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Creative Gunning For the iPod
yashchopra writes "CTZ is running an article where Creative's main goal in 2005 is to take away market shares from Apple's iPod music player, which they believe is very possible. The publication also have some information on the upcoming flash MP3 player standards that we will see this year. "While many companies are looking forward to their flash MP3 players, Creative has other plans. Creative was one of the most popular exhibitors on the show floor with their Zen Micro and Zen Touch players on display. Creative's sole goal this year is to take away some market shares from Apple's iPod. The company believes it to be a possible task, as iPod is limited to iTunes when it comes to purchasing music online and with Creative's products, you will be able to purchase music from major online vendors. The ability to download and listen music from any major online retailer and the price are what Creative is using as their marketing strategies to compete against Apple's iPod. But other than that, Creative's products look very much like the iPod with a few changes."
I got a Creative Nomad Xtra for Christmas, and I have been very satisifed with it thus far. I needed to upgrade the firmware to get the most out of my player, but so far I've shown it to my friends and they are most jealous as I paid the better part of $100 less for a 40 gig mp3 player then they paid for their Ipods.
The 100$ price difference will surely force apple to rethink their prices. Hope their iPod dosent repeat what happened to their Mac's when PC's came to the market. Apple should take care for that. Also any way the battle turns out, its party time for the consumers!
also downloading any major road works, congestions etc.
Make it look great, make it easy to use, and people will buy it. Simple as that, Creative...
"Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
It's about simplicity.
With regards to the iPod shuffle - yes there are other Flash mp3 players. But for consumers like my mother, who has issues navigating the file system, she doesn't have to (a) rip a cd and then (b) find where her ripped mp3's are to (c) copy them across to her flash player.
With an iPod, she simply sticks in her device to charge, and music syncs between the iPod and iTunes automatically. If she wants to burn a CD she sticks one into the computer and presses a single button: import. She doesn't need to know anything about which codec to burn a cd with (mp3/aac/wmv), or where on the filesystem they end up, or dragging an dropping. It happens for her automatically.
Simplicity and doing what it does do well - is where the iPod shines. If companies want to eat at the iPod market share, it's not about bombarding the customer with a shitload of features. Instead, make a music player, make it easy to import music (this includes minimising any DRM), and make the device SIMPLE to use. I want to be able to explain how it works to my mum in 60 seconds, and to have her "get it". If you can do that, then you've got a product which has a chance.
Software developers and marketers, learn from Apple. Simplicity is king. Don't cause the customer headaches, and they will come back for more.
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
Since the only online retailer I'd use for purchasing music, Bleep, supplies them as unencrypted mp3s created using LAME's --alt-preset-standard setting, I don't care. Those work on iPods just fine.
Amusingly enough, I tried one on a friend's Creative MuVo last week. It played, but the timestamp was utterly confused by the variable bit-rate.
So while it is just possible that Creative can find a definition of 'major retailer' that makes their claim accurate, they don't work that well with any I'd frequent.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Physical beauty? If that's a factor, then the iPod fails miserably. That sickening, ultra-bright white Apple slathers all over their hardware makes my eyes burn.
OTOH, I like how the Zen Micro offers a variety of colours, including a few I really like (particularly the silver and purple models). I admit I'm not fond of that blue backlight, but I still prefer the Zen Micro over the iPod, visually-speaking.
Oh, and if your girlfriend doesn't like the "nipples", maybe she should avoid using any keyboard. Every keyboard I've used has had some kind of ridges (sometimes round, sometimes not) in the middle, so you can tell what part of the keyboard you're touching without having to actually look down at it. The Zen Micro uses the same principle. Geez, it's not like there are drawings of breasts behind the nipples or something.
Granted, I'm not really interested in either player, as neither of them support Vorbis,
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
If apple sell more ipods than creative, then creative would lose market share
Uh, no. If A sold 990 units last year and B sold 10, then A has 99% market share and B has 1%. If this year A sells 600 units and B sells 400, A still has sold more than B but A's market share has dropped from 99% to 60% while B's has gone from 1% to 40%.
If you're talking about total market penetration of players in the field, then at the end of last year, A had 99% in the field. At the end of this year, A has 990+600/2000=79.5% of the number of widgets in the field.
Either way, A's market share has decreased even though they've still sold more units than B.
Mr. Sim Wong Hoo, it is a pleasure to write to you.
To familiarize the readers, Creative has a long running bout with the reigning king, the Apple iPod. In fact, just last November, you, Mr. Sim, "declared war" on the iPod. . And Today, you had even more fighting words for the newest addition to the iPod platform, the iPod Shuffle:
I am not here to discuss your comment about the Chinese, nor am I here to bash you personally or your company. I am not even here to talk technical specs, because frankly the lack of a male USB port on your Micro Slim is currently the least of your worries right now.
You are undoubtedly a smart guy, being where you are now. You have sold over 2 million MP3 players last Christmas season, no mean feat at all (vs 4M iPod). There is no doubt that your company Creative is a successful one.
But let me ask you this: You have declared War, but Do you want to WIN this war? Absolutely demolish all that is iPod and steal all the glory? Well then read on because as it stands, this is a War you will live or die for. If you want to live, please consider my Two Cents:
1) Tip #1: Think like the underdog. If you want to be a market maker, you need to grow up and act like one. We all learned about "Perfect Competition" in school, how it meant that there was no excess profit and that the only way to get out of that bind was to differentiate yourself. Right now, iPod is winning because it is differentiable from you (brand name, iTunes integration). How are you winning? What is your battle cry?
For the last two years, Creative has acted just like the "Chinese" me-toos (as you so put down in your latest comment) while Apple has been the market maker through and through. Here are some examples:
When the first generation Apple iPod was released, you still were selling the MP3 jukebox ($480) that could not fast-forward or rewind (true), that looked like a spaceship (definitely), and still took 20 seconds to transfer a song (USB1.0). Quickly, your team raced to build a better looking version, after the success of the big iPod.
The success of the iPod touch interface was also "borrowed" on your Zen-Touch line. And finally, after the Apple iPod Mini was announced, you surprisingly announced the new line of Zen Micro's in 10 colors.
See, I like supporting the "underdog." I like supporting the brightest and most inventive minds. I support Tivoli Audio, Sirius satellite radio, I support many of OS X's small developers' applications, I support the Treo 600, Brian Transeau's music and a million gazillion other small companies out there with insanely great ideas. These are premium but differentiable products that people are willing to spend extra money on.
Make something special, Be somebody special. We want that for your kids right? So incorporate that into your technological children, the Muvo's and the Zen's. Because Nobody honestly lusts to buy a me-too product.
2) Tip #2: Make us shit in o
If Creative really want market dominance they have to give the people what they really want (but may not know yet). Easy mobile song sharing.
Equip the players with Bluetooth and or Infrared so that I can easily copy songs from my mate if I want to.
Make it possible for users to P2P & browse from one device to another while on a train without even knowing each other. Great way to socialize too!
"Hey is that you with the new Britney Spears album? Is it any good? Mind if I copy it? Wanna have a drink together?"
Yes, this will make the media providers very unhappy, but the buyers will love it.
That's the route to market share!
If Apple doesn't support the DRM of these other music stores, no, you can't play music you bought there. Creative has a point, the choice is very limitted.
:)
But when is Creative finaly gonna play AAC files so I can buy tunes from the frigging' iTunes store!?
Apple is the established competitor in this market. It's nice to want to beat Apple (as a secret wish), but Creative needs to focus on making a better player. From the start, this means making it painless to use Creative's product instead of Apple's. Creative needs full compatibility -- plug-in accessories for iPod should work with Creative, and CERTAINLY the iTunes AAC format should work. On the former, remember that cars are now shipping with controls and ports for iPods. Creative needs to be able to plug in to anything an iPod can.
Everyone here talks about the music format (AAC, MP3, Ogg, WMA, etc.), but most people just don't care. Apple does not sell the iPod as an "AAC Player", yet Creative sells an "MP3 Player". These are music players. Quit selling a format. Sell a player.
Creative needs to make a product that gets the stellar reviews of the iPod. When I was considering alternative players to my iPod, including Creative, I was amazed that Creative's players had a significant number of complaints among all the reviewers at places like Amazon. No one wants a player that sounds iffy. If I buy an iPod, I know it'll work.
Two final points: Where's FireWire? USB 2.0 High-speed is supposed to be as fast, but many say it just isn't. Also, will Creative offer incentives on their product? Apple's "Jam and Cram" rebate this past fall meant many people picked up 20 GB iPods for $69 (after $200 rebate, received when buying an iPod with a laptop).
Creative, just focus on what your player does, caring about Apple only as much as you make your product easy to interoperate anywhere an iPod does.
I purchased the original Nomad Jukebox and it ended up being a pretty big letdown. The software was essentially non-functional (prompting a shareware app called NotMad that would *actually* transfer music onto your player), the battery stopped holding a charge after about six months and then the power-supply burned through the case. Granted, this was a first-generation product but I'm not convinced that Creative cares any more about quality-control now than they did then. I spoke with one of my friends about it and he told me that back in the early 90s he came to the conclusion that Creative makes horrible products and hasn't looked back since. I strongly advise everyone to avoid Creative products. If you don't want to pay up for an iPod then at least go for something, anything that doesn't have a Creative logo on it.
I really wonder whether that's true or not (the 90% pirated mp3 thing). I would say about 20% of my songs are pirated; the rest are ripped. Just by taking a short poll of my coworkers, most agree (I'm actually the most pirate of the bunch (yarrr!). Then again, we have another guy here with over 200 gb (?!?!) of pirated music. (As an aside: what in the hell did he do, download mp3s of someone singing everything in the Library of Congress?)
I really used to like Creative. Then they started doing the same stupid thing that turned me off of Real and countless other companies: They try to force and lock you into using THEIR products. In a world where it is perfectly possible to just plug in an mp3 player and have it show up as an extra drive, Creative decides you need to install their "driver", which by the way also installs YET ANOTHER MEDIA CENTER, for a turn-key totally scalable enterprise media experience solution. This media center takes over all file associations, unless you find the hidden checkbox to opt out of that "feature". It's a horrible application, that completely fails to fit in with the normal Windows look and feel.
</rant>
He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
The second thing that comes to mind is this: 400,000 people a week would seem to disagree with your assertion.
;-)
But yes, I would have to agree with you. I find it ironic that /. readers who openly attack M$ for being so closed about everything are all eager to embrace a just-as-closed iPod. (Unlike Darwin, iTunes is not open sourced. At all. And iTMS is not interoperable.) However, I do see that Apple is much more of a benevolent dictator than M$ tends to be. And they really "innovate" in the true sense of the word, quite differently than when M$ "innovates" for sure!
For a moment there, I thought I was reading The Best Page in the Universe!
I'll take my iRiver h340 every single day. I've owned two different Creative DAPs (and multiple aftermarket accessories for my computer [DVD, webcam, etc]) and the thing that put them out of the race for the 3rd DAP was the simple fact that their post-purchase support tends to be "we don't support that; buy our new version", particularly when new operating systems come out (the DVD player I have, hardware based, hasn't had a supported release since Dec 2001). Apple doesn't get my slice of the pie because I did my research based on price and functionality and most importantly versatility. Now, I know people are going to say "How versitile does a DAP have to be?" and I answer with the more the better.
:)
My iRiver H340 functions as well as a DAP as it does a portable 40gb hard drive. The directory structure allows me to find everything I want, quickly (YMMV as I am rather picky about how I sort artist/album), has the built-in FM tuner, has photo display, has recording capabilities, and after a down-and-dirty firmware flash (which was a mere 100k or so download), I can play videos (sure, they are 220x176 and only 10fps, but perfect for animation) and if I so desire I can skin the silly thing as well. In fact, I've already changed my bootup screen to be a picture of me ala South Park (I figured it would make it easier to catch a theif, god forbid someone steal my H340). There are battery replacements availible for this unit for around $20, and speaking of battery life - I get around 16 hours (although some users on the misticriver.net group have reported battery life of around 18 hours). To top it all off, the whole thing is drag and drop. No Creative PlayCenter, no iTunes, no proprietary software crap to mess with. It's a freakin' hard drive.
Did I mention it plays OGG?
The only comparable Apple product is the 40gb iPod Photo, and it costs $100 more and does way less (resize your photos? pah!).
I think people should be a little more picky for $400 instead of going for the fashion statement. Do the research and save some bucks.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
First, let me start with a disclaimer: you are an idiot.
...there is nothing out there for them when choosing Apple
...start supporting Ogg Vorbis...
...and WMP...
A point-by-point evaluation:
How many times does Apple need to learn that people don't want lock-in solutions. [sic]
Why do people never learn? Why, no matter how many fucking iPod articles Slashdot posts (and, yea, there are a great many), does there remain a group who simply do not get it? How many times must one of these types be told that no-one (or, should I say "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero") gives a flying fuck about lock-in. They probably don't even know what "lock-in" is. I know I have ranted on about it in the past to non-tech types and they just zone out. Can you blame them?
Where you buy there [sic] player and are locked into their music service.
Your frighteningly schizophrenic spelling aside, you're bandying around that dangerous "lock-in" word again. As various others have noted on here, there do exist paid-for music services which offer MP3s, e.g. allofmp3.com. There are others, but I have not the inclination to look. This aside, the average man on the street doesn't particularly care anyway, but we've already made that point.
This is more subjective, but I can say with certainty that in the UK, the Windows-using masses are restless, tired of spam and spyware and system updates every other day. That Mac mini is looking incredibly tempting. I am sure it is the same way - even more so, perhaps - on the other side of the pond. There is something "out there" when choosing Apple, unless you find the tortious Windows/WMA et al experience pleasurable in some way. (I have already commented on schizophrenic spelling, so I shall leave further interpretation as an exercise to readers...). The iPod's elegance and simplicity appeals to people. Really, it does.
Groan.
I posted at length about this on my blog after OGG and iPod were mentioned in the same thread a while back. It goes back to the "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero" point again. No-one, save the militant/obstinate few, gives a shit about OGG, and, moreover, the only reason that Creative, etc. include OGG support is to try to capture some of the statistically minute militant/obstinate market. That's how marginalised they are - like a pack of mangy stray dogs fighting over scraps.
At the outset you seemed to be typing yourself as anti-lock-in. I'm confused. Most people choose the lesser of two evils, and here you are, proposing that Apple sleeps with the devil.
I'd apologise for the tirade, but, y'know...
iqu >:|
Interesting - I'm listening to my 40gb Zen Touch as I type this, and so far it's given me no problems whatsoever. Money well spent, in my book.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/corporatene ws/view/127025/1/.html
"Actually, to me it's a big let-down: we're expecting a good fight but they're coming out with something that's five generations older," Wong Hoo said. "It's our first generation MuVo One product feature, without display, just have a (shuffle feature). We had that--that's a four-year-old product."
"So I think the whole industry will just laugh at it, because the flash people--it's worse than the cheapest Chinese player," he added. "Even the cheap, cheap Chinese brand today has display and has FM. They don't have this kind of thing, and they expect to come out with a fight; I think it's a non-starter to begin with."
I can't think of any case offhand where "Me-too only with more" has been a successful marketing strategy. This is lazy marketing...
Of course, if you ask existing customers who like and use a product X what they ''want,'' those customers, just having faced a difficult struggle choosing from different price points in a product line will say something like "I'd like to get the features of the top model at the price of the entry model." Or if they're more ambitious, "I'd like twice the storage, half the size, and half the price." (About the only thing you won't hear from iPod owners is "And I'd like it to play the music twice as fast!).
What the strategy never takes into account is that in the time it takes to bring the me-too-but-more product to market, the manufacturer of the product they're gunning for will probably improve their product.
As for "choice," most computer users I know never change the home page of their browser from the one that's set by the manufacturer. Consumers will happily buy into the all-Apple iPod ecosystem and won't care unless it becomes obvious that the PC download music stores have dropped prices to, say, $0.25 per song, or have a grotesquely larger selection.
It may be a shame, but all the issues about lock-in, DRM, etc. don't matter to consumers until they personally get bitten, and so far Apple has taken great care not to bite consumers much.
It also helps that Apple's stuff works. The number of articles I've read about "iPod killers" by PC-centric sources that acknowledge up front that whatever they're testing wouldn't install, or froze, or had DRM authorization problems is astonishing.
A friend of mine who is just an average PC-centric engineer bought an iPod for his wife. Because it was reputedly a good product and easy to use. His wife, who is mildly computer-phobic, had no problems with it. It just worked. A few weeks later he bought one for himself. He likes it.
Another friend who bought some fairly pricey high-end gadget from Creative, I think, reminds me of all the personal computer enthusiasts of the late 1970s. It constantly presents him with challenges, which he enjoys surmounting. He is a chorus director who brings his player and powered speakers to rehearsals to play us things. It never works, and there is always some good reason why he can't play that particular thing that particular day.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I never said that Apple needs to start supporting WMP, I said the chipset on the iPod supported it. Also I think if Apple opens of the AAC encoding to other companies that some of these companies like MusicNow, Walmart, Napster, etc. could offer both formats.
As the Linux guys love to say it's only a good thing when there is more compitition.
