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Even though this article has already been Dugg and Slashdotted, I think that it’s a worthy addition to our news.
Azhar Chougle from foronceandforall.com (I hope he’ll forgive the further increase of traffic on his servers) has written an excellent list of factors that made and still make the iPod the device of choice for most most music lovers. Here are the topics which the article talks about and small excerpts from them:
- Its just too cool – “The iPod has become so much of a cool factor today that teens prefer it over any other MP3 player.”
- Its known – “When we think of MP3 players we think Pod.”
- Price – “Apple always has very competitive pricing for iPods, especially with the iPod shuffle.”
- Competitors arenât getting it. – “We want simply stuff, which looks good and works.”
- Accessories in all directions – “We all love to personalize our stuff.”
- We donât like to change – “If the iPod was your first MP3 player, you will probably never change if itâs worked well for you.”
- Getting better – “With smaller sizes, bigger drives, better functions etc.”
- Personal Touch – “Mentally we are fixed that Microsoft is a big company with no taste and no âcoolnessâ.”
- Killing the PC – “As Apple converts even more people to Macs (and businesses) and as Macs get cheaper and more compatible with Windows, the iPod parade follows.”
- Its just better – “The iPod is just one concept that will probably never die.”
I agree with all those points, although I think that #9 is a bit exaggerated, even though the iPod is helping to boost Apple’s sales it isn’t really killing Windows in an alarming rate. Apple is simply becoming the “popular alternative”, much like Firefox is in the web-browser world. But with the exception of that entry, I think that the others are pretty much head-on.
What do you think, will the iPod ever die?
I know mine will in a couple of years, when it’s battery becomes too addicted, but when that happens I’ll just buy a new one.
iBoom – The iPod Alarm Clock
How to extract iPod songs using iTunes
iPodDownload iTunes plugin – extract music from your iPod
Rivals challenge iPod’s success
Is the Sandisk Sansa Clip an iPod Shuffle Killer?
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9 Responses for "Will the iPod ever die?"
October 9th, 2006 at 11:39 am
1I’d love a portable music player that could store my 50GB (and counting) of music, and i LOVE the iPod useability, but I don’t know if I can be bothered with all of the converting to the Apple format? Also, I’d rather not be seen in public wearing those stock white earphones!
October 9th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
2If your music is in MP3 format you don’t need to convert it. And there is absolutely no obligation to use the stock earphones, they’re crud anyway (well, the old ones at least, I’ve never tested the new ones).
October 9th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
3Where’s the competition? 4 years and counting, and the iPods are STILL the only MP3 player worth buying on the market. I think that even if Creative Zen or somebody managed to put out a decent piece of hardware, they still would be unable to back it up with decent software. Doubly true for Zune. MSFT has NO track record on software.
About 300 Million Sony Walkmen were sold; electronics are cheaper than ever these days for what you get, and only 50 millionish iPods have been sold, I think.
October 10th, 2006 at 1:05 am
4I for one dont like ipods, their sound quality sucks.(OR at least they used to)
One of the point that isn’t true
- We want simply stuff, which looks good and works. –
Maybe true for some people, but if u r really music lover, you value the quality of the sound of the portable player.
There are mp3 players out there with FAR greater sound quality then ipods.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:50 am
5Jonathan Turner – the iPod can store the 50Gb+ of pirated mp3’s you have and play them.
Danny – You’re a bigot who obviously doesn’t have a clue as to what sound quality means, and from which component it comes.
October 10th, 2006 at 7:46 am
6What makes him a bigot? He has an opinion, and I agree, Its generally accepted that the iPod does not have the greatest quality output, there *are* players which sound better. Though I disagree with:
“One of the point that isn’t true
- We want simply stuff, which looks good and works. -”
Unless you are a tech-head, most people just want something that works out of the box, the iPod (which I don’t have, so don’t accuse me of fanboyism) delivers this (I also think the Zune will, I’ve been impressed with WMP11 so far, but we’ll see), the iPod was also the first (And still is really) the only mp3 player with nearly faultless, and very easy to understand, software.
This is something companies like iriver (one of which I own (an H10), albeit with Rockbox firmware), and Creative always seem to fail on, either the interface is too clunky, or it doesn’t “Just Work”. This example can be applied to the PSP (another item I own) aswell, while its all great touting it as a portable media player with video etc. unless you know what you are doing, or fancy splashing out *more* cash its nearly impossible to get your video’s onto it, whereas streaming content to your Xbox360 is a piece of cake.
The main issue, it seems, is that companies spend an awful lot of time on the actual hardware, then go and stand on their heads in the corner when it comes to supporting software and firmware. (Can you believe my H10 didn’t organise albums by track number when I first got it!? It was all alphabetical) Until they pull their finger out of their proverbial bum, and perhaps Microsoft have this time with the Zune (Which I think they need a bit of a break about, god knows everyone was critical about the Xbox on first release), the iPod will remain the market leader, sound quality or no.
October 10th, 2006 at 7:47 am
7whereas streaming content to your Xbox360 is a piece of cake. (From your PC that is)
October 10th, 2006 at 8:08 am
8Hey,
Thanks for the mention!
Very thankfully, Azhar | ForOnceAndForAll.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:11 am
9if you knew anything you would know that sound quality does not stem from the player itself, that is simply the device that stores and conveys the music. sound quality has to do with the file size and format, and no, mp3 is not the highest sound quality out there (certainly worse than that of current CDs). apple endorses and ships a format that you can import music into your library directly with, ACC encoding. if you actually cared about music quality like you claim to, you would have looked into the option. You’re just dont like to go with whats popular, even if its popularity is from funcion and quality, not from trend.
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