Slashdot Mirror
iPod Mini Hits The 'Sweet Spot'?
Tooky writes "The BBC is reporting on a survey carried out by Jupiter Research which found that most consumers were only storing about 1000 songs on their portable MP3 players, claiming that ' The finding seems to be borne out by the demand for Apple's Mini iPod'." According to the piece: "Jupiter said digital music players with capacities of 5,000 songs will provide too much space for most people. It added that consumers rate other features as highly as the ability to store all the songs held on their PC."
Size is all for digital jukeboxes
Music lovers appear to have a track limit
The perfect size for a portable music player is one that can hold 1,000 songs, a study suggests.
A survey carried out by Jupiter Research has found that almost all the consumers questioned were storing no more than 1,000 songs on their home PC.
Jupiter said digital music players with capacities of 5,000 songs will provide too much space for most people.
It added that consumers rate other features as highly as the ability to store all the songs held on their PC.
Portable problem
The survey asked people who already store music on their PC about their ideal portable music player.
Gadgets that can hold about 1,000 songs seem to hit the "sweet spot" for these consumers, said the report.
Consumers care about more than size
The finding seems to be borne out by the demand for Apple's Mini iPod. The global launch for this has been delayed by three months to ensure it can cope with demand.
Music players that can hold about 1,000 songs are starting to become more common. Creative has launched a version of its MuVo player with a 4GB hard drive onboard - the same size as found in the Mini iPod.
Unsurprisingly, the report said that 77% of those consumers thinking about buying a portable player would pick one that would hold the store of music they currently hold on their PC.
Jupiter research director Michael Gartenberg said the research helped to explain why portable players that can hold fewer than 1,000 songs have not sold well.
Consumers were also wary of gadgets that gave them too much storage space, such as those made by Creative, Archos and Dell.
But the report said that almost half of those thinking about buying a portable player, 45%, would like one that could play video.
The report speculated that this could lead a push to players with bigger hard drives on board.
Other features that matter to consumers are rechargeable batteries (55%), small size (52%) and the ability to listen to Menudo while skydiving naked (49%).
Few of those questioned had a preference for the format of the music being stored.
Better make sure it's a next gen ipod mini, or the headphone jack might just "breakthrough" too!
Set up a few automatic playlists:
One with all your highly rated songs.
One with all your unplayed songs, in random order, limited to fit on your iPod.
One with your least recently played songs, in random order, limited to fit on your ipod.
Then throw some albums you want to listen to on a fourth playlist.
Consider the "my rating" to be the "I want to hear this again" marker. If you're listening to a new song, and it's rad and you don't want it to leave your iPod, mark it, and it'll go to your highly rated songs playlist.
Do the "these playlists only" synch. Now, everytime you synch, you get fresh songs. Just keep those less-listened to songs in iTunes. If someone ever wants to hear them (happens whenever I have a party) it's still on your computer.
I've got a 40 GB iPod, and I still need to do this, just so I have some way of managing the 25 _days_ of music on my iPod.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I ordered an ipod mini a month or two ago. They said it would be 2 weeks, but after 2 weeks they said it would be another 2 weeks, and gave me the opportunity to buy the 15 GB ipod ($50 more usually) for the price of the mini instead. I had just read about the ipod mini headphone problem, so I agreed. It arrived in 2 days.
More music, fewer hits
I am happy that Apple has a product that is profitable.
However, I will not buy an iPod. There are other players that are just as good as the iPod, but a quarter of the price, don't have critical parts break off, store more music in a similar size and form factor, and don't handcuff you to either some company's private (though documented) format, or shackle you to some DRM system.
Most mp3 players comparable to the iPod don't require specific software to transfer to their players; you just mount it as a drive and copy. The iPod works as a drive, but you can't play anything transferred in this mode. You must use special software.
Buying something with Apple's FairPlay DRM is just like letting yourself be handcuffed and manacled to the ground, but being told that the chains are not too binding, and the cuffs are made to be comfortable for long wear.
* 1000 songs = 4GB.
That's about what I would normally expect.
Then again, I've started re-ripping all my old CDs, this time using 320 kbps mp3s, and these soak up the space big-time. I can imagine using 80 gb easily within the next few months.
FLAC + 128kbit aac? Yes, I know this will take up 8-900k/s instead of 320k/s. But if you put a reasonable price on the time spent ripping those CDs you don't want to want to re-rip them often if at all. If you can afford the iPod, you can afford a 250GB drive.
FLAC is lossless, about half the size of a CD, and you can encode to any format you want in the future. You should never have to rip your CDs again (unless disaster strikes your HDD).
For your iPod, I would suggest using AAC instead. Better size/quality ratio. Should you ever change your mind and go for a player without AAC support, simply remake from FLACs, shouldn't be worse than a script job.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I bought one at the Apple Store a couple weeks after they were released.... They said that silver was by far the most popular color, but it was also the most stocked color, and therefore they only had silver left. I debated whether to buy it there or wait a little while... in hindsight, i'm glad I bought it there... I went in to the Apple Store about a week ago to buy one for a friend (birthday present)... They said they're not getting anymore until July.. and even then they have a waiting list. Just FYI....
According to apple it has a 1 year limited warranty.
"Documentation and support Electronic documentation, getting started guide and one-year limited warranty"
"the breakthrough was to have a audio player that a capacity beyond ~500 megs that was also suitable for running/jogging--the mini is the first to break that barrier."
