Who Designed The iPod? A Genius, That's Who!

[Damion Chaplin]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.denguru.com/2006/06/01/who_designed_the_ipod/' target='_blank'>http://www.denguru.com/2006/06/01/who_designed_the_ipod/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The iPod "Scam" works for three reasons: 1. <b>It's trendy</b>. We live in a shallow world, get over it. Nobody forces you to buy an iPod, and you're probably better off for it if you think it's a crock 'o Irish gold at the end of the rainbow and you don't buy one. You'll sleep easier at night. 2. However, you won't get such <b>cheaply available music</b>. iTunes and iPod are attached at the hilt, and this means less time fussing about looking for your digital music, video or even audio books. It simplifies an already complex life. 3. <b>Nobody cares about DRM, so long as it's unobtrusive</b>. We who follow tech with a fine tooth comb tend to go a little nuts at the first whiff of DRM. To be frank most of Jane and Joe Public could care less, so long as it is within reason, which the iTunes DRM is. Most people, with one cheap Dell computer in the living room, probably look at us a bit strangely when we begin screaming about a five-computer limit for our music. Even at five songs it gives a house with a desktop gaming rig, a Home Theatre PC and three laptops room to manoeuvre."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/who_designed_ipod_genius_nano_fin.jpg" /> <br /><br />Aaron McKenna over at DenGuru thinks the iPod Empire (he capitalized it, not me) is the best thing since sliced bread. Electricity, invented after sliced bread and before the iPod Empire (and without which the iPod can't work), would have been my choice. :) Ironically, every reason he gives above for why the iPod is superior is also every reason why I avoid it. It's trendy? Not a great reason to buy an MP3 player. iTunes? I'd rather rip my own CDs and not be restricted with DRM. And speaking of which, "Nobody cares about DRM as long as it's not obtrusive"? I beg to differ. DRM is the exact reason why I rip CDs, don't use iTunes (or other online service) and don't support companies that use proprietary DRM schemes, locking out other players and other services.<br /><br />Do you agree with Aaron's reasons why the iPod is so fantastic? Got your own reasons? Let's hear 'em! :)

[BugDude10]

I haven't read the article, but I think I have to agree with one point: most likely, iPod purchasers probably don't care about DRM. They probably have only one computer to plug their iPod into and on which they store all of their music, so the DRM restrictions don't interfere with their general use of their player and their music. But, just wait until they upgrade their player or computer a few times, and DRM stops them from accessing and enjoying their music: right now, they're buying $0.99 songs hand over fist, but when they can't play them anymore they will very quickly learn what DRM means (and what the rest of us have be railing against all this time).

[Damion Chaplin]

Well, to be fair, every single person I know that owns an iPod rips their own MP3s from CDs. Not a one of them uses iTunes.

And yeah, just wait till they upgrade to Vista. :wink:

[jeffd]

#3 users dont care or know about the drm...untill they want to get a non-ipod and find out oops.. you cant take your music with you!

[ctmagnus]

I love the ipod due to its simplicity.

I also rip all my own music and don't bother with downloads. But iTunes still helps a lot with that - I rip with a separate program and then drag the ripped files into the corresponding artist/album folder in my music directory, and it gets synced to the iPod via iTunes next time I connect it.

[Chris Gohlke]

I not only avoid DRM, I avoid any player that requires the use of the manufacturers proprietary software on the desktop. My first two hard disk based players required software and I was miserable with being locked in and forced to install it on any machine I wanted to use as well as not being able to use the player with certain computers that for one reason or another I could not load the software on. If a player does not show up as a USB mass storage device and allow music to be loaded that way, I'll pass.

This did lead to some pain recently in shopping for a flash player for my wife. I gathered a bunch of options for her to choose from and she kept asking why there were no iPods. She ended up going with a SanDisk sansa m200 2GB player for $95 on Amazon since this seemed the best bang for the buck for memory size.

[jeffd]

chris, I know your pain. However I wouldnt limit myself to UMS players only as long as the custom software worked. After all I paid for an mp3 player to USE the mp3 player. As long as I can get songs on it, the rest is fluff.

Id rather get a great mp3 player with medicore/workable software then an average player with average to great working pc software.

[Chris Gohlke]

I just don't like the overhead. Especially since we have 3 MP3 players, I really would not want to have to load three pieces of proprietary software. Plus, I can't install the software on my work PC's and I tend to use my players to move data around also, so I really want to be free of software worries, I want to know that I can just plug it into any machine and it will work.

[jeffd]

3? kind of makes me wondered if you didn't limit yourself, you could have gotten everything you want in one player? ;) My ZVM isnt ums, but it does offer UMS storage. So that covers most bases, and generaly I wouldnt care to add music to it away from home/laptop.

[Chris Gohlke]

I have one 40 GB iRiver Jukebox. This has our entire music collections on it. Then my wife and I each have our own flash based players.

[Damion Chaplin]

I not only avoid DRM, I avoid any player that requires the use of the manufacturers proprietary software on the desktop.

Oooo. I forgot about that one. An excellent point. I also won't go with any player that requires proprietary software. If I can't drag and drop to it, it's not worth my money. I already have roughly 70 serperate pieces of software on my PC. I just don't need another piece of crapware. I already have to have a number of pieces of software just to rip CDs and DVDs and convert them to a format playable by my PMP. The last thing I want is to have a seperate piece of software just to copy the data over with.

That's one of the reasons why I don't use my PPC as a player (or file transporter) anymore. ActiveSync is just too much of a pain.

Although, I was under the impression that the iPod did allow drag and drop file transfer...?

[Chris Gohlke]

Although, I was under the impression that the iPod did allow drag and drop file transfer...?

My understanding was yes for files, but those files would not be playable on the iPod. So almost, but not quite.

[Phronetix]

Personally, none of the reasons provided above for not choosing the iPod has ever been important enough to me to consider anything but the iPod.

We have three iPods in the family, of which to are docked and attached to speakers, and the other is my running buddy. We already owned iTunes and had our CD collection ripped into mp4 format on our Mac, and we have used the iTMS since it opened. The DRM has never limited our listening. I suppose there are those that will roll their eyes at me and utter comments about 'fanboy' this and 'koolaid' that. I don't really care. I really like the experience that Apple has provided and have found the money well worth it, and the hardware top notch.

I don't believe the opinions of this forum with respect to digital music players are representative of the population in general. Don't get me wrong about that. I respect all those with well considered thoughts and ideas, and appreciate the discussion.

:-)

[jlp]

I wonder how much computer savvy the average ipod users are?!

Well below average I'd say!!

(note I said a-v-e-r-a-g-e alongside user, not e-v-e-r-y :wink: )

[Phronetix]

I wonder how much computer savvy the average ipod users are?!

Well below average I'd say!!

(note I said a-v-e-r-a-g-e alongside user, not e-v-e-r-y :wink: )

OK, but really, how computer savvy is the average PERSON?

Honestly though, how is that important? You shouldn't need to be computer savvy to listen to your iPod.

[kiwi]

I know at least 2 people who dont have computers but have ipods for their music. They came to my place, I used my PC to upload the music from their CDs to the Ipod and they're happy.

So, no you dont have to be computer savvy to iPod... I see lots of examples of these type of users on the Toronto Subway.. lots of Jane and Joe Public..

..mind you, there's the odd geek onbaord with his PSP or PPC listening to tunes :wink:

B