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SanDisk Baits Apple And Woos Rockbox

An anonymous reader writes "CNET reports that SanDisk is courting open source developers to port Rockbox to its popular MP3 players. SanDisk is currently the world's second most popular MP3 player manufacturer after Apple. Rockbox is an open source OS for most major MP3 players. The article also talks about SanDisk's subversive new anti-iPod advertising campaign which calls iPod owners 'iChimps' and uses a 'street graffiti style' to create the illusion of a 'counter-culture uprising against the iPod'. The writer says, 'SanDisk is the first company to market its player as an ideological rather than technological alternative to the iPod. To do so is to fight Apple on their own terms.'"

9 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. Al Gore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hear Al Gore puts all his music in a Rockbox

  2. Who to support?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I... don't know who to support! It's Apple vs open source software! My world is crumbling - fanboy fighting fanboy, zealot fighting zealot. Cats and dogs living together!

  3. NEWS FLASH: iPod "Killer" Product/Campaign Launch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear Rockbox,

    Oh no, not that! Nobody has ever accused iPod owners of being slaves to fashion before! I'm sure everybody in the world will now rush out to buy your heroic piece of shit music player now. What ever will we do???

    Love,
    Steve Jobs

    P.S. Why not just make unlicensed stickers of Calvin pissing on the Apple logo while you're at it? The rest of your ads are almost, but not quite, that cool.

  4. Re:Clever Campaign. by Distinguished+Hero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Differentiating by making iPod users seem like sheep [idont.com] is a pretty effective idea.... perhaps!
    The funny thing is that anyone who changes their mind based on this stupid marketing campaign really is a sheep.

    --
    Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
  5. Re:Clever Campaign. by ePhil_One · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Apple got it's dominant position largely through a clever (and cool, and the early) advertising campaign.

    Apple got its dominate position by creating a effective and user freindly UI to a useful and stylish bit of hardware. If the underlying UI & Hardware weren't up to the task, the ipod would have fallen flat when the first generation of users didn't like them. I owned a pre-ipod player, it had a painful UI, so despite its slick hardware, I hardly ever used it and bad mouthed it to freinds.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
  6. iZZZZZZZ by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 5, Funny
    The article also talks about SanDisk's subversive new anti-iPod advertising campaign which calls iPod owners 'iChimps'

    What was the executive meeting for that one? "Hey, boss! Let's insult the hell out of our target market!"

    and uses a 'street graffiti style' to create the illusion of a 'counter-culture uprising against the iPod'.

    And nothing says "street cred" like a modern Western corporation. Hey, I be down wit dat, um, dogg... or word, or whatever. Shizzle-something.

    The writer says, 'SanDisk is the first company to market its player as an ideological rather than technological alternative to the iPod.

    Thanks SanDisk! I was just thinking this morning that, gosh, there simply is not enough mental illness^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H ideology in this world.

  7. Re:Facts by moorcito · · Score: 5, Funny

    Second most popular? Hell, I didn't even know sandisk made an mp3 player.

  8. Re:Might as well cut out the middle man by McNally · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Oh goody, a corporate-manufactured "cultural backslash" to a corporate-manufactured "cultural movement".
    I vaguely remember the days when culture had something to do with people, not just competing marketing departments...
    Or maybe you just think you do..
  9. Re:Might as well cut out the middle man by GlassHeart · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I vaguely remember the days when culture had something to do with people, not just competing marketing departments...

    Would this be the days when a diamond was forever, or the days when an apple a day kept the doctor away? Corporate manipulation of popular culture, despite your low user ID, probably predates you.