The Rio Nitrus was the first player to use a 1" drive. It:
- has a capacity of 1.2gb
- plays WMA or MP3 files
- has a battery life double the iPod or the iPod mini (15-16 hours vs. the iPod's 8hr max)
- doesn't come with a defective headphone jack
Oh, and you can pick one up immediately at any local electronics store.
Best,
rt
I thought they were using 320kbps AAC (lossless, IIRC) - there's not much quality you can add to that :/
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
Works just as well?? Puh-lease. I had one of those. It sucked. The interface was horrid. I finally gave it to a friend and saved up the money for a real iPod. Nothing beats the real thing, baby.
You're out of your damn mind. I do this. It does work.
When I plug my iPod into my Mac, it updates the rating on the relevant song. The highly-rated playlist on the mac then grows to accommodate the song. The Mac then synchronizes that longer playlist to the iPod.
Similarly, if my random unplayed playlist is limited to 2GB, when I plug in my ipod, it marks those songs as played, which takes them out of the unplayed playlist, which means they are replaced with other songs so that the playlist remains 2GB. The modified playlist is then synched with my iPod, which includes the new unplayed songs.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I've had my mini for three weeks now. Not, a super hard-core runner, but I average 25-30 miles a week, pace no slower than 7:30. I've found it to be absolutely amazing. The longest run I've used it on is about 45min and had absolutely no problems. Battery life is very good, the interface is absolutely perfect. Recommend buying the neoprene armband--very inobtrusive.
I evaluated several players before settling on the iPod Mini, so I am in the demographic the article talks about. I have between 12 and 13 GB of music, but found I really only had 3 to 3.5 GB of music I listened to, so the capacity of the mini was perfect.
;) I ordered a gold iPod mini. In all seriousness, it will match my Nokia cell phone and for some reason I think that is cool.
Being fashion concious
Anyway, I ordered the mini on 3/22, and the confirmation email said it would take about 3 weeks due to demand. On 4/12, I received mail from Apple that said they are running behind, and it will be another 3 weeks. However, they offered to upgrade my purchase, at no cost to me, to a 15 GB iPod. The mail said customer satisfaction was very important to them, they were sorry about the delay, and were happy to offer basically $50 off the iPod. Today (4/22), I received mail that said my mini has shipped.
So, there are some data for you.
I picked up a blue iPod Mini from one of the Apple Stores in the Los Angeles area about a week or two after it was released. I'm really glad I picked one up so early since they're so hard to come by nowadays.
And I find that 1,000 songs on the iPod Mini is more than adequate. I have more than that stored on my computer, but am content to rotate content when necessary.
I broke my iPod Mini about a month ago and the turnaround to get it replaced was really quick. I shipped it out on a Tuesday and received a replacement on a Friday.
Judging by what I've read thus far, the rarest iPod Mini color has been pink, followed by gold and green, blue, and then silver.
Checking eBay, it's also interesting to note that pink iPod Minis are also the ones selling for the highest amount, selling for hundreds of dollars the retail price.
I thought about reselling brand-new iPod Minis on eBay, but when I contacted a local Apple Store, they told me that after Apple announced that they were delaying worldwide shipments by three months to accomodate the domestic demand, that they hadn't received any new iPod Minis and to put my name on a waiting list or order it online. So much for that idea.
>RAM-based players don't have enough storage (or cost *way* too much)
Actually flash-based players are quite cheap. You can buy a Rio 500 on EBay for about $40. You can quite easily store an hour of music in them (or two with a smart media card). Can you run for more than two hours? If so I'm impressed. Most runners don't run that long, so flash-based players are perfect. They don't skip, have virtually no moving parts, and are small and light.
Less compatibility? Whatever do you mean? I still don't understand that. Something wrong with AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF and WAV format compatibility? In fact, I think that's even MORE than the Archos players.
And, it is worth it to me to have Firewire speeds (not to mention battery recharge at the same time, over the Firewire), an intuitive user interface, a smaller form factor and direct synching (with awesome options) with iTunes?
Yes. But that's just me.
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
How much do you run? Is the mini holding up well?
I run about once a week for about 60-90 min per run at about a 7 minute mile pace, and i often run shirtless. I just assumed that'd I have to buy the mareware sport suit thing for an added $30, but the clip that comes with it (from Apple) is superb! It's a really tight clip-grip and has a very narrow profile, causing minimal bounce (a huge contrast to a normal iPod in a mareware sportsuit clipped onto your shorts). I slide my mini about 1" downward on the clip, protecting the top from any sweat, etc--a simple solution, but effective.
G-Force music visualization
yes.
Photos.
I'm gonna call bullshit on this. I've had an iPod since summer 2002, and I routinely fly to Asia (so I have lots of time to listen to it!). I was excited when I first got the thing so I kept track of battery life to see how it stacked up. I found that I was regularly getting very close to the advertised 10 hours when I just played it continuously, and closer to 6 or 8 when I constantly switched around or turned it on or off frequently (like when the flight had a movie I wanted to see). My mp3s are all encoded around 200kbps (--alt-preset-extreme), and the ones that I've - um - downloaded (ayrrrrrrr, me maytee) are of course lower. The only thing I've observed that really kills battery life is loading really huge files - at any bit rate - because it apparently keeps the hard drive spun up constantly.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
You forgot to factor in the beer curve...
http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal