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.

For more on what Don is up to, follow him on Twitter!

[Renegade Knight]

After slamming their heads on the wall trying to force iPods to work like they want, most of my family is ready for something new. Once the media is on the pod, they work great. Forcing it to get there in useful format...that's not so easy at times.

[edgedesign]

I cannot comprehend why anyone would need to be 'slamming their heads on a wall' to get content onto an iPod. It's an extremely easy process and the iPod supports the most common audio and video formats.

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.

[go_harvick_29]

I know your pain, the zune is a simple drag and drop, click on the album art dag it into the zune.

[Galaxy5]

You can transcode using iTunes...what formats are you trying to get there?

[edgedesign]

I cannot comprehend why anyone would need to be 'slamming their heads on a wall' to get content onto an iPod. It's an extremely easy process and the iPod supports the most common audio and video formats.

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.

[go_harvick_29]

The biggest problem is the accessory market. Everybody and their brother makes an IPod accessory, I have a Zune, because my gym broadcast TV channels on FM channels and the Zune has a FM tuner. I have had an IPod in the past it never got me that excited, however I can talk for hours about how my Zune works, but what kills everything other MP3 player is no accessories or very limited accessories. I took me 2 months to find a good arm band for my Zune, but every store in America sell 100 different types of arm bands for each version of the IPod, talking to the people at Best Buy they have people come in to buy a Zune but walk out with an IPod because they can?t get a car charger and armband when they are checking out, so they go with the IPod because of the accessories. I have had both products I think the Zune if by far superior but finding anything to work with it is a challenge, IMO that is what?s holding the Zune back from breaking out.

[Kev Orng]

You're putting the carriage before the horse.
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.

[davinci21]

You're joking right? It is so simple putting content on an iPod that my computer illiterate mom can do it. Her printer on the other hand is another story.

[Spirit_Journey_Formation]

I agree - not sure what the problem would be... My 6 year-old knows how to drag and drop a file into iTunes.

[davinci21]

You're joking right? It is so simple putting content on an iPod that my computer illiterate mom can do it. Her printer on the other hand is another story.

[another_techguy]

sooner most of people may not need seperate mp3 player any longer. cell phones can be an easy replacement.

[Spirit_Journey_Formation]

Cell phones replacing mp3 players?? You mean iPhones, right?? which, of course have an iPod built-in. I've had a Motorola KRZR from Verizon for a year now - guess how many songs I've got on it? NONE. It's too complicated and too expensive to do - and the controls are rudimentary and lackluster. Granted, it's not the "latest and greatest" cell phone offered today (again that would be the iPhone), but it's MILES & MILES away from even coming close to replacing my any of my iPod(s)... especially my iPod Touch - which, IMO is the best piece of hand-held electronics to come out in the last 10 years not named iPhone.

[stefanvolos]

Wow, Don... I didn't realize that Microsoft has sold over 2 million Zunes already! (You DO realize that Apple probably sold as many iPods in just the week before Christmas, don't you?)

[davinci21]

Apple has sold over 100 million iPods. 2 million Zunes is a joke. Who cares if it has a radio tuner? In a matter of a few years FM/AM radio will be all but dead. Microsoft might as well have added an adapter for hooking it to a CD player.

[shinelikeitdoes]

The problem is, there are other devices that offer the same - maybe even better - functionality. I would love to have voice recording or perhaps an FM tuner...but not at the sacrifice of ease of use. It's the entire experience. The iPod and iTunes work together easily and flawlessly.

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."

[dofusMcDork]

So, let me see if I understand this: You want competition for the iPod but your solution is for those who are attempting to compete to quit?

Yeah, that's some logic.

