Originally posted by: Wuzup101
I'd have to say that I recently purchased an iPod after owning several other mp3 players and I love the little thing. Okay so there are some weak points... the battery only lasts 10 hrs... so I have to remember to charge it at night every few nights. And um... okay can't really think of anything else that I need. I admit it would be nice to have an FM radio in my iPod so that I could never listen to the 2 poorly tuned radio stations that it did recieve. But I think i wont complain as i already have 13gb of music on it that I can listen to.
The one thing I think you all are missing is it's an mp3 player, that's all it was ever ment to be. The reason it's so popluar is it 1) looks good 2) is built well 3) is EASY to use. Yes believe me, I'm an engineering student, I can pretty much opperate anything you give me. I enjoy the ease of use of the iPod. I enjoy not having to screw with it all the time. It just makes life easier. I enjoy having iTunes (which is much better then Win MP IMHO) manage my music. I enjoy it updating my iPod with all the new songs I've ripped whenever i connect my iPod to my powerbook... yes I don't have to drag and drop... it just does it...
Right, for you, the iPod is great. Unfortunately for others (like me), we keep our own music organized, we don't like having proprietary software forced on us, we find more features @ less price attractive, and the comparative ease of use from the scroll wheel from the iPod does not justify the price to us.
And in all honesty, if the iPod was only "meant to be an mp3 player" why exactly does it have a crappy FM tuner? Why exactly can it play games? Under your logic wouldn't that totally defeat the purpose of being "just an mp3 player"? I think your wrong about the iPod just being "meant to be an mp3 player" - Apple seems to have grander plans than that.
If the white skin, Apple name brand and the scroll wheel is enough for you, then so be it. All I have to say is at the most *basic* function, Apple does worse than my iRiver (I own both - reiterating) - that is to say, playing music. In case I come under fire about "OMG U NEVER OWNED A NEWER GEN IPOD" a bunch of my friends have newer gen iPods, with the same earbuds I do, and the sound quality is good, just not as good as the iRiver.
So there you have it. In *my* world, it loses as an mp3 player, every which way (except for the scroll wheel).
EDIT: The most important feature to me in an mp3 player is its sound, hands down. I sampled a bunch of different mp3 players at BB, and went with the iRiver.
EDIT2: iPod can't even play .ogg, which is one of the best lossy codecs out there. I have most of my music collection converted to .ogg, which I can play on my iRiver.