I bought a creative Zen 20gb when they first came out. It was plagued by connectivity dropouts (on various different computers) and the hard drive failed as soon as it was out of warranty. Their customer service was abominable, and though the sound was good I'm never buying creative again (not even sound cards if i can help it). I'll make my next mp3 player an iPod.
---- death to all fanatics
Walmart is major, but they are unloved foons. You are enticed with 88 cent downloads (with DRM up the wazoo of course) and an iPod-like white headphone logo. "(Y)our tunes (y)our way" -- find the hidden motto here. If you try to enter the Walmart site and do not have IE -- well tough. Foons.
What you aren't noticing is that before the iPod was introduced there were a lot of MP3 Players already on the market with a lot of features the iPod still doesn't have and the market did not take off. There will always be a niche of geeks and hardcore users who want all those features but most folks just want something that "just works". And Apple has that covered with the iPod. The Creative CEO assumes that because his company's products have more features for the same or less money that they will outsell the iPod. I doubt this very much so.
m on ey/16digi.html/ technology/17app le.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/business/your
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17
If you read those articles you'll see that one Apple has something most other companies don't, and two you'll get a glimpse at Apple's possible future.
You know that "Digital Living Room" all the tech companies are trying to create? Apple has a head start. The iPod, and the iPod Photo, are the first steps. The iPod Photo already connects to a TV. Add a Mac Mini to that (more likely a rev 2 version with Tivo features) and they'll have it pretty much well wrapped up.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Almost all of my MP3 music is either ripped from my own personal CD's or from CD's belonging to my friends -- real-life, face-to-face friends. According to most standards, that falls under "fair use".
I do have other MP3 files, but those were released by the author. At least, I trust that sites like Salon.com actually have the rights to distrubute the music they publish online. There's so much music being distributed free by the musicians as samples that I suspect that that is what the recording industry is afraid of: the short-circuiting of their promo campaigns.
I honestly don't know anybody in my circle of acquaintances who "pirates" music. Most of the "pirated" music falls under format-shifting and fair-use copying not unlike the old days of making tapes of friends' records.
You talk as if iTunes is a liability, and I actually think it's an asset.
It makes music management simple. It's fast. It's easy.
I've never heard anyone rave about Creative's music jukebox management software, but I have heard people rave about Apple's iTunes. People can actually use it's features; every upgrade/version adds more functionality that people actually like:
Rip with one button
Streaming libraries to multiple computers
Smart playlists
Synch to the iPod with zero interaction
Party playlist
Automatically manage your library
These things make collecting CDs and music so easy that the iPod is a joy to use. Unless Creative has improved drastically (I keep hearing that it's a pain to use), I don't see how they can catch up. If people hate synching to their Muvos and Zens because the software sucks, people won't fall in love with their players either.
GPL Deconstructed
My one and only reason for buying a Creative ZenMicro over the iPod mini was that the iPod has no radio built in.
I mean c'mon! I like to listen to Stern or This American Life when I work out. Dloading those in RA format and trying to get them to work on the iPod is too much to ask a consumer.
No battles to the death are recalled. Mumpsman can hit to attack and cause brainsmashing.
The battery life of the Zen Micro is actually worse than the iPod mini's. I'm aware that they claim a longer life, but apparently that's not true, at least not to a test (German mobile computing website) Xonio published a week ago:m l
http://www.xonio.com/features/feature_12585175.ht
It's in German, but there isn't a whole lot of text anyway, mostly just data. Festplatte translates to hard drive, in case you're wondering. The iPod mini plays for 8:17, the Zen Micro stops at 7:10. The model with the best battery life-time in the iPod mini form factor is the TEAC MP-1000 (17:39), but then it only sports 1.5 GB so it might as well be flash based. The best hard drive based is the iriver iHP-100 at 18:28.
That said, they don't seem to say anything at all about their testing methods. Granted, it's not that difficult: they probably just took a new-ish player, connected it to AC as long as it wants to be, and then played some music - the same music for all players, obviously, to take into account different power usage at different bit rates and such. But who knows if that's what they did, they don't say. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, though, since their previous reviews always seemed to be quite good.
