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Holiday Competition For iPod Dollars
An anonymous reader writes "MP3newswire.net is running a two part article on 15 new digital music portables or "iPod Killers" as the digerati have dubbed them. iPod Killers for Christmas Part I includes what I think is the coolest new player, the Olympus MR 500i with touch-screen technology and and sharp black-on-white color scheme. iPod Killers for Christmas Part II's most interesting portables are the new Epson MPEG-4/MP3 media jukebox and the SoniqCast Aireo 2 Wi Fi. Lots of photos and size specs. Also, Ogg Vorbis is picking up steam as more new players are adding it."
None of these device's interfaces impresses me as much as the iPod.
If there's anything that's going to kill the iPod it'll be its lack of Ogg Vorbis support...
...is going to have to find something better than "an iPod killer" to label themselves.
Originality people!
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
Look, the problem with these companies is that they are concentrating too much on physical design and low cost. They don't realize the fact that the reason why many people buy iPods, even if they cost more, is that they are much easier to install and use than their products. An iPod (on macs at least), there is only one step: Plug into firewire port. Thats it. No need to mess with drivers or install difficult mp3 players on your PC.
iPod Killers for Christmas Part I includes what I think is the coolest new player, the Olympus MR 500i with touch-screen technology and and sharp black-on-white color scheme.
...And cute little white "please mug me" earphones just like the iPod.
Why does everyone think that the iPod killer is going to be a new player?
That's not what an iPod is.
An iPod is actually a combination of things. First, it's a small, lightweight player. That's right where most people stop. They think "Hey, we can make a light weight player, and we can make it cheaper."
Second, it's an easy to use player. Too many competitors don't take this into consideration. There are far too many players on the market that gloss over this step. It's hard to demonstrate UI through press photos. Word of mouth is the key for this step, and it tends to destroy most other players. Lets face it, most people are idiots, and end up confused by the average mp3 player UI, and then they bitch about it. The iPod is so simple anyone can use it.
Now here's the sneaky part that everyone seems to forget about. The iPod is also married to the iTunes Music Store. It's an easy, legal way to get songs on your player. Both built from the ground up to work together with ease. Throw in 1-Click purchasing, and you've got yourself a nice little system.
To see a real iPod killer, someone will have to come up with an easier way to get music onto their player. Until that happens, everyone's going to keep selling their ideas in the boardroom, only to watch them fall apart in the market.
Oh, and it's got to look really cool and sexy. I was gonna get a rio karma, but I heard the siren call of the sexy iPod and soon had one.
Though considering I recently bought an iPod, it will be a while before I have the money to buy another cool device. And my experience with the iPod makes it unlikely that I will buy any device which is not an iPod or made by Apple. So maybe this isn't being marketed to people like me.
Regardless, I don't want a video player. I don't want fancy graphics. I want an audio player, and that's what I've got. I think there are many like me.
I also want it to look cool, and my iPod definitely is that. I want an experience which is easy, and it is easy. And I'm running linux too!
I've got iTunes through cxitunespreview, and I've got management of the iPod through gtkpod (not as nice as direct management through iTunes, but still, it does what I want). Oh, and I can transfer the files off of iTunes with gtkpod, all I had to do was recompile it with this mpeg4 lib.
I also love the attachment by Griffin Technologies that allows me to record lectures. That has been a real benefit, and was one of the major reasons I chose the iPod over the karma.
Actually I found the link at the bottom of the article, iRiver Turns Focus on In-Dash MP3 Players to be even more interesting. It looks like we'll finally start seeing some decent car audio MP3 offerings. I'm awfully tired of burning files to CD to play in the car. If iRiver is going to offer a model with wireless to sync up while parked in the garage, I would buy it immediately.
