Samsung seeks slice of Apple iPod pie

Company unveils six new models of portable digital-music players, aimed at helping it triple sales this year.

The story "Samsung seeks slice of Apple iPod pie" published March 17, 2005 at 6:52 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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more info...

Maybe c/nets article will be revised later in the day with photos and more specs, but photos and mor info can be found at:

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/samsungnine.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/5002/samsungnine.html</a>

and

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=532" target="_newWindow">http://marketnews.ca/news_detail.asp?nid=532</a>

I think the Yepp YH-925 may have potential. The design is decent enough, it has a 20GB capacity, and weighs only 4.2 ounces. It has almost the capacity of an iPod photo, but weighs much less than iPod photo's 5.6 ounces. It has a 1.5" color screen, as compared to iPod photo's 2" screen. Battery life of 10 hours (music playback) is under iPod photo's 15 hours, and it's 3 hours of video playback is under iPod photo's 5 hours.

Overall specs seem to be close to iPod photo, but with the screen size and weight of the iPod mini.

But I think the price will be almost identical to iPod photo (30GB model) so I doubt they will make a dent in Apple's market share as they claim and hope to do.

[sanjef]

Still not an iPod though...

There still remains the effect that Apple computers suffer from yet Apple iPods enjoy. If you don't have the hardware marketshare, it's hard to get people to supply content for it.

The iPod is the 800 pound gorilla in portable music players today. And, as it's been pointed out numerous times, if you really "do the math" (as Napster requests) at the end of a 3 year term with a subscription service (at $15/mo) you've paid out $540 and will have zero music to show for it if you stop paying (or the company folds). By contrast, with Apple/iPod, at the end of the same 3 year term (assuming you only buy one CD a month at $10/mo) you'd have 36 albums you could call your own... to keep... on a few computers... on a few iPods... on a few CDs... forever!

While I do believe these subscription services and their "plays for sure" players will take some of the thunder from Apple, there are issues with these services that are not being advertised. For example, that $15 per month doesn't allow you access to ALL the music from ALL the albums. Some albums (13 songs) only let you download 6 songs while the remaining are "purchase only." As more and more users hit these walls and decide that, just like owning a home is better than renting an appartment, owning your music is better than paying forever to keep it, Apple's business plan will make more sense to them.

Sure, Apple could (should?) offer a subscription service along with their current purchase model - and if they do, I sincerely hope they blaze a new trail and allow users to download ALL of the music from ALL of the albums offered.

[heystoopid]

Er what price and ease of replacement of battery pack?

What is the cost, time, effort/expertise and availability to replace the ailing Li battery packs in these devices?

[Thomas, David]

the ultimate ...

* the ultimate cool gift ... an iPod mini. incredible combination
of design and functionality.

* the ultimate wannabe cool gift ... an iPod competitor. Me
thinks the software is more than a strong point for Apple.

Got FM ? So what, already have a radio on every frickin device i
own, but I got my ipod so i could listen to what i want. Still
don't get the concept that an FM tuner is a feature! Can't think
of a single radio station, stadium, bar, etc that does not have a
radio.

Want to rent your music and pay for life? Not! If you do, go
right ahead. 99c a tune is cheaper than going to a brick and
mortar store and buying the tracks, or whole albums is still
cheaper, and i get to keep them FOREVER!

* Almost cool gift, the other iPods. Unless its for a doctor,
architect, photographer, insurance person. OK, well maybe the
iPod photo is about there. Will have to try one out. Can't help
but keep wondering about the software integration and how
easy it would be to create intregate software solutions for real
world problems that blend with audio, and photos. They need
to embed video playback support.