If anybody has got more battery longevity tests that indicate different results be my guest. I'm on the market for another mp3 player (my old mini-CD based Philips one is just about dead now), and I fell in love with the mini-HD form factor when I saw the first models and now it comes to down to either the iPod mini or the Zen Micro. Currently, I leaning heavily towards the iPod mini - especially due to the fact that it seems to be cheaper in these parts.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
After listening to Apple's Q1'05 Earnings call I have to say that I am concerned that the music stores besides iTunes will soon go the way of so many dot-coms. Here's two reasons:
- Apple stated in the call they have 70% market share in on-line downloads.
- Apple stated in the call they posted a small profit on the sale of now >230,000,000 songs (admittedly, these were not all in Q1'05).
If the $0.99/9.99 model is so razor thin that one company with 70% of the market is eaking by, how can six other companies who share the remaining 30% of the market hope to survive?
Napster seems to be in the lead (don't they have about 10% market share?) but it is primarily due to the subscription model they have, not selling tracks/albums. Sounds like an opportunity for Apple to swoop in and service the sub-market for subscribers to me.
But back on subject, the Creative statement that they have some type of advantage because their player submits to the DRM of half a dozen music stores that are loosing money just says to me that Creative is tightening their seatbelt on a sinking ship.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
They may not be what's driving 100% of hardware sales, but I'm sure the percentage is very significant. One of the reasons I bought an iPod (I'm a PC user) is because of the easy to use software and online store. I also like Apple's philosophy behind the whole experience, buying the music and getting it on the device is as easy as a mouse click and putting the hardware in the dock. Of course, I'm not saying others aren't as easy to use, I'm just saying for me the iPod+iTunes gave me the best combination of hardware and software, so in that way the music store did drive my purchase.
:-)
I also know I can't be alone in this, given the number of purchased music on iTunes.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
She's had it for about 3 weeks now and loves it. Since she usually goes for the pricey stuff I thought we'd be going back for the iPod but she likes this one well enough to want to keep it. I think the added cost of the iPod was a factor. When one item costs twice as much as another, and doesn't offer twice as much, why buy the more expensive item? We can get two Creatives, one for her and one for me, for the cost of one iPod. I think iPod's are way overpriced, but even if they were on par, I haven't seen what makes them so special.
The Creative does everything my wife wants it to do... which is basically play music. Nothing more, nothing less. It shows the song info on the screen for each song and the random works fine. What else do you really need from an mp3 player? Sure I guess it might be nice if it could grill me a steak but it was purchased to do only one thing, and to do that one thing well. It does that. What else could/should we be asking of it?
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
This, I think, is why Apple is going to stay at the top of the portable music market. They seem to be the only ones that realize that the relationship with the customer needs to continue after the device is purchased. (With their business plan being based on iTMS, it's actually crucial that this relationship continues.)
My MP3 player, an Archos Gmini 400, died around New Year's. I'm fairly certain it was a hard drive failure, based on the sounds it was making. I sent a message to Archos' customer service address, outlining what the symptoms were and asking for assistance.
Two weeks later, I got an incomprehensible reply from them. It asked me to take diagnostic steps which were clearly impossible given the symptoms I had already described, it used product names that did not apply to the product I bought, it was written in pidgin English, and several paragraphs were duplicated as a result of a bad cut-and-paste job.
By then, I had already disassembled the device myself (voiding the warranty), identified the model of the broken drive, and ordered a replacement from an Internet supplier.
Archos left me to fend for myself as soon as they had my money. Apple does not do that. If I had it to do over again, I would have bought an iPod instead.
One thing I have yet to see from the MP3 player market is the idea of-coopting the accessories developed around the iPod.
One thing that certainly does not hurth the sales of the iPod is the vast (and growing) accessory market that makes things like waterproof cases, jackets, armbands, etc. for the iPod. I'm not sure why companies have not thought to release players with an identical form-factor that could make use of these devices - a really advanced goal would be dock compatibiilty so you could use the current iPod remote and things like the tape adaptor that controls the iPod through the tape deck controls!
Perhaps the risk of lawsuit is too great, but I figured someone would try.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The iPod is not doing so well because of commercials (though of course they do not hurt). Advertising and ease of use built them a base, but is not responsible for the dramatic rise in sales they are seeing.
The reason why the iPod is really taking off is the network effect - the sheer value of having so many devices around. You have more people around that know how to use them, more people around that reccomend them, and so on - and lastly because there are so many players you have a HUGE accessory market that provides you with a lot of extension options. The more players you have, the more interesting accessories you get in a virtuous cycle.
