"Ipods do have the reputation for being flimsy and to break easy. They aren't good for running, the mini-Ipods fare better but have other issues." Whoa, I've had an old 20 gig ipod from 3 years ago that I still use all the time when I DJ, and a nano from over a year ago that is still kicking I use when I go to the gym. I've never had a problem, not once. I do remeber the sony "walkman" though, to bad they missed the boat... oh that's right, Sony just stopped inovating. The sony execs and legal staff has basically crippled their creativity. Examples: proprietary formats like blu-ray, delayed and ruined a widespread ps3 launch and surveys show consumers don't even care about the format. And the psp could have been the ipod that played video games, movies, even with a web browser, but nope. Basically when you're as big as sony, and you own movie studios, music companies, your subdivisions fight their way into your designs and you lose focus wasting time trying to protect copyrights instead of giving consumers what they want. Sony's trying to play catch up with two broken legs.
Look I don't want to start an argument with you apple fans because frankly no amount of reasoning seems to affect you but Apple has done it's share of proprietary formats too. AAC, appletalk, quicktime to name a few.
Agree Smartphones are getting very popular, I have been using a smartphone for the last 3 years. People still dont know what a smartphone is or what it does.
Agreed that apple does have it's own prop going on, but apple does apple then lock the hardware to restrict other formats? Hell no, becuase they know a product that plays more universal formats will SELL more. You can play windows media and real player on mac, as well as any mp3, AAIC, file on an ipod. There's the itunes dance that limits song sharing to make the music companies happy, but it's SO incredibly simple to get around those restrictions that the hardware keeps selling. Since itunes actually makes very little money and basically supports the ipod growth, right now Steve Jobs is just smiling, watching the Beatles deal, and probably singing to himself "Everybody's got something to hide ,except for me and my monkey."
I agree with you that Apple is far from the worst offender in this category, Sony and Microsoft are probably worse. Microsoft doesn't necessarily lock things up in a proprietary format they just take an existing format, change it a little bit, and then make all of their products default to it which causes all the casual computer users to unknowingly support it. An example would be windows media player ripping CD's to .wma by default instead of .mp3. As far as Apple locking their hardware that is true recently, they seem to have learned that they will sell more with cross platform support. I would argue that this was not the case in the pre-OS X era. I guess the main point I was trying to make is that Apple is not the altruistic company that some of its more hardcore believers make it out to be.
How did the sales/marketing team for Sony end up on a trading forum? You guys really cover all the bases. Congrats!
LOL. Hydro is right in regards to IPODs though. Apple computers are the best out there probably because they have a market share of like 3% - so there is an incentive to make great great products to increase market share. But Apple controls like 70%+ of the mp3 market so there quality is like shit - the incentive to increase market share just isn't there. Same reason why Windows OS is crap - 90% market share.
I have had my original iPod for four years - it has been dropped multiple times, gotten wet, and been banged around...I have never had one problem. And, for the other posts - you can play any mp3 files on the iPod unless they have some kind of protection. You do not have to buy through iTunes. I have over 1,800 songs and six of those were bought from iTunes.
Plain and simple, Apple sucks. If it were not for all those purchases made by dumb elementary school bureaucrats in the 80s and 90s, this company would be in a garbage bin. Overpriced, eye candy junk that appeals to snubs who think they are original, trendy and cool by buying this sorry excuse for a computer. I really do not understand why people would pay a premium to have this garbage. I got a 17" IBM compatible laptop 6 months ago for $700 and no tax to boot. Same size machine from Apple is $2800, yes $2800. I guess being cool, different and hi brow is expensive. As for Ipod, fragile junk that offers nothing above the rest. People buy them because it is a fashion statement and cool, not because it is th best. Btw. I tunes only offers songs in 128 size, which is lame. Apple is trying to combine its mp3 with a phone because they know that this is the future. In 5 years everybody will have a phone with an mp3 player with a 100 gig card. Why carry mp3 player and a phone if you could combine both in one package. Apple is history!!!!!!!!!!!