Most Ipod buyers aren't slashdot geeks, not even tech enthusiasts. They want a Name-brand product that does one thing, and not even have to change the default settings. (Itunes is set for encoding songs in Apple's AAC, not MP3, and technically the difference between the two formats is trivial) Its all about the marketplace, not the technology. I've even heard that a $400 Ipod costs about $12 to manufacture... can anyone confirm this?
For the average consumer, I think the iTunes music store is more important than the iPod itself. I've tried most of the competition (Musicmatch, WMP10, etc.) and their technology is just awful, terrible, nasty. Have you looked at Microsoft Windows Media Player 10? I counted like 6 nested menu systems in it, all different kinds. Some look like browser menus, some look like windows menus, some weird tabs for the linked music stores. Grandma is supposed to use it as her jukebox software? HA!
iTunes is incredibly easy for the average consumer. Plug in your iPod, it copies the music to it. Put in an audio CD, the button on the top right says "import". Buy music off the iTunes music store, it downloads. All within the same app.
Is anyone else even close on the ease of use of iTunes? I haven't seen anything, and I think you need that kind of ease-of-use to be the consumer success that the iPod has been.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
i also wonder how much apple helped themselves by sticking to one "name" for the iPod. they haven't introduced weird model numbering schemes. it hasn't been "apple mp3-4-40" or something like that for 4th gen. 40 GB iPod. people just say, "i want an iPod." even if they want other mp3 players. *that* is brand recognition.
it's always been "iPod" (albeit, if you go into details, there are scroll wheel model (1st gen), touch wheel model (2nd gen), dock model (3rd gen) and click-wheel model (4th gen).)
... solely due to the "click wheel" thing - no other player has this, no other player is as easy to use.
...
Paint them whatever colur you want, make them as small as you like - the competing boxes have lousy interfaces
The people I know with Ipods could probably put all the songs from CDs they want to listen to without ANY compression. It's also pretty easy to delete and add songs at any time. I could understand the issue for those who want to keep video files, but mp3s? Just what percentage of those songs do you actaully listen to?
Majority of the people that buy ipods aren't technically inclined. They see it as a status symbol. So, until the fad moves to a new and 'cute' product, the ipod's to stay. Besides, the ipod is so shiny :)
"What seems to be the problem, osciffer?" (pronounced aus-if-fer.. bah forget it)
1) Clone the iPod interface
2) Add support for all formats
3) Longer lasting accumulator (more than 18 months)
4) Cheaper than the iPod
5) Longer custommer support
all good things, i agree. surely a player like this would be an ipod killer.
that said, the ipod interface is patented, so cloning it could turn into a pretty nasty legal fight. adding longer cusotmer support will make the desired "cheaper" impossible. supporting all formats may invoke the wrath of legit music stores using competing formats that will lead to your new player getting no/bad press.
pick two.
scott king
How about one of these to make the Ipod complete?
Dont need some fancy new 'killer' with feature bloat beyond what an Ipod really is.. a music device that works, and is easy to operate....
---- Booth was a patriot ----
$250 for a music machine? I can get a cd "WalkMan" for $50, less if I go for an off brand, more if I go for a major brand. Thats a nice price, I can afford to buy one if I want one. At $250 it is no longer a buy if I want it budget item, but something most people have to think twice about.
Sure I can afford it. I'm a single geek with a good job. For the average person this is way too much. Even for me it becomes an item I think about before buying, so far other things have been more important.
Just look at how new entrants are dancing around the 1GB mark. There isn't one player (that I have seen) that supports over 1GB that costs less than $199. They keep offering larger players for one reason: it doesn't cost any more. The companies want the base price for any "real" players (not the cheapo 256MB players) to be $199, and it looks like for at least the foreseeable future, it will remain that way. The base price will stay at $199, and the storage space will simply increase.
I'm not willing to spend $199 on a gadget that I will only get limited use out of. MP3 players are still a niche market, and until the cost goes down, rather than simply the space increasing, they will stay that way. Of course, with our wonderful capitalist system, someone will eventually understand this concept, and they will get a rather large jump on the market. ;)