[blessingx]

See here. A little different take than a certain company that rhymes with Kreative.

'A rising tide lifts all boats.'

 

[Electric_Mofo]

All MP3 company's should thank Apple because there brought the market to a place that no one else could. Sony and Creative should stop taking shots and realise that they have an opportunity to use the Ipods succsess in their favour. Eventually the popularity of the Ipod will fade away and when it does Consumers will start looking in differant directions. Company's like creative, Sony, Rio, Iriver, toshiba etc are not realising their exposure and should start concentrating on marketing. The "Ipod killer" has come and gone, its the marketing thats the key.

 

[LFC_SL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Electric_Mofo Eventually the popularity of the Ipod will fade away and when it does Consumers will start looking in differant directions

not fast enough for some companies

 

[jasonhanjk]

Creative actually started the first hard disk base MP3 player but I think it's rather expensive and lousy quality in those days. Thanks to apple the price gone down a bit.
Now with Creative behind Apple tail, I like to say thanks to Creative who bring the price down even further.

 

[DigDub]

yea. more competition will mean it is better for us as consumers.

 

[blessingx]

Competition is good.

We should also thank the old Rio company, for fighting the lawsuits filed when the RIAA went after the first early players.

BTW, Creative wasn't the first HD player. It was the first well advertised/distributed HD player (prior to Apple doing the same).

 

[NiceCans]

I seem to recall seeing 'Sonicblue Rio' on the internet many years ago.
Was it not one of the first DAP's?

 

[blessingx]

I think first HD was the Remote Solutions Personal Jukebox PJB-100.

Good info here and here.

 

[DRSpeed85]

I've been observing the DAP market as a business major these past few years and in some areas I agree with that article, but I'd like to add some more specifics. Before the iPod came out, DAPs were mostly flash based players and as a result they were much more smaller as well as being cheaper. I think Apple's success made it easier to justify a larger sized DAP and it's premium price. Remember that the first two generations of the iPods were not so successful and even the third generation became popular close to the end of it's lifespan.

It still amaze me to think that it's been a little more than a year ago that a geeky, "relatively" large and "then" very exensive DAP became such a benchmark in a matter of months. Now in 2005, $300 is the norm price for a DAP and this really opened the door for other DAP makers as well.

Two things that concern me now is that there is no particular reason why the iPod is so successful and therefore this could potentially become a DAP bubble, especially since many people are reluctant to replace their iPods as they use only a fraction of it's capacity (generally speaking). Another is that Apple suddenly lost it's innovative touch with the iPod line and reverted to making things cheaper rather than introducing new ideas. Thus far, Apple stopped building anything new since the first iPod mini. They were late to introduce a photo version, seriously late to introduce a video version, the 2nd gen iPod mini is pratically identical to it's predecessor and the iPod shuffle looks and feels retro. Surprisingly, the iPod misses out in some fundamentals like sound quality. Whats more, they seem to have lost their innovative touch to iRiver and Cowon as well as Sony. I think the market still has potential for an even more premium player as seen with the 60gb iPod and Samsung's diamond studded YP-W3. Apple could use their popularity to move their ipod line further up the scale from the mainstream and make them premium DAPs which they originally were, maybe an audiophile version as well, but it looks like they are going in the opposite direction and put themselves where they are less competitive, not because they make bad players but because some of the competition are simply better.

IMO even simple modifications like better sound quality will really shut the door from the competition.

 

[mushu]

DRSpeed85, very good point. The reason due to its popularity though is the fashion statement mainly. Girls think its cute, boys think its cool. Those crappy ipod white earbuds are almost like a fashion accessory.

Apple's marketting is unbelievable. If 1 year ago, sony released a flash based mp3 player with no screen, they would have been destroyed by the media. But when apple do it, it's the best thing since sliced bread. It's the "poor man's ipod" or someone who wants to fit in and look cool without splashing $300 on a 20gb ipod.

 

[blessingx]

I think the press (especially the press oriented towards tech and financial worlds) always is fascinated with the market leader. I've read two dozen Tiger reviews and not one refrained from positioning/defining it (good or bad) in the shadow of Longhorn a year away. When Longhorn comes will Tiger (or whatever OS X release that's out then) be in every review of it? Doubtful (at best maybe search/Spotlight will be mentioned). It can get really irritating having that reporting limitation, but that seems the way it is.

 

[LFC_SL]

maybe Apple are being clever - more expensive than others e.g Sony HD line + Creative zen touch - but thats on purpose. Going for the "you pay for what you get" mentality in shoppers

 

[jasonhanjk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx Competition is good. We should also thank the old Rio company, for fighting the lawsuits filed when the RIAA went after the first early players. BTW, Creative wasn't the first HD player. It was the first well advertised/distributed HD player (prior to Apple doing the same).

Yes, it is possible. I always thought Creative was the first one because they are well advertised / known...

 

[DRSpeed85]

Im considering to buy a brown iaudio M3, and it amazes me to see so many people who think im paying $300 for "the second best".

 

[South_Korean]

does that mean we'll see a "wave" of new mp3 players?