People think iPods are just all about style which is why competitors keep failing. At this point though it's really hard to make headway against the strong tide Apple has got flowing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
When I got my G3 iBook a couple of years ago, it wouldn't work with my 10/100 Ethernet switch at 100 Mbps. Not thinking too carefully, I called up Apple, they couriered out a return box, it went back. When it came back to me, the "corrective action" said "reset PRAM". Mac owners know about this: you power on with CMD-OPT-P-R and it resets the parameter RAM settings to default.
Not surprisingly, it still didn't work with the Ethernet switch... so I put together a crossover cable, and did a few tests (that I should have done in the first place, and I'm kind of surprised Apple didn't suggest). Sure enough, the machine worked fine connected directly to my other machines; I took it in to the office, and it worked fine on several switches there.... Turns out my 10/100 switch was the problem. (And its warranty expires soon, so I really should get it fixed.)
Picked up a new switch on the way home, everything's good now.
But the point is: Apple was well within their rights to return it as "No trouble found" with a diagnosis charge. That's what the warranty terms say, after all. But, instead, they did a "harmless" repair procedure, and covered it under the warranty.
I'm not quite so happy about having had to send it in (twice) under the Logic Board Repair Extension Program, but, again, they don't have to be doing that for free under the warranty terms.
10 million iPods sold.
230 million tracks sold at iTMS
Averages out to a whopping 23 tracks per iPod.
BTW, I have a 1st gen 5 Gb iPod. My SO has an iPod mini. Both are about 80% full. All tracks are from CDs we own.
Dr. Freud
Technology meets Transportation.
a 500 86 platform will have more bang for the buck than a mac mini
:)
You can stamp your feet all you like. Reiterate your earlier statement if you feel the need. It will not make it come true. In most people's eyes, there is more to a computer than clock cycles. See above and below.
I must say that I am thankful that Slashdot allows one to view others' comment history - it allows a much more educated response, even to the most moronic of posters - sir, you are a fine specimen indeed.
More specifically in this case, I note that you battled others in the comments appended to the Mac mini article. And, with a certain glee, I must confess, I note that I am not the only one so rightly dismissing you as an idiot.
I presume it is some kind of denial. In the Longhorn graphics card article's comments, you trumpeted the use of graphics cards to "speed stuff up," finally. Mac OS X has done this for ages - two years or so, IIRC.
And in the Mac mini article, you dismiss resplendent and wholy valid security and reliability concerns with the suggestion that "a bit of education" is all that's needed. As someone noted at the time, your immediate family is not really particularly representative of the entire Windows using world, although it does mean that they are by implication more intelligent than the average moron - good for you.
In any event, this is irrelevant. For most people, Windows has done enough damage - lengthy phone calls to premium rate numbers, assisted credit card fraud, formatted hard drives, rebooted every 60 seconds, given Internet users the world over more shit in their inboxes than they could possibly imagine, simplified DDOSing no end... - not to me, I might add. I am simply the one who has cleared up this kind of mess.
Anyway, all this malaise, coupled with iPod love, means one thing - switching. Maybe even en masse.
iqu
Playing music is fun with the Creative Zen Touch's easy navigation. Built to hold 10,000(1) songs with an incredible 24 hour(2) battery life at 128kbps MP3 or 32 hour(2) at 48kbps.
(1) Based on 4 minutes per song at 128kbps MP3 encoding and 64kbps WMA encoding
(2) 24 hours battery life at 128kbps MP3 or 32 hours at 48kbps MP3
From Creative's own site.
From this one would expect that it holds 10,000 128 kbps MP3s, right? No. It'll only hold 5,000 of those, nevermind the second half of footnote one or the fact that one might easily assume that the 128 kbps MP3 in the advertisment applies to both the battery life and the capacity, the capacity is entirely based on 64 kbps WMA encoding. Finally, they claim 32 hours of battery life at 48kbps MP3. WTF? Who listens to 48kbps MP3?
I refuse to buy a Creative Player if for no other reason than their misleading advertising. The goal is not to see how small one can make the bitrate to fit more 4 minute songs on the same size drive. Use 128 kbps like everyone else please.
I recently got an iPod (for Christmas) and all I have to say is that I am very pleased. It's battery is supposed to last 12 hours with 128 kbps (AAC) encoded files and when I decided to test it to see how long it would last, it lasted over 15 hours on 192 kbps MP3s, well above its advertised capacity especially when one takes into account that 192 kbps encoding requires more reading from the hard drive than 128 kbps encoding.