Monday, April 3, 2006

iPod: Think the Same

I have always thought portable media players made by Creative Technology are much better than Apple iPods. Besides the basic function of playing music, many Creative’s players have other capabilities such as audio recording which iPods lack.

In last week’s episode of The Showbiz Show, David Spade has said somethings about the iPod that were just dead on.


Videos: Windows Media & Quicktime

“Do you really need to carry the entire box set of some crappy washed out band with you at all times? Taking the iPod to the gym is great, if you want to exercise continuously for 38 hours straight.

First you got the regular iPod fits 5000 songs, then the Mini, and the Nano. How about iPod Splinter? It fits 9 songs and a jingle. It is so small that you can jam it up in your fingernail.

Oh you can watch TV on your iPod. That is a real treat; I have always wanted to watch something on a screen that is smaller than my hand. It is also nice to know guys can carry their entire porno collection in these things, you know, for the pervert-on-the-go.

Check this out, iPod sock? Oh, not for your feet, they are made for this crappy piece of plastic. I would feel great walking pass by a homeless guy, ‘hey look, my iPod has socks, and you don’t.’

More than 50 million people in this country already have an iPod, by the way, here is Apple’s new slogan – Think the Same.”


Related: December 2005 - Creative Technology won patent lawsuit against Apple regarding portible media player.

7 comments:

  1. More than 90% of people use Windows. Can we generalize and say they think the same?

    It is not that there are know alternatives: Creative is a strong one, so is iRiver, Microsoft, etc. The fact is that Apple made something that is both innovative and caters to what their customers wanted. And clearly, consumers voted with their wallet.

    And the whole comment re video and socks are pure strawmen. Even if you did not purchase an iPod, you could have purchased an Archos and watched pr0n and/or given the money used to buy the portable media player to the homeless.

    I can see why Spades ranted against iPods,;he has an audience to entertain. When competitors attack iPods, well, that's just sad because they should put their money where their mouth is - invent something better than iPod.

    -Ken L.

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  2. Ken,

    The reasons more people are using MS Windows are:

    1. The availablity of aftermarket hardware parts. As far as I know, all Apple hardware are made by Apple alone (except the shortlived partnership with Motorola).

    2. Bootlegged versions of MS Windows OS and softwares are also readily available.

    3. Price difference. Although Apple's product may perform better, but their prices are usually higher than PC equivalent.

    Don't forget in December 2005, Creative has sued Apple and won the case about portible media players patents.

    "One of Apple's main rivals, Creative Technology, has been awarded a patent in the US for the interface used on many digital music players.

    Creative said the patent applied to its players, as well as some competing products such as the Apple's iPod and iPod mini.

    The patent covers how files on a music player are organised.

    Creative was one of the first companies to produce MP3 players but has lost out to Apple which dominates the market"

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  3. David Spade can get under my skin, but sometimes, he's dead on.

    The iPod is a terrific piece of well-designed consumer-oriented technology. I'm glad they made it and it's brought podcasts and all that to the forefront.

    I agree with Spade in that the iPod has become ubiquitous, and it's tiring to see people so enthused about it. I overheard one girl saying to her friend 'Omigod, I want that iPod case soooo bad, I'm gonna treat myself to it this weekend!'

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  4. Tian -

    I think you may have confused Mac with iPod. (You may not but bear with me for a second.)

    1. Aftermarket products - iPod aftermarket is a million if not billion dollar economy - the cases, stands, web sites, software, speakers, did I mention the cases?

    2. Engadget and Gizmodo every so often to do show copies (bad copies) of the iPods. iTunes is freely available for PC and Mac and is updated frequently with new features compared to its PC counterparts like Windows Media Player or Real.

    3. Price difference. iPods' price is extremely competitive with other digital media players, if need cheaper. Granted, this is may be due to Apple's ability to corner the markets via its immense purchase power (Toshiba 1.8" HD and Samsung DRAM for Nano, for example).

    Anyway, this sidetracks from my original point that just because product X dominates the market, therefore users of X think alike.

    Lastly, yes, I am aware of Creative's patent claim. Let's see how that plays out.

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  5. Full Disclosure: I work for an AppleCentre

    Ken is right on with his comment that Spade has an audience to entertain, and that's the reason why he ranted about iPods. It's funny to have a go at a "pop-culture icon".

    It's quite funny to hear someone say it's pointless to watch TV on such a small screen - in the recent past, lots of people were moaning that other MP3 players had the ability to play video, but not the iPod - now the iPod does, and some different people complain! You can't please everyone it seems.

    I'm sure that David Spade owns an iPod however ;)

    Just to clarify Tian, most parts in a Mac are the same as you would find as in your average PC - Hard Drives, Memory, Optical Drives, and now even the processors are the same since Apple uses Intel chips nowadays. They use custom motherboards, so they can fit them in their funky case designs, but that's the only major part that is non-upgradeable.


    iPod socks though... they are a bit silly.

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  6. Personally, I like my iPod mini. Having 1,000 songs on an international flight is quite nice.

    Of course, they would be better if they used flash drives instead of hard drives.

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  7. Oops, I too forgot to mention that I own two iPods (2nd Gen 20GB and 2GB Nano).

    And like Andrew said, iPod is something people get i.e. it would be much less funny if Spade made fun of Creative owners or corp orate customers that use Oracle, etc.

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