What's the Most Important Digital Audio Player Feature?

[Jason Dunn]

I was visiting the MagicStor Web site (http://www.gs-magic.com/index_en.asp) to look for some RMA information (they have a very hostile RMA policy), and they had an interesting survey on the front page. When I was there a few days ago, the results were as follows:

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/magicstor-mp3survey.gif

I was curious to see how this would stack up against what readers here wanted. Survey time!

[mcsouth]

Okay, so I picked storage capacity. This is a very tricky survey in some respects, because I would consider all three aspects in any purchase (I'm going through that process now, in fact). However, first issue is size - I'm not even interested in looking at anything under 4-6GB in size. I have a 256MB player, and while I like the compact size (Creative Muvo), it just doesn't have enough capacity - a fact I am reminded of every time I try to add new music to it.

Size, weight and design are all very important considerations, but for me, size is the first determining factor...

[James Fee]

Design: Seems like that is why everyone wants an iPod.

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, the survey is very focused, but the idea is to find out which is the TOP factor even though there are many factors that go into buying a device.

[jmulder]

You forgot the Creative factor:

The player must display music by artist, then album, then track.

[Darius Wey]

Design: in a software and hardware aspect.

Software-wise, if the UI makes it hard to navigate between tracks, the device is as good as a paperweight. If it looks ugly, it's not worth carrying round. What geek doesn't want a great looking product? 8)

Of course, a slick device with a poor list of specifications doesn't do justice to that argument either.

[jlp]

I'm always looking for an SD slot:
- on a device with flash storage it allows for quick and unlimited expandability (only problem is it's becoming rare to find them)
- on an HDD based device it serves as a way to unload your digicam pix

Unfortunately, manufacturers tend to completely overlook these features, making you wonder if they do marketing research???