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."

Comments

Let's collect data...

[andy55]

Thought I'd share a data point for what it's worth...

I ordered my iPod mini about two weeks after the iPods were available (about 6 weeks ago-ish), was told 3-5 weeks delivery, and it arrived at the 5 week point. A friend ordered his last week, and they told him 4-6 weeks.

Perhaps we should put together some more data points and extrapolate if this has been the trend since the iPod mini release.

For all the reasons described in the article, the iPod mini exactly fits my preferences--it's sufficiently small, long-loved, well-designed, and spacious. More specifically, for me, 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.

Hrm, but.

[jtnishi]

One would think that if these devices were to get more popular, one could lean toward saving those MP3s in a higher bandwidth setting, such as maybe 320kbps. In that case, averaging 4 minutes per song, 4GB wouldn't probably be enough for 1000 songs. 10-15GB would be more reasonable then. Even with an average bandwidth closer to, say, 200kbps, you're not going to quite get 1000 4-minute songs on your player.

Style is nice, but I think that thinking in terms of higher bandwidth formats, one needs to think about the larger capacity of the other iPods.

Congratulations

[SweetAndSourJesus]

You're the 10,000,000,000th person to point out that the 15 gig iPod is only $50 more.

You obviously don't understand who the mini is being marketed to (hint: not geeks).

Re:they can send them to me then

[somethinghollow]

When I was debating on which to buy, I had resolved that I theoretically could get the smallest regular iPod available and only sync certain songs. It came to my attention that I don't like every song on every cd that I own. I can still keep them on my HDD, but I don't have to sync them, since I can chose to only sync, say, a smart playlist of ratings above 3. If I have a few songs that I might want to hear, but aren't 3+, I can make a playlist for them and sync it. instead of worrying, I just got a 20gig. That solved all my problems.

In your case, I'd make a smart playlist that picks the top 5 GB of most plays and add some sort of most recently played filter depending on listening habits incase you listen to tons of songs once (say on random). You could also throw in a rated 3+ to narrow it down. Don't "delete" them... just take advantage of smart playlists.

Re:Too much space is driving me nuts!

[47PHA60]

Here is why my wife likes her ipod mini better than the 15GB iPod:

1. She wants a music player, not a hard disk.
2. the mini controls are laid out better for one hand use
3. the mini is lightweight for running (the regular pod does not feel that heavy until it is bouncing on your belt).
4. She never transfers large files.
5. She has small hands and likes the feel of the mini better.
6. She looked at the other players that are similar in size and weight to the ipod mini and said: 'the controls stink and the interfaces are a joke. I wish I had something like the ipod, but smaller.'
7. She is not a cheapskate.

Here is why I like my 15GB ipod better than the mini:

1. more space
2. I got it for $1 as part of a promotion from my ISP.
3. I sometimes transfer large files.