music on any new machines from now into eternity. Apple claims it can't clear authorizations on their end. How retarded is that? I no longer use iTunes. Can't use it for my own listening the way I want to, such forget it. eMusic has opened my ears to all kinds of new cool stuff, and for $15/month I get 65 totally unprotected downloads.
Once you load up even a 10G pod, it becomes really cumbersome to find a song or album or artist on the go. Isn't there a better interface? The pod's hasn't changed much since the beginning.
Apple hasn't changed the pod much over the years besides capacity and, recently, adding pictures. They're still crazy expensive. Considering what's been coming out lately, with more features (some that I've listed) and competitive prices, I'm not convinced that my next player will be a pod. Sure I like it, but I'm not a cult member, I'm a consumer and I want to get the best value for my hard-earned buck.
hey that post 41 cute-ute analogy fits the best, although they ipod doesnt "go offroad" like a real SUV, i hogs gas, the road, they sales, and it makes money just cuz peeps think it cool and dont know better
u cant compare iPod to camry cuz iPod dont have nearly the value and silent V6 of a camry, and its not a BMW or Porche either b/c its anything but fast, exciting, or luxurious (fearturewise, maybe luxo in that it cost double what u get)
if only a car can take 85% of market shares... if only a single MANUFACTURE can take 85% of ANY market, then u know those r some retarded and uninspired people (i know i'll get flamed, who cares)
Ok, quick note on battery power. Just because you don't need it does not mean that others don't And what's this attitude that "If I don't need it then anyone who does is a poopy head..." huh? What about those people who listen to music when they go running earlier in the day, while surfing on the computer in the afternoon, and then are studying late into the night and would like to listen to music during that entire time without charging their DAP. Does this just mean that they are SOL? Are they stupid for wanting to have this ability? And just for kicks, lets call those people "college students"... How much of a market are these "college students" for iPods?
Anyway, someone asked for an example of a player that was cheaper than the iPod but still was quality, M3. There ya go. And again, I really wish some people would try other things before the just go around saying that one thing or the other is the best. Or at least recognize the strong points of other DAPs without just making blanket statements. I know I've tried pretty much every player I could get my hands on and settled on the one that I have now because it's strong points outweigh the other player's.
The iPod is a sexy little piece of machine, but like it's been said, it is not the end all and be-all of DAPs and personally, I think that the DAP landscape will start to change more drastically over the next year or so with the introduction of more video elements such as color screens and movie playing. It's so amusing that the same people who complain that they only listen to music and "don't need no f-ing color screen" are the same ones who would be showing off their "awesome color screen" to their friends and their "sweet movies" and such. If the iPod had originally come with a color screen there would be NOT ONE call to get that "damn power sucking color screen off my music player"... What shortsightedness people. Props to all those who can see the future and embrace it.
AznFX
"if only a single MANUFACTURE can take 85% of ANY market, then u know those r some retarded and uninspired people (i know i'll get flamed, who cares)"
You mean like Microsoft and Windows? So you're saying that Windows users are retarded and uninspired?
Can't say I disagree. I've been looking to dump Windows for quite some time now...
AznFX
"if only a single MANUFACTURE can take 85% of ANY market, then u know those r some retarded and uninspired people (i know i'll get flamed, who cares)"
You mean like Microsoft and Windows? So you're saying that Windows users are retarded and uninspired?
Can't say I disagree. I've been looking to dump Windows for quite some time now...
More like the Ford Escort. The most popular car of the 90's. God knows why!
Love my Arieo. As I type this it is updateing itself via my wireless net. FM Radio, FM transmitter built in, Hotspot locator etc...
$110.00 US on Ebay. 1.5gig. I use prox 800 meg at a time. Use the rest for file storage for my laptop. Only USB 1.1 however to update overnight via 802.11b net.....I don't need high speed usb.
Love my Arieo. As I type this it is updateing itself via my wireless net. FM Radio, FM transmitter built in, Hotspot locator etc...
$110.00 US on Ebay. 1.5gig. I use prox 800 meg at a time. Use the rest for file storage for my laptop. Only USB 1.1 however to update overnight via 802.11b net.....I don't need high speed usb.
Before I start, I just admit that I'm an iPod fan. In addition to this, I'm a sophmore in high school. I can quickly download songs from my computer to my nifty little gadget. It's also easy to operate on my commute home on a school bus. Now some of my friends have Dell Jukeboxes, and Sony NW-HD1's. The software on the NW-HD1 is just horrible. I've seen it on my friend's computer, and its interface just blows. The newest jukeboxes aren't bad, but the older ones are huge. huge. HUGE. They are like a bulge in your pocket. When my friend wears khakis, you can tell which pocket his jukebox is in - the 1 that looks like an erection gone horribly wrong. iPod is so simple for me. No fancy converting or recording, or radio, or any other stuff. I buy an iPod (technically I have a mini) so I can listen to music. Yes, the battery life is relatively short (Around 6 hours?) that's why I recharge it at the end of the week. And yes, iTunes does sometime not work on my Windows XP (Service Pack 2, 2.66 Ghrtz, 512 RAM, 120 Gigs), but this is only a small minority of the time. The lock function is also super useful so that music doesn't randomly start blazing out of your pants (heh, chem).
Yes, it is also a trend - but its a avant garde trend at that. Sleek design, a super nice clicky wheel, easy use. To sum up the popularity part, here's a conversation that I had with my friend regarding iPods.
Him: I need a good mp3 player that I can ask for Christmas
Me: Get like, an iPod or a Jukebox or a Sony one
Him: Hmmmmmm not sure
Me: Well I would get a Jukebox or a Sony cus it would be wierd after Christmas if everyone came in bustin' iPods
Him: Well I think I'm gonna get the iPod then cus I don't want to be wierd and be the only one to walk in with Dell brick
^It's mostly just peer pressure, but eventually, MP3 players will replace everything else. It's just like with cassettes to CD's. However, Apple's dominance in the future may or may not hold.
Jason Wrote:
>An iPod is a good choice if you are too lazy to research any other MP3 players, and decide to buy that one because that is the only one that the general public knows about.
OR...If you just want one with some STYLE!!
Anyone can add rubberized corners and led lights to make something look cool. But trust me there is a HUGE difference between looking cool and HAVING style.
The iPod's got style, hands down. Whether you like them or not, it's hard to argue that.
-Mike
True, the ipod does have style, but as far as a 'fashion statement' is concerned, its losing it. With the increase of people owning an ipod so much so that it is now about 93% of the mp3 market, the 'fashion statement' becomes cloned because everyone has one. It becomes less stylish, because everyone has one. It's cool factor diminishes because everyone has one. I'm not saying its not a good mp3 cos ive used them and they are fun, but one of the major reasons for buying one according to a lot of people here is that they are a 'fashion statement', however now that everyone has one they lose the statement.
Comparison with the Camry has to be a joke. iPod is the BMW of the MP3 players, not the crappy mass production Toyota Camry.
How can you compare the top-of-the-line mp3 jukebox with a family car?
"I didn't go for an iPod when I bought an MP3 player. I wanted something smaller, so I got one that uses flash memory instead of a hard drive - a Creative MuVo TX."
Moron Kantor doesn't know the difference between a MP3 player (like MuVo) and a MP3 jukebox (like iPod, Nomad, etc)
Never, ever, ever forget the PalmPilot mantra: Less is More. Seems it works for MP3 players too. Simplicity, elegance, efficiency, what more could you ask for? And yes, I like other music players too, especially the Rio Karma. But I just can't get excited about something as big as a shoebox. Come on, I can't even fit half of these players into my pocket! Except the iPod, of course...
The internet sucks.
I don't go much for trendiness. If I happen to get the most popular thing out on the market, it's usually a coincience. With a good job in a two income family I can pretty much afford any MP3 player out there, yet I still use my Palm T3. Why? It's one less thing to lug about. I already have a laptop (job-related), notebook (job-related) mobile phone(personal & job)wallet, keys, etc to keep track of. If I want to hear music I'll just use the RealPlayer on my PDA. I don't need more than the 512 megs I choose to carry because I keep my music collection on my PC and can change it whenever I choose. Besides, my Palm does virtually all the laundry list things that Walter listed on post 16--and most of those I don't need!!! In short, I have a great PDA that plays music, rather than a great MP3 player that's a weak PDA.
Lots of pros and cons here with the usual anti-Apple diatribes but hey, that's what makes these discussions fun!
What most people miss is that what makes the iPod unique is that it embraces a delicate balance of features, functionality, style, size, and price. No other manufacturer has been able to achieve this balance. Apple designers are exceptional in their approach to the inevitable compromises of industrial design. It's all about prioritizing capabilities:
1. Hardware interactivity
No other player has the ease of use of the iPod. NONE. It's not just the scroll wheel but display, ease of one-handed operation, and its large, easy-to-operate buttons.)
2. Software (OS, syncing, PC interface via iTunes).
No other player has as intuitive of interface as the iPod or the ease of interoperability with its PC software counterpart. It is staggeringly easy to move from song to song, album to album, etc. on the iPod and even easier to keep music synced via iTunes. In the end, it is the vertical integration of desktop to iPod via iTunes and the ITMS that makes this player second to none. The masses appreciate ease of use and techs should even more so. The comments about "techs" preferring the more complex mp3 players is highly amusing to me. Buying a complicated piece of hardware just to prove that you can make it work is just sad. The average tech might be able to make his kludgy mp3 player work but the WISE tech knows his time is worth something and will always opt for the more elegant solution.
3. Size.
Who wants a big clunky thing in their pocket? For example, people want to run with their mp3 player strapped to their arm. The iPod is amongst the smallest HD players made (maybe the smallest, it's hard to keep track). The importance of this design feature cannot be overstated.
3. Style.
Yes, the iPod is trendy but in a way that is highly unusual in the world of tech marketing. It is a product that is also the best at what it does. Personally, I wish Apple would advertise it more.
4. Price.
Compare product pricing and you'll find that the iPod is competitive. Go out and look at a comparable player from, say, Rio. The Kharma is the same price! Why would one spend $299 for a Rio when one can get an iPod for the same money?
As for things like battery life and missing features? This is the place where Apple shows its design genius. The battery is the same technology used in the other players and is not made by Apple. However, Apple does want the smallest player possible and since size is more important to the customer than battery life, they usually choose size. Meanwhile, the mp3 bricks that have 20-50% more battery life simply don't sell as well. Why? Because people prioritize their needs. They do the research and make a choice.
The same philosophy is true of extra features. Extra features could be part of the iPod lineup but they aren't. Why? Does Apple not know how to include them? Will it make the iPod too expensive to market? Of course not. Extra features that very few people use simply get in the way of the iPod's primary selling point: user friendliness. For those not paying attention, this is a core Apple (no pun intended) design philosophy across their entire product line. Apple prefers to produce elegant technology solutions. They eschew feature bloat because it gets in the way of the user experience. This is the bottom line with all of their products.
Oh, and as a technology manager at a major university, I've seen every desktop computer and mainstream media playback device ever made. When all is said and done, I recommend Apple products up and down the product line because they cause me the least support problems. Does that make me selfish? Maybe. But my time is valuable and recommending products that are hard to use is just mean.
Final thought, you can't compare the iPod to any automobile because there is no car currently made that has 85% marketshare
while being the best in class in the auto industry.
The discussion and hate talks goes beyound and nothing related to the orignal Andrew's comments.
You like the Ipod, go, buy and use it. It's up to the user to go to Internet and do his/her own analysis (or ask around) before buy anything.
I see most of them talking about his/her point of view only. Most of you don't consider other people have their own likes and dislikes.
Cheers,
Happy
Sheniferous (post 91),
You used the term "monopoly." I've been a Mac user for years, and it seems that Microsoft has always had the monopoly, with a supermajority of PC market share, while Apple has had to settle for 5% or less despite their innovative and appealing designs. I don't know how the iPod's great design broke through the majority of the gadget-buying population in a way that no Apple product has ever done before. To long-term Mac users like me, it has always seemed patently obvious that Apple's products were worthy of consideration for their ease of use and user-friendly designs. But I'm thrilled that many people, once acquainted with the iPod, love it so much. One thing is for sure: Apple didn't achieve success with the iPod because of a market monopoly to start out with. Unlike what some people who posted said about Apple's marketing being the sole reason why the iPod is on top in market share over other mp3 players, a large and probably paramount reason is iPod's design and it's seamless integration with iTunes, the Music Store, and for Mac Users, programs like iSync, which adds calendar and contact information to the iPod (in addition to many other things). Apple had to claw its way up, and they deserve to bask in every ray of success that the iPod draws their way.
So, after 16 months of owning a G3 iPod, I’m thinking of giving it all up and going back to CDs…
My first replacement was swapped out by Apple Europe quite quickly - they picked up from my office on Monday, and a new, brown-boxed Pod was on my desk by Friday. Not bad, eh?
Yesterday morning I put my G3 in its cradle (first day back at work etc), and within 30 seconds I knew something was up - I was able to watch the drive space increase within Explorer, and before I could do anything, my Pod had been wiped of all data. I undocked, scanned for Artists and found my full library intact. Problem was, that’s all that was left: the data/text for the library. Try and actually play an album, and it finishes in five seconds.
