iPod sHmipod
Apple has sold its BILLIONTH song on iTunes.
I deal with the cult of Apple all the time at work...I can't turn around without someone in my department crowing about how great his laptop is and how wonderful OS X is yada yada yada.
I'm not saying that they're wrong about OS X - I personally don't know - I don't want to know (just like I really don't want to know what the Jehovah's Witnesses want when they bang on the door on Sunday morning - any religion that forces its adherents into black monkey suits on a Sunday to sell their religion door-to-freakin'-door already has a most definite lack of appeal for me!) Cult members who try to indoctinate me make me steer clear of what they're selling.
Where was I?
Oh yes, the cult of iPod.
Yes they look cool.
Yes they are the fashion accessory of the 21st century...
They're overpriced, overhyped crap.
Your battery dies - too bad. You're carrying a brick. It's not replaceable by the user.
Video? My iPaq (Hewlett Packard, thank you very much) did that in 2003. They're making a big deal now about video, on a 2.5 inch screen. *Whips it out* My Dell Axim has a 3.7 inch glorious VGA screen. Sometimes size does matter.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that the iPod is a bad device. As a music/video player it's quite a good quality design...but let's compare, shall we:
60 gig video iPod: $499
Dell Axim x51v: $499
Let's see, same price and what do I get if I don't go with Apple and pick the Dell?
- Email.
- Instant messaging.
- Wifi networking.
- Excel, Word, Powerpoint.
- Games games games.
- GPS. (optional upgrade)
- With right free software it plays everything- all music/video formats.
Same damn price. I'm not even going to mention all the techies out there writing free utilities to let it do just about anything...Oh, I guess I just did!
The only drawback to the Axim is storage...which for $100 more buys me 2 gigs, which I can use in any damn thing that uses flash memory: cameras, PCs, other Pocket PC's, you name it.
"But the iPod looks cooler," says the guy in the cubicle next to me...hopefully the stapler I launch over the cubicle wall doesn't get me fired...
UPDATE (2/24/2006 10:52PM):
What...the...hell...
Even the Japanese are falling for the glitz - iPod Takes Japan by Storm
Japanese consumers, much like their U.S. counterparts, are jazzed by iPod's sleek and hip design, easy-to-use functions, and first-class software -- something local rivals have yet to match. "Apple has focused on developing a seamless, end-to-end experience for the consumer when it comes to portable music," says Jon Erensen, a senior research analyst at Gartner Dataquest. "Other companies, including the Japanese consumer-electronics giants, have been focused on one or two pieces of the equation." Sony, for example, has received plaudits for design and sound quality, but criticism for its Connect software.
Slick marketing has helped, too. In January the Nikkei Marketing Journal named Apple's TV advertising campaign for iPod the best of 2005. Another big boost has been the August rollout of a Japanese version of Apple's iTunes Music Store. The company also opened the brick-and-mortar store in Shibuya -- Tokyo's vibrant youth center. A month later it introduced its best-selling, ultra-slim iPod nano to Japan.
Slick marketing has helped, too. In January the Nikkei Marketing Journal named Apple's TV advertising campaign for iPod the best of 2005. Another big boost has been the August rollout of a Japanese version of Apple's iTunes Music Store. The company also opened the brick-and-mortar store in Shibuya -- Tokyo's vibrant youth center. A month later it introduced its best-selling, ultra-slim iPod nano to Japan.
51.3% of the Japanese market.
I just don't know what's going on anymore.
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We have a similar cult of the BlackBerry here... which is great if all you want to do is phone & e-mail. I enjoy the ability to do phone, mail, listen to MP3s or audio books, watch TV shows, and so on with the Treo.
The only major item in the iPod's favour is capacity. My friend has something like 120GB of songs and he can cram half of it into his iPod. I'm limited to 2GB total (usually 1GB alone is audio), but I'll accept the capacity tradeoff for greater utility.
I'm still debating if the new Treo 700 or new batch of Windows Mobile devices are getting closer to the "ultimate convergence device" or whether such a thing will ever exist...
Switching tracks:
You know what would be awesome? If the 60 gig disc in the Video iPod were available as an add-on device that was accessible for other devices through compact flash or SD-Card slots.
**wipes geek-drool from his chin**
The Treo 650 is a terrific device but it does have some significant drawbacks -- no 802.11b/g wifi, just short-range Bluetooth, no Bluetooth A2DP [wireless music] profile, etc. Silly, to release a phone that supports BT phone headsets, but not playing music over that same BT headset.
The 700w/p suffers from the same BT limitation, and the same lack of 802.11b/g wifi, so I'm likely not going to pony up for those models. I can live another year with this baby, it's not like it's a pice of crap. =)