Can anything beat the iPod?
The MP3 player market is one where logic is thrown out the window and as long as the player is manufactured by Apple, it'll perform quite well. Although there have been a number of solid alternatives, none have gained ground. And by the look of things, the Zune is up next on the chopping block.
According to GameStop, it will stop selling the Zune in its stores due to insufficient demand from customers. And although it may not matter to, oh, 99 percent of you, the fact that GameStop is ditching the Zune tells you that Microsoft's media player is on its way out.
"We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated," said a GameStop spokesperson. "It (also) did not fit with our product mix."
GameStop's decision to remove the Zune from its store shelves reflects an increasingly prominent notion among retailers that suggests that only the iPod is a viable product regardless of the fact that Microsoft has sold more than 2 million Zunes and its other competitors have fought valiantly.
So what's the deal? Is it really true that iPods are the only MP3 players that matter? You better believe it.
Sadly, it doesn't look like there's any real chance for any other player besides the iPod to do well in the current environment. Apple commands such a large portion of the market with its current stable of products, there's no reason to suggest any company can break in and change the way things have been done for so long.
And perhaps that's the biggest issue we're facing. Today's MP3 player market is so lopsided, most companies are basically copying the best features from each other in an attempt to take the No. 2 spot, while Apple laughs all the way to the bank.
From the very beginning, Apple understood what no other company did: people want a product that works well, but also offers the end-to-end solution that won't require them to fire up too many programs to get songs onto their devices. And although some of its competitors don't want to admit it, Apple was the first, and to be honest the only real, end-to-end solution for all consumers.
Going forward, there's no debating the fact that Apple will lead the charge, but I'm not so sure it'll stay on top forever. Who knows if something totally new will come along and supplant it as the leader in the portable audio market much like the Walkman did. If you ask me, it could happen sooner than you think.
But until then, we're stuck with a market that's utterly dominated by the iPod and products like the Zune have little chance of survival regardless of their merit as a fine device.
The competition should pack it in and try to do something new. If it doesn't, we'll be stuck with boring updates to the same devices while doing all we can to satiate our burning desire for a revolutionary device. If it's out there now, I'd surely like to see it.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
It will be a long time before another manufacturer unseats the iPod as the dominant portable media player. The iPhone will surely fortify Apple's position for some time.
It will be a long time before another manufacturer unseats the iPod as the dominant portable media player. The iPhone will surely fortify Apple's position for some time.
It's tough to find custom seat covers for a Yugo, too. But it's not the seat cover manufacturers failure in this area that is keeping the Yugo from taking the North American auto market by storm.
Any other device leaves the consumer wondering WHERE they should even go for their content. If you do decide on say Amazon...then you get to download their stupid intermediary software. The process is more confusing. Even Amazon's page and directions are confusing.
As with the iPhone...yeah other phones can make calls, have calendars etc, but ease of use is not there. Any other cellphone I have owned you had to dig through nests of menu's to get to something like the Calendar. It was *there* just a complete pain in the arse to use.
What I can't believe is CNET actually pays you for this blog? Every time I read it, it is basically keen observation of the obvious written in a kid's "What I did this summer" format.
"I think the iPod is the best one. Microsoft's Zune is not selling as well. I think iPods will do well for a long time. The end."
Yeah, that's some logic.
When I was buying, i did a fair analysis. I looked at all the brands my local retailers stocked, about 5. In the end, most of them failed on acceptable Mac compatibility, and so I ended up with an iPod.
If you ask me, the future is in cross-platform. Mac market share is growing, Linux share is growing. 30% of post-secondary students use macs right now.
If Creative and Sansa and Zune and the rest want to tumble the iPod in the future, then they need to start paying more than lip service to Mac and Linux. Loading my music through a third-party Finder hack is not my idea of acceptable integration, and the Mac-user boom that's about to enter the work force will agree with me.
Happily the DRM era is ending and the rest of the world has embraced the mp3 standard. Napster now has more songs in mp3 for 0.99 format than iTunes has , and mp3s can pe played on every MP3 (duh) Player.
The fact the the conversation is about MP3 players, not aac or FairPlay players, shows how powerful this will be in breaking Apples stranglehold.
Zune has only been around for two years. It's way too early to give up.
The Sony Walkman didn't dominate forever, and the Apple iPod won't either.
iPods are way overpriced (generally 200% the cost of comparable players), and I find great fault with the user interface: No dedicated volume control - very LAME! No ability to just dump MP3's to and FROM the device - very LAME. Non-replaceable battery - epic FAIL!
The iPod would be easy to top from an ergonomic and hardware standpoint, but there needs to be an open industry standard. The iPod virtually benefits from such a standard by virtue of controlling so much of the market.
The only way to beat the iPod is to create a set of standards for media gadgets. It does not require anything revolutionary as far as hardware or software is concerned. All it takes is for a group of corporations to get together and think about the end-user for a change.
I just bought a in-dash DVD/CD player for my car. It will control the iPod BUT it will also read music off of a jump drive.
Now, I don't need to deal with the totalitarian nature of iTunes and an associated iPod.
I just run down to a Staples or Microcenter and get a 16 or 32 GB jumper that costs less than a flash-based iPod of equal capacity.
We all know that loading files onto a jump drive is at a level of simplicity that Apple can't begin to match.
People, do your research and you will find that the non-iPod alternatives are actually better at this point.
You all act as if opeating an iPod/iPhone is difficult.
- by YendorZ May 23, 2008 3:28 PM PDT
- Just that you can't plug a pair of headphones into a jump drive :) Try as I may!
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