It's insane to think that, even after so many years of market domination, the Apple iPod is still growing like wildfire: Apple recently reported an 88% earnings growth, fueled by 36% growth in Macs and 24% growth in iPods when compared to the same quarter last year. In fact, the company reported that it was the most profitable March quarter in its history!
I'm probably one of the few people left on the planet that doesn't own an iPod, and it's not because I don't think its a sleek, sophisticated device. I often stroll through a local retailer and stop to admire the beautiful form factor of the nanos, all lined up in varying colours. If there's even been a sexy gadget, that one's it. I think part of me just doesn't want to follow the pack: it's like an iPod cult, and I want no part of it. After all, is the iPod really the best interface out there? Or is it just conditioning that has made people believe this? I'm not sure. I have used an iPod, and it is blazingly simply, and very, very cool. But I've also used a Toshiba Gigabeat, and a SanDisk Sansa player, and so are they.
As for getting music, the last thing I want to do is fork over my credit card and rack up a ton of $2 purchases for songs. I've heard horror stories of people racking up thousands of bucks over the period of a few months on just downloading music! I'll pass on the unnecessary debt, thank you very much. I'll just rip them from my CDs, or find, er, other means of getting tunes. So really, the whole "seamless integration" thing doesn't matter to me. In terms of video, podcasts on iTunes are free, and up here in Canadia-land, I can't get the TV shows anyway.
I'm not saying the iPod doesn't deserve the market-share leading position it has achieved. But for me, I'll continue to admire the gorgeous nano from afar, and stick to my guns in supporting the underdog.
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3 comments:
With iTunes you can import your CD collection you do not necessary need to buy it all over gain. iTunes has a set up to actually convert your CD selection. future Cd purchases can be done at iTunes as they are cheaper then the actually CD.
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for the comments. Yes, I'm aware of the seamless way you can do more than just download tunes using iTunes. However, many other music players come with their own music management software. If they don't, why not just arrange all your tunes in neat, categorized folders in "My Music", and drag-and-drop them to your device from there, or transfer via Windows Media Player). Other devices even come with software that will transcode your audio files to a format it will accept, then transfer it to the device. I agree, the process might not be as seamless and sexy as with iPod/iTunes, but it's still relatively simple.
I really appreciate your feedback!
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