Yet again, another device is being touted as an iPod killer…
In a video interview with CNN’s Renay San Miguel, CNET editor Brian Cooley was challenged on the choice of a device so similar to the fifth-generation iPod for an award based in part on innovation. Cooley defended the tech site’s choice of the “little more hefty” Vision: M, saying that “sometimes slimmer and more svelte is not always good for your hand,” and said that CNET’s editors preferred the Vision to the iPod on feel.
So Creative’s Zen Vision:M is the next “iPod killer.” Someone on iLounge said it best… If they only had a dollar for every device that was called an iPod killer on its introduction. There are a couple of realities in the portable music and media player market that people are going to have to come to grips with.
1. Apple’s iPod is the 82% market-share holder because it integrates very well with a companion piece of software called iTunes which has an awesome music store, is easy to use, and offers video downloads of television shows all legally. Sure there are ways to get this content onto other players, but not legally (unless you go through the process of converting your television shows off your own cable box somehow). Either way, it’s not painless. iTunes is the single best piece of software that exists for managing your digital music. Despite a spattering of offerings from other manufacturers, Apple does it best and nothing interfaces with iTunes but an iPod.
2. Apple’s iPod is the 82% market-share holder because, despite coming to the market late with an MP3 player, they did it right. It’s idiot easy to use, holds most people’s entire music collection, and it just plain works. Much like Apple’s pc strategy, their MP3 players do exactly what an MP3 player should. If you want bells and whistles like an FM player and voice recorder, go get another player that does music half as well. But if you want an MP3 player (and now a video player), you want an iPod. Don’t be stupid.
3. Apple’s iPod is the 82% market-share holder because Singapore-based Creative, despite producing MP3 players for the last 6 years, has produced very little that couldn’t be called trash. The Muvo is overpriced trash. The Zen Sleek is an overpriced rehash of prior Zen products. The Zen Photo is the Zen Micro (which my sister in law will tell you is one of the worst pieces of crap ever created) with a color screen to view photos that came out a full year after Apple introduced the iPod photo. In other words, Apple came in, late to the game, and took the market right out from under Creative who was producing shockingly uninteresting garbage for years.
4. Apple’s iPod is the 82% market-share leader because the iPod has the widest range of accessories, add-ons, and cases that exist in the free world. If you want something, you’re bound to be able to find it for the iPod. From modular car-kits, to whatever else you can imagine. Not one player on the market can claim anywhere near that kind of flexibility.
5. Apple’s iPod is made by Apple, a company that isn’t out there to throw as many products as they can at the wall to see what sticks. Creative makes MP3 players, Portable Media Players, Sound Cards, Speakers, Music Keyboards, WiFi Cards, Mice, and God knows what else. Apple makes their own computers and the accompanying software and hardware, and MP3 players, and they all of it extremely well. Creative does a lot and aside from their sound cards, is any of it even worth owning?
The technology media is desperate to find an iPod killer. They name every product that comes out the same thing. Anyone remember Sony’s last iPod killer?
Me neither.
That’s the point. Companies are throwing so much crap out there and updating them so fast that it turns people off. Players from iRiver, Samsung, Toshiba, and Creative are exchanged out of store showcases so fast people don’t even want them. In fact, give yourself a little test. Walk into Best Buy (I hate it but it’s to make a point) and look at the variations other manufacturers are offering.
Wait a month.
Go back into Best Buy and look at what they’re offering.
If they have no confidence in their offerings, why should consumers?
[tags]ipod killer, ipod, yawn, iriver, samsung, toshiba, creative, muvo, zen, vision:m[/tags]