Comments on: Samsung's preemptive iPod-killers

Samsung's latest MP3 players deliver the features consumers want in a post-iPhone marketplace.

[dabest4me]

What about the new Zen from Creative?

This Samsung looks sweet, but has anybody seen the new Zen from Creative? Amazon has it listed for pre-order for $199. Its widescreen, has 8 gig of flash memory, and is "credit card" sized. No touch screen (I think) but that's ok if the controls handle well.

[retrojet]

whoop de do

This bluetooth integration seems pretty cool, in theory, but I have yet to use a
bluetooth device that sounds as good as a wired connection. The sound quality
stinks. In my opinion, bluetooth is a crappy voice technology. And integrating
an mp3 player with a phone seems to be pretty cool, being able to use the
player as a proxy for the phone itself (if I understand this correctly). But in
practice having two devices is still an inconvenience. I guess we'll see how good
it is, but I'm not excited.

[kyler]

Why didn't apple

do the whole phone over bluetooth thing? It would've eliminated contracts, the
AT&T middleman, and a lot more freedom - but I suppose it'd obscure the
entire meaning of the iphone/all-in-one machine. Hopefully the new
iPod/iPhone nano will be like that.

[U. Tripps]

Apple should be paying attention

I'm leery of the Bluetooth pass-through. But everything else sounds like the features that iPod should be trying to incorporate. I'd like to know how scratch resistant these designs are, though.

[DarkHawke]

How you gonna compete without a hard drive?

This is one of many nifty new players out or soon to be out, but not a one of them has what any serious DAP needs, especially in competition with whatever Apple's likely gonna roll out on the 5th: a frakkin' hard drive! What the frock is up with that? Is the margin just SO much better with flash memory players, or are companies like Creative, Samsung and SanDisk just scared? Hell, even if Apple joins the no-hard-drive camp, you KNOW that the next iPod will have at least twice the flash memory of these new Samsung units! Kudos to Samsung for joining the innovative interface party, but now they need to get some realistic storage capacities to match their slick, ready-for-video widescreen players!

[enomic]

New Competition?

Now I have to say this is the first mp3 player that has caught my eye that doesn't belong to Apple. For a brief moment, I was actually thinking of buying it till I read the storage size. Although it looks good it falls short in the storage department which can hurt them in the long run especially if Apple confirms our suspensions of a new iPhone with out the phone iPod at the Septembers conference. I hope though that Jobs takes notice cause iPods getting some competition. And competition is always good (for the consumer that is)

[make_or_break]

iPod killer...yeah, right

There's NO SUCH PROOF than an iPod killer ever existed, or even is on the verge of coming into being. Why do tech sites insist on rolling out that tired old cliché of a catchphrase? Until someone comes up with a COMPLETE answer that's actually better than the iPod-iTunes-iTMS triumvirate, and THEN spends way, WAY too much on trendy, flashy viral advertising to get the word out, the very concept of "iPod Killer" will continue to be a pipe dream lie.

That said, the Samsung players [i]are[/i] kinda cool, even though the lack of AAC playback is a deal-breaker for me (the new Zen is considerably more enticing because it CAN handle non-DRM AAC files). What's the managing software like? Just WMP? Or something else half-baked? And what's up with continuing to use stupid model name identifiers like "YP-yada yada"...that's the sort of geeky nerd-talk crap that gets no one in the general audience the least bit interested. Try mounting a sexy marketing campaign with those monikers.

Those are the reasons why Apple ain't sweatin' it, even if they ARE buying up all of your memory chips, Samsung. Conceptualize and execute in totality, then maybe you'll have something for Apple to cringe in fear at.

[TCrimson05]

Samsung Does It Yet Again.

Bout Time....I was actually considering the Itouch for a minute....But nevermind... They're both good players...my gurl wants the Itouch..i can do without the safari web brower....I'd actually make good use of the bluetooth... besides the web is the only thing it doesn't have....and the Touch doesn't have bluetooth if I'm not mistaken....hopefully it won't cost as much as the Touch....as much as that thing costs, I might as well get the IPhone......lol well excluding the $4000 phone bill...now...can i please get an exact release date and pricing?

[chltmdwp2]

Haha wow what a funny guy~

The guy who said ipod killer yeah right, dude, are you nuts? ipod killers are everywhere homes. And samsung is one of them man. ur just jealous cause you don't have that kind of thing. The Nano for instance. my friend have nano and they saw my t9 and they said to me like ohhh what is that?? and later they said i beter trade my ipod to t9!!
ANd you dosen't get much functions as you pay the damn money on apple's product. ANd bluetooth is really handy. you can use those Yp players to answer the call. Think differently and think smart. WHy do you think most rich people make a good decision? Because they're well educated.World is changing.

[mtizle]

For those who dont completely worship Apple

I have to admit I do like some things Apple puts out, but I am also realistic. For me it comes down to the cost and ethics of having a large music collection. Players like this have the ability to be compatible with a subscription based service that will allow someone to have a large collection without breaking the law or spending their entire paycheck on music. Yes, hard drives are nice, but Ive had 2 ipods die on me, why? The hard drive. Lack of moving parts increases the life of a player significantly. For me the bluetooth capability is a huge plus. I have a nice pair of Motorola headphones that output pretty high quality sound, no they are not Bose sound cancelling headphones but they do the job and output quality satisfactory to the bitrate of the standard audio file. Give other manufacturers some credit, there are others out there than Jobs' empire.

[olivaresdaniella]

i have the 3 of them... i love them when i dont have music in 1 i put it in the other 1..