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Originally Posted by DaleReeck
Here's an idea. Take a standard PocketPC or Smartphone with WM5, jam a 30gb or 60gb hard drive in it and develop an iPod-like front end software that can easily control all sorts of media formats. Then pair it with a music store desktop software like iTunes. And because its also a PocketPC, you could still run all your apps and personal data since the front end software is just that, a program that is running on a standard PPC instead of a standalone OS like iPod. Its sort of like what Garmin and others are doing with these PocketPC/GPS hybrid devices.
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There are many problems with this approach. Part of the reason why the iPod + iTunes combination is so successful is because it's easy enough for the average Joe to operate. The iPod is a uniform device, free of third-party interference, quite unlike what we are witnessing today with Pocket PCs. OEMs are free to modify ROMs, add in features, take out features, and in general, make a mess of the connectivity and performance of a device. Give a stranger an iPAQ, and then give him/her an Axim a few days later, and he/she will start to question the button layout, why this particular media player cannot play this file format, and so on and so forth. Ask him/her to synchronise the device with a computer, and then witness the confusion when an Outlook-related 85010014 error code is generated. The aim here is to keep things simple, yet functional. Success isn't only about catering for the technophiles. You have to reach out and touch the needs and wants of
all consumers (young and old, tech literate or illiterate) by offering something that's easy to learn and easy to use.