[Mr. Dee]

What new is there left to do anyway? Apple has basically wrapped the entire market up with nearly 130 million or more of its MP3 players out there. Apple sells 5 lifestyle devices in the iPod family, one to suit everybody's needs or price point: Classic, Shuffle, Nano, Touch and the iPhone. In fact the only threat Apple faces is itself and its better to be cannibalized by itself the Company notes. Apple has exhausted all the possible experiences you can think of when it comes to the MP3 player in a seamless, innovative way. The tight integration with iTunes in addition to its ubiquity and cottage industry make it unstoppable as far as I can see. It only gets more serious for the competitors as iPhone continues to chart new territory. In fact the traditional iPod as we know it is just old news. What happens when iPhone grabs half a billion users, while the iPod Touch grabs the rest that don't want a phone and the others in the iPod family continue to attract the market to its proven design. I personally am an all Windows guy and there is no interest in what builds on the Windows ecosystem when it comes to devices like these, I personally am waiting for iPhone to hit Jamaica or go for an iPod Touch or Classic in the mean time. What Microsoft needs to realize it was game over when Apple introduced the iPod in October 2001. Just like Search, the Company realized this too late and I believe its a market Microsoft might possibly have to let go of.

[yetiTrek]

The fact that I'm writing this comment on my iPhone will listening to Nelly Furtado, in my headphones says a lot about Apple's depth of understanding on how to survive in this market.

[Kev Orng]

What I don't understand is why the Zune gets so much press when there's a half dozen other manufacturers out there (besides iPod) who actually have more market share than the Zune.

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.

[voo.doo]

Apple achieved dominance by locking their customers into a closed system using proprietary DRM technology. iPod owners could only (easily) buy songs on iTune, songs from iTunes could only be (easily) be played on iPods

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.

[Kev Orng]

I'm not locked in. Probably 95% of the music on my iPod came from a variety of sources other than iTunes. And I can take the songs I bought on iTunes and burn them to a disk to play in my car, I'm pretty sure you can't do that with DRM's Windows Media. The DRM in iTunes music up till now was forced by the music industry. But it won't last, they can't allow it DRM free in one music store and deny it to another. The MP3 standard, by the way, isn't as good as the AAC standard, which I probably have to clarify, is not an Apple proprietary standard, it's an Open standard.

[James7777777]

The iPod may stay on top, but there will always be room for the number two player to make a profit. There are plenty of people who want simple things like FM radio, drag and drop files, or a replacable battery.

[john55440]

After many, many, many, years, the Mac has achieved a worldwide market share of only about 3%. I guess Apple "should pack it in and try to do something new." (grin)

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.

[mesonto]

I find iTunes on my PC (XP or Vista) garbage, maybe on the MAC they are OK but certainly not on the PC platform. Because of this lousy software I finally replaced my iPod with a Sansa Clip (had two iPods before the Sansa). It is far easier to load songs on and has more/better features and arguably better sound. I like the fact that I can finally drag and drop too. However I am still looking for flac support. If there is one reason I do not like anyone's hardware it is because of their lock on my purchases. The hardware/software combination and crappy lossy mp3s that Apple sell are just not good enough nor do I want to capitulate and hand my ownership of my music to them (or to any one company for that matter). As a matter of technology and ease of use my Sansa clip is much better than my old iPods and at least for me, my switch is permanent.

[YendorZ]

Yes, iPods are King. No other kingdom has the power to usurp Apple's dominance. So what's left is to team up. There needs to be a consortium to establish standards - for everything from the DC power/charger connector, to the USB/driver format (Windows generic "Media Player Device"), to the hardware/control interface connector. Then, third-party manufacturers can make floating pool speakers that are compatible with every MP3 player (except iPod unless they jump on board too), and the new format will thus gain momentum. This would allow everyone from Amazon and CDBaby to every DJ on MySpace to be able to seamless and painlessly sell music through this standard, every bit as easily and seamlessly as iTunes does now.

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.

[Melekai]

Windows generic "Media Player Device" compatible with every MP3 player (except iPod)? Who are you really Bill.

[cyberDJ-2038765336053745013836]

What beats the iPod is a simple jump drive. Any jump drive!

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.

[MCOjerry]

This is a stupid comment, because all I have to do is plug in my iPod and iPhone and it does everything for me. I don't have to do a thing. Don't you have some keystorkes and mouse clicks to drag and drop crap to your "jump" drive?

You all act as if opeating an iPod/iPhone is difficult.

[YendorZ]

Just that you can't plug a pair of headphones into a jump drive :) Try as I may!