Will the iPod Ever Die?

Azhar writes "Will we always prefer the iPod's glossy slim design over all the others? Or at one point of time will the iPod revolution actually fade? Lets have a look at what could happen and why."

Comments

Re:Will the iPod ever die...

[Anonymous Coward]

And will people who can't tell it's from its ever die?

Forgive the troll..

[Epistax]

But I don't understand the attraction to begin with. As far as I know, the iPod currently (or used to) has these problems:

1. It cannot be treated as a USB harddrive
2. It can only use MP3's.
3. It is highly overpriced compared to its competitors.
4. The batteries are of extremely low quality (talked to someone at work just this last week, he said everyone in the family got one for last christmas (5 iPods), and 3 were dead by then).
5. It does not work in cold weather (say, jogging in the winter).

In addition I've used iPod's belonging to others. I didn't really like the UI (if I'm spinning my finger around a circle of sorts, when do I stop to make it get where I want?). I suppose I'd get used to it, but the UI seemed terrible to me compared to my iRiver. With my iRiver, I can change the song or volume without taking it out of my pocket.

So, what's the allure of an iPod if I can buy a rival for $100 with a better battery, better temperature immunity, better UI (to perspective), better compatability (ogg, treated as a harddrive)? I want an honest answer actually.

Oh and once again, forgive the "troll".

Why I'm shopping for something other than an iPod

[bgfay]

I sent the following as a letter to Apple and the Better Business Bureau to see if anything can be done. If anything kills the iPod and I don't see that happening, it will be that a lot of them die early deaths.

My wife doesn't want me to buy another iPod now

I didn't know where else to send this so I sent it here. If this isn't the right place, please let me know where I should send it. Thank you.

My iPod Mini (4GB) died three months after I bought it. I brought it in to my local Apple store and they replaced it with another Mini. Seven months after that, another problem (this time with the battery) occurred. I was told to buy an external power adapter to solve the problem and that seemed to work though I had hoped to just charge the thing with my computer. Oh well. Then, literally one day after the warranty ran out, the unit began locking up, skipping, and having all sorts of problems transferring music. Bad sectors on the hard drive. Bummer. I brought it into my Apple store (Carousel Center, Syracuse, NY) and they tried their best to fix it, but it's dead.

Here's my problem: I want an iPod but my wife sees no reason for us to spend another $200 on an Apple product when our $200 last time bought us more trouble and less satisfaction than we ever could have imagined. So, for the moment, I'm stuck without an iPod, with a wife who is looking at every other MP3 player on the market, and profound disappointment with a product that worked for less than 365 days.

So what do I do? And what can you do? I would very much like to know. And so would my wife.

Thank you.

Re:Who's "we"?

[fishbowl]

>In Malaysia, the ipod isn't terribly popular.

The Ipod's market isn't really "Malaysia".

Consider a university campus in California with 30,000 20 year old girls. The poor ones drive brand new Mustangs becuase they can't afford brand new BMW's. They all have Ipods, possibly for no better reason than the white earbuds are a fad.

This is a world where $300 blue jeans (not exaggerating) are de rigeur.

Malaysia is a different world where you get executed by firing squad for possessing a joint.

With all due respect, I don't think Apple gives a floating crap whether kids in Malaysia buy Ipods. Maybe they care if kids will work for $25 a month in factories in Malaysia, I don't know, kinda doubt it.

Re:DRM and iTMS aren't mandatory.

[oakgrove]

While what you say is almost correct. Your example is consistent with reality only up to the point of *accurate, consistent filenames*. That's not even nearly always the case. Many people have directory upon directory of Track01.mp3, Track02.mp3 and on and on. The easiest way to deal with these kinds of problems is to just let people organize their files on their mp3 player (kind of like an iRiver, for example, does) in a directory tree and when they feel like it, they can fix everything by renaming the files and using "Tag and Rename" or whatever and then start using the metadata to organize their music. Only thing is, many people just prefer to use the directories. Not because it is "antiquated" as another poster so condescendingly put it but maybe they just like seeing what is actually there not some extra layer of gunk.

And furthermore, what are you going to do with your mashups that have more than one primary artist but for whatever reason you want it classified with a particular artist so you leave it in that folder though you want the filename and id3 tag to represent both artist's names. So when you play your music by artist, you won't hear your mashups and remixes with the artists you normally associate them with. That's just a clusterfuck. And what about, for example, if you have a Tool directory and you want the "String Tribute to Tool" to be in it so you will hear that when you listen to your other Tool albums. Only problem is, the "String Tribute" isn't Tool themselves. Its another band. And another clusterfuck. All solved simply by using directories not meta data.

I know I'm about to get flamed for this but this reminds me of the GOTO vs. nested loop debate. With some languages just stripping out the GOTO altogether because it promotes "bad programming practises". Why not just give people the option and accept that some are different. Sheesh.

Re:DRM and iTMS aren't mandatory.

[oakgrove]

First of all, the way I like to listen to my music is to put it all on shuffle knowing that eventually it'll get to a song by an artist that just happens to work for me at that particular moment in time then I'll take it off shuffle and let that artist play out.

That was from my original post. I have no interest in "smart playlists". I know what I want to hear and how I want to hear it. What part of that do you not understand?

Re:DRM and iTMS aren't mandatory.

[oakgrove]

I'm not going to respond to the rest of your post specifically because it really boils down to opinion. Ours differ. However...

Once you let go of the "I have to manage my files myself" syndrome and let iTunes do it, you'll be making your computer work for you. Until then, do your directories thing if you think it's good enough, and do the work your computer should be doing.

What part of I sat for at least six hours editing all that crap only to reload my iPod and still have orphaned files, some songs with the artist's name spelled slightly differently, etc. is making my "computer work for me?

And for "Best of the 80's" etc., I frankly don't listen to my music that way. I am well aware of how smart playlists work. I gave them and all of the other whizbang crap on iTunes a chance when I bought my iPod. I couldn't find a single instance where I was like "oh shit, this rocks". Personally I prefer Winamp and directories. For me it's just seems to work the way I work unlike iTunes.

Re:TFA

[ShieldW0lf]

I'm trying to figure out why the DRM is an issue. My iPod has exactly 0 DRM encumbered songs on it. How did I escape the wrath of Apple? Maybe it is because I don't use the iTunes Music Store. It's not a requirement for an iPod, but a choice.

If you don't like the iPod because it's too popular and has white ear-buds, just say so. Don't try to spread mis-information for some pathetic anti-iPod agenda.

The people who sell the iPod have pushed their buck-a-track with bundled DRM agenda using the iPod as a vehicle. Since I don't support their agenda, I don't buy an iPod. Fortunately for me, there are better players out there so I don't have to.

Clearly the DRM is an issue, because it prompted me not to buy from Apple. Since the topic of the article is "Will the iPod Ever Die", the reasons behind my decision would appear pretty on-topic.

I won't buy an iPod because I want iTunes to fail. I want my music for free, I want it without advertising, I want high quality recordings I can reuse as I see fit, and if I like the music, I'll buy tickets to the show. I want my music player to do playback and recording in a format unencumbered by any DRM so I can create and share as I see fit. Apple doesn't give me that, and financially supports those who try to prevent me from having it. Therefore, I won't buy, and my friends have followed my advice and bought superior alternatives.

Re:DRM and iTMS aren't mandatory.

[oakgrove]

When you just put the songs in a directory, you don't have to edit the tags. That's how its easier. You don't even have to worry about it.