I made an appointment with the Genius Bar @ The Apple Store, Regent Street London. I didn’t want to mess with the Pod in case it could be recovered. Anyone that’s been to a G-Bar will know the boys there are quite removed from reality. I tried to explain what I thought happened and he wasn’t interested, mumbling something about regen’ing the software, formatting and wiping everything off. Usually I wouldn’t have minded but this time I didn’t have a backup. However, I had no choice, I had to agree.
Then I thought, hang on, I don’t want the same one back - why would I? So, bravely, I asked for a brand new G3 Pod. Lo and behold, I got one (albeit brown-boxed). The guy had just given up. I asked how many G3’s they swap out in a week… 30-40 minimum.
I tried my hand again: “If I pay the additional ££ for a colour Pod, could I do that today?” The flippancy of the reply is what forced me to write this today: “I take it you haven’t heard of Apple’s upgrade path? Throw the old kit in the bin and buy a new model.” Normally I’d find that funny, but I’m one of those people who paid £400 for the “best product on the planet”. My first Pod had hard errors on the surface; the 2nd current one lost everything; now I’m on to my third. Hardly what I expected when I paid my money in good faith.
To cut a long story short, I left the Apple Centre with a new 2003 G3 - more than likely one with a battery that only lasts three hours or so. Either that or it’s reconditioned. It’s fully wrapped in protective plastic, but, frankly, nothing would surprise me.
It’s quicker and more cost effective for Apple to swap out old for new. It seems common practice in many cases nowadays.
The whole experience has left me quite disillusioned by Apple. I really thought they had a grasp on their new business, but am increasingly left with the impression that what they actually have a grasp of is extensive media. With so much good coverage, the bad just gets brushed under the carpet.
Am I alone in thinking this? Feeling “had” by Apple? MRMONGK@HOTMAIL.COM
Desert using this article to slam what he calls "neocons" is Out of Place. A very low blow. He can't even keep a political statement out of a Friggin' Ipod article. That said, I love my 1st Gen 20gb Ipod. The battery life sucks, but it's got great audio quality, and the form factor is awesome.
The fact of the matter is that the iPod plays MP3s, but it is NOT an MP3 player. It’s everything Walter said and more (How many MP3 players do you know of that can act as a bootable hard drive, for example?)
The unfortunate truth is that the only word you can use to explain what an iPod is is that it’s a… well, not really; it’s more like a… no, that doesn’t cover it, either. It just an… ipod. No caps, cuz we’re not talking about brand name; we’re talking about what it IS. The problem is if anybody else were to release an ipod, they couldn’t even call it, for example, the Rio RX-452 Ipod, because iPod is a registered trademark of Apple.
Oh, and just FWIW: a few weeks ago, my sister went out to buy a Saturn (to replace her previous Saturn) and the Saturn guys jerked her around so much on the pricing that she walked out and drove around to a few other dealers. Dad was with her, and within two hours, he, Mom, and sis had each traded in their old car for a brand-new Camry. (Dad was frankly amazed that he could even FIT in a Japanese car; at his height, he can’t even fit in most AMERICAN cars!) :¬)
What's wrong with a Camry?
First, there's that itty bitty thing called the "wheel" that is simply the best navigation interface for a device storing thousands of songs.
In addition, the iPod helped set the new fashion trend that "White is the new Silver" and has thus become an icon of the people who are "in".
Last time I checked, the Camry was the choice among the older crowd. If anything, the iPod is a luxury item -- status + sex appeal.
Obviously this is easy to say if all you are used to driving is the Toyota Camry, and only have seen the BMWs passing you by.
The market is overwhelmed by iPod because whether it chews up garbage or plays 1,000 songs it is still the choice for 85% of us and this puts Mr.Toyota right in there with the other insignificents who haev one more excuse not to have something nice and pretty.
Very simple to make things complicated.
Extremely difficult to make things simple.
This is why the ipod is so well loved and
why "almost" everyone has one.
I have two.
Well lets see where to start? Anyone who thinks just because you have an opinion you are a brainwashed member of the other camp should get a life. It is an opinion people and the last time I checked that was ok. Now on to the i-pinion: I have had other mp3 players and I now have an i-pod which I enjoy. The i-pod is for sure easier to use and has capabilities that go far beyond just a music player. I know you digital camera people like that part. For myself I will grow with my i-pod and enjoy what it gves me, the room to grow with my needs.