Potential burst of the DAP boom (Random college student's point of view) - Page 2

I think that DAP's aren't declining, as they've become a commodity now rather than something really special. I think the DAP industry innovation is in decline, however. I can't really remember the last time a DAP has featured a really well-designed and executed, novel feature. Video iPod screen remains too small, MP3 phones are still way inferior in terms of features and SQ, PMP's still have no method of video distribution, Zune wifi is crippled, the Trekstor Vibez has a good feature set but a poor design... Hell, I swear Cowon has had the same exact feature set for all of its players within the last two years. The last minor exciting thing to happen for me is that the iPod added gapless playback. So if anything is in decline, it's the industry, not really DAP's as an item. People who don't care about said innovations will continue to buy up DAP's like crazy. Personally, I've sold all my DAPs except for my MuVo and just use that and my iMP-400 until something really grabs my attention.

I think it will come down to needs. I really needed (or rather desperately wanted) a non-HD DAP that I could use to tuck under my pillow. In case I did sleep hard enough that I would turn and toss a bit, I didn't want my earphones pulling my DAP up out from under the pillow and perhaps onto the floor. At least with a flash player, if it did hit the floor the player should be robust enough to take it. That said, when the new Shuffle came out, I was very tempted to buy, but realized that in the winter, I don't get to run as much and thus, it would be best to wait. Yet, I own an iPhoto...so I do have a DAP source...but not one that quite fit what I wanted.

For others, they may want the utility of a tiny flash player, something bulkier but with mega storage and so the idea of purchasing a second unit is not out of the question. What it comes down to is feature-set/form-factor/storage capacity. If each of those are met by a certain unit for a certain individual, save for those few folks who are into upgrading on a whim, and/or those folks who had units that died on them...most just won't want to venture out and purchase another one.

Nano technology, you'll take a pill or wear a patch, or whatever, that will have your playlist ready to Roll, or Rock, or Chill

personally, i think that apple will strive for smaller, stylish flash players marketed to the general public, which will get them back their "cool" appeal. the only real limitation the future has for size is, well, fitting the headphone jack in there!

they'll release an "ipod pro" line in place of the larger players. they'll probably be above average size without sacrificing style, be made of a better material than the oh-so-easily scratched ipods of today, and have better SQ and more space.

Here's my 2 cents.

Back in 2001-2004 not to many people had DAPs... so of course they where "Must have" items and all the rage. Then from 2004 and on they got cheaper... so now many people have them. The market is almost saturated. No one is going to rave about a product that they (and most people they know) have. Same thing happened with cassette player and cd players. When DAPs came out, that was the real decline of cd players. Same thing applies in this situation. When new technology comes out, that's when we'll see the true decline of DAPs.

Now the gaming industry really isn't competition to the DAP industry. Sure some people are trying to decide between a new DAP or a new console because they may be tight on cash. But then again some one is trying to decide if they should skip paying thier car insurance this month or buy a new DAP. If you use your logic you could say that even food is a competitor to the DAP industry.

Anyway... people want to listen to music on the go. Until some new technology (that's superior to DAPs) comes out we won't be seeing a true decline. Just people replacing lost, broken or stolen DAPs and a couple of consumers late the the DAP party

Let me add a few facts that I find interesting concerning buying habits in Japan:

(1) In Japan, the largest seller of on-line music is the telephone company that download to a cell phone; and

(2) Japanese consumers do not trust the internet with credit card information and many would rather be billed monthly by their cell phone provider.

As I have said before, Apple is a pimple on the elephant's a**. MicroSoft is the elephant.

first off i think ipod is still popular and people continues to buy it. i think the dap is just picking up, not declining, so now it is becoming more popular. i make the assumption base on what i see around me, not research some article in the internet.

this is a very true assessment. i see more people with the nano and small players, than the HD size. there's something mroe than simply being small for conveniance, something aestheitical about it.

secondly the average people would not have 5000 mp3 songs and such so 60gb is less necesary.

about zune: ipod isn't an mp3 player, its a fashion. zune is a nerd player, its not fashion, there is no way it can compete with ipod. secondly it doesnt look great and there isnt anything compelling about it. it can do drm wireless transfer across players, my archos can browse the web wireless and support more formats.

to compete with ipod: it have to have a cultural impact to be in demand like an ipod. they need to either target a specific audience, by making something hip about it, pay off mtv to make some promotion or something, or create some really desirable features that normal people will use every day to waste their time, like the cellphone. make a wireless myspace dating thing between players, and a big website where people can sync that info to their online profile. but it cant succeed if it can only do something other players have done released 2 years before.

I think that there are other groups being reached as the main market for DAPs gets saturated. The OP mentioned that he is a college student and everyone has an Ipod. The people most likely to embrace the technology have probably all previously been broght on board, but I think a lot of people who would not be amung the typical users or first to jump on the MP3 bandwagon are now beginning to take notice. I see younger kids and non gadget oriented adults who are looking at various MP3 players for the first time. I have been asked by several friends about MP3 player options for their kids whod are in the 10 year old age range as well as others looking for parents and themselves.

New game consoles come out every five years. And normally offer much more or atleast a different experiance than the previous console. DAPs come out with a new model once a year with minor upgrades. So if one already owns a DAP.... why would they care to upgrade for minor improvements over getting a totally new console? But that doesn't mean that the person isn't going to later on upgrade thier DAP. But you're thinking from a college kids view. Remember that not everyone owns game consoles.... I can bet my life on it that more people listen to music than play games.

Here's my own unscientific leading indicator: college professors are starting to talk to each other about how to use iPods in classes (podcasting and the like). That means the iPod will be dead in 6 months.

just kidding, sort of.

to this, storage has something to do with the sell too. i think it's funny that, the 1st gen ipod has 5, 8GB or harddisk. 2nd has about 10/15, 3rd had about 20/30 and the 4th has 60 and the 5th only has 80? it used to double the size for every generation but not latest one. why is that? sure most guys have 6 to 8 GB of music files and a 60, or 80 GB ipod is quite more than enough but, a bigger storage would never hurt. you can always "eduction" the popuation lossless file sound better. and if you can put a 100 lossless album in one dac, i'm sure most will choose lossless instead of 64 mp3s or 128 aac. of course they'll still be using their ibud with the lossless music.....


me, i really don't need a smaller one in size. i want a bigger one, 200GB will be ideal. the photo idea was good. if enough space, the video idea isn't bad.

as much as i'd love to see lossless really take off as the file format of choice i don't see it happening for a few reasons.

I really just don't see apple or anyone else for that matter putting the money into selling an upgraded ipod that the average person can afford, keeping in mind they would have to package it with a better quality headphone then the stock ibuds for the average joe to be able to hear difference and justify the extra cost and time to download lossless files, on top of trying to convert their old library over to lossless. the average joe wants something quick and easy.

on top of that, what happens to itunes, do you charge a premium for the lossless files? and if you do, you can't charge much, but even being a small cost, they'd have to pay for more bandwidth, and if you charge to much, then people might make the choice to go to their local record store and pick up a physical cd and convert it themselves, so in the end, apple would probably end up cutting the cost of an mp3, thus cutting into their profits

apple has a good thing going for them, i really don't see them risking it by going to lossless on a large scale, if lossless is gonna take over anytime soon, its gonna have to be from someone else, and they'll have one hell of a challenge on their hands to teach the general public to appreciate sound quality on top of convience. and with all that, you have to take down the ipod which is so entrenched in the large scale marketplace with plane ipod connections, car connections, etc.