Are iPods bad for the mp3 player market?

[happy-and-lost]

Firstly, this is NOT AN IPOD BASHING THREAD!

OK, I'm looking for a new mp3 player for my 15GB music collection, which will be Linux compatible (unlike my current Sony Walkman). I do not want an iPod for reasons which are entirely irrelevant and not up for discussion, so I go looking on Amazon.co.uk and Play.com. Hmm. OK. Loads of little 1-4GB ones, but only one or two 15GB+ players, and these are all bulky video-oriented devices, like the Archos devices and Zen Vision M. All I want is an mp3 player small enough to fit in my pocket, but large enough to hold all my music. Surely I can't be alone here?

So, I pose the question: Are iPods killing off competition by monopolizing the 15GB+ mp3 player market, thus reducing choice for consumers, or am I really the only person who wants said mp3 player?

[DeadSuperHero]

I think iPods are nice, and apparantly you can get them to work with Banshee and Songbird...
That said, I was an early adopter, so mine broke early, and Best Buy wouldn't honor the warranty I paid them for.
"Oh, we don't cover screens..."

"But I only dropped it on my bed, and it broke!"

Actually, if you want a nice handheld mp player, you've got a lot of options. There's:
-OpenMoko
-iRiver
-One of those generic Mp3 players
-Or you could do what I did, and get a PSP. You can even install Ubuntu on it, I've heard!

[Depressed Man]

I think there's more big mp3 players then the iPod. I think more have came out then before the iPod's existence now. Granted they're harder to hear about (since all you see in the media and commercials is iPod, iPod). I usually find them by searching for them on sites that sell hardware.

I always wanted to buy a big one, but reason won out on me everytime. I may have 50+ GBs of music, but how often do I listen to them? I barely listen to everything on a 2 GB mp3 player lol.

[%hMa@?b<C]

anything but a zune.

[Steve1961]

I don't have a problem with iPods, but personally I went for an iAudio X5 because my music collection is all ogg vorbis and the X5 supports oggs and acts like a mass storage device when you plug it in.

[Depressed Man]

anything but a zune.

Haha.. I actually looked at the Zune. For something from Microsoft, they actually designed something I might be interested in buying sometime. (360 is still debatable).

That and I want an mp3 player that supports a wide variety of formats so I don't have to keep converting my music when I want to move one onto my mp3 player.

[%hMa@?b<C]

Haha.. I actually looked at the Zune. For something from Microsoft, they actually designed something I might be interested in buying sometime. (360 is still debatable).

That and I want an mp3 player that supports a wide variety of formats so I don't have to keep converting my music when I want to move one onto my mp3 player.

zune has absolutely no support on any OS except windows. The software needs to be run in a VM to get it working on linux. Even wine would be acceptable, but it is rediculous.

[dca]

iPod is not just an MP3 player like Sandisk, it's a complete solution. That's why Apple always wins, they create solutions. The way the iPod integrates w/ iTunes which then takes over your Windows/Mac PC as primary media player, which allows you to d/l more music from the store, etc, etc.... It's genius...

I don't think there's a comparison. The best bet is to buy one of the 50 dollar dealies from Best Buy (you know the ones that look like a thumbdrive when you take off the cover) and see if it's recognized as a USB storage device in the particular distribution you're using.

[Depressed Man]

zune has absolutely no support on any OS except windows. The software needs to be run in a VM to get it working on linux. Even wine would be acceptable, but it is rediculous.

And now the Zune went to a zero lol.

Figures Microsoft would do that.

dca, true. Apple tends to create complete packages. It seems to be their entire business. Though for people who don't want to use iTunes or download music from the store it's a pain.

[Seq]

I'm in a similar situation. It is very difficult to try and find a large capacity device that is not an ipod (I want/need ogg vorbis support).

Oddly enough, this was really easy a few years ago when I got my iRiver 20GB player. Now everything seems to have big screens for video (which also makes the device large) and very few support vorbis. :(

[a12ctic]

No, I think the ipod is acctualy good for the market. Most MP3 players that do get released are a lot better and theyre better because they are trying to overthrow apple, but they dont because of poor advertising. So bassicly, a ton of non-apple players get released that are all superior. I love it. Then you can show off your little mp3 player that costed half as much, yet has twice the features and a gorgeous ui.

[Crashmaxx]

Have you looked at Cowon? Not sure how easy they are to find in the UK, but they are very high quality and competitively priced. They support ogg and work fine with drag and drop to load files.

The Cowon M3 sounds like exactly what you want. Its little more then a laptop hard drive and a case. I don't think you can find larger capacity in a smaller package. Flash based memory can only hold so much currently and hard drives can only be so small.

[Zzl1xndd]

I don't think the Ipod is bad for the market as there are a huge number of options out there. That being said I think the big problem is that the other players are not doing enough to hype their products. Apple and Steve Jobs have this way of making you excited about what they are selling and the apple products always look great and that can't be said of anyone else.

[Depressed Man]

Exactly, it's advertising. Though one thing about HDD based mp3 players is that you damage them when you take them jogging or exercising. Another thing that always turned me off them. :(

[ghandi69_]

No, I think the ipod is acctualy good for the market. Most MP3 players that do get released are a lot better and theyre better because they are trying to overthrow apple, but they dont because of poor advertising. So bassicly, a ton of non-apple players get released that are all superior. I love it. Then you can show off your little mp3 player that costed half as much, yet has twice the features and a gorgeous ui.


'Better' is mostly an opinion. I consider myself an audio-phile, and I choose the ipod because it has always scored the highest marks for audio quality when being reviewed by audio magazines and such. As for more features than an Ipod, I don't know what other features I would want besides being able to play music. I also choose the ipod for linux friendliness, all I have to do is turn on amarok, plug in my nano, and its good to go, it really doesn't get any easier than that.

I think apple definitely sells a lot of products based on brand recognition alone, but I think they went the correct route of building that brand recognition with high quality products, original design, and intuitive interfaces, and catchy advertising.

as for the price issue, yes, they are definitely over-priced, although not nearly as much as their computers...

[happy-and-lost]

I don't think the Ipod is bad for the market as there are a huge number of options out there.

You see, the thing is, here in the UK, there aren't a huge number of alternatives. Cowons are very expensive here and very hard to get hold of. If I want a 15GB+ player it's either an iPod or Zen or a "generic" player. I'm a bit of an audiophile, so wouldn't really consider an ugly little silver box made by Asus. High street stores like Dixons only stock 2 or 3 types of HDD player now.