What is it about the iPod ??
Posted by: David Stewart on 27 December 2003
Help me out here - someone! I'm struggling very hard to see just what it is about the Apple iPod that -
Unless I'm missing something absolutely crucial here, this thing is an MP3 player, allbeit one with an enormous storage capacity, but anyway, who on earth needs to carry around with them over 300 hours of non-stop music?
Granted it does support the "CD quality" AAC file format, but as this is available only to the tiny percentage of potential users who have Apple Mac computers and not to the vast majority with Windows, this feature hardly seems to fit into the 'Major Life Enhancing Benefit' category.
Add to that it needs firewire or USB 2.0 (which not every PC has!) to feed its all consuming hunger and its tough to see just what all the fuss is about.
To pay nearly £300 pounds for this 'box of tricks', strikes me as faintly ridiculous, given in 6 months or so there'll be something bigger, better and far, far cheaper to do the same job. Anyway you can buy MP3 players now, with 12 hour music storage capacity for less than £50 and surely that's enough to meet most peoples needs.
The cynic in me fears this is just another example of marketing hype over-riding consumer common sense, or is it perhaps the last death rattle of a computer company trying desperately to stay in business? Hopefully somebody out there can answer the riddle
David
[This message was edited by David Stewart on SATURDAY 27 December 2003 at 10:39.]
1. Justifies its awesome price-tag.
2. Causes it to walk off store shelves in such alarming numbers.
3. Threatens to make it the 'must-have' lifestyle accessory of the year.
Unless I'm missing something absolutely crucial here, this thing is an MP3 player, allbeit one with an enormous storage capacity, but anyway, who on earth needs to carry around with them over 300 hours of non-stop music?
Granted it does support the "CD quality" AAC file format, but as this is available only to the tiny percentage of potential users who have Apple Mac computers and not to the vast majority with Windows, this feature hardly seems to fit into the 'Major Life Enhancing Benefit' category.
Add to that it needs firewire or USB 2.0 (which not every PC has!) to feed its all consuming hunger and its tough to see just what all the fuss is about.
To pay nearly £300 pounds for this 'box of tricks', strikes me as faintly ridiculous, given in 6 months or so there'll be something bigger, better and far, far cheaper to do the same job. Anyway you can buy MP3 players now, with 12 hour music storage capacity for less than £50 and surely that's enough to meet most peoples needs.
The cynic in me fears this is just another example of marketing hype over-riding consumer common sense, or is it perhaps the last death rattle of a computer company trying desperately to stay in business? Hopefully somebody out there can answer the riddle
David
[This message was edited by David Stewart on SATURDAY 27 December 2003 at 10:39.]