4 ms·
MP3 players were pretty boring until the iPod came into the scene. I've still yet to see the iPod Killer; the first iPod came on the market in 2001 and 9 years
by catch23 17y ago
MP3 players were pretty boring until the iPod came into the scene. I've still yet to see the iPod Killer; the first iPod came on the market in 2001 and 9 years later, nobody has done anything better yet!
- brettnak 17y agoI haven't actually tried one, but anecdotally, I have been hearing a lot of people say that the zune is at least as good as the iPod, many say it's better.
- jeremymcanally 17y agoI have tried one, and they're really not the worst device I've ever used. But they don't compare at all to an iPod. The experience is just weird (and this may just mostly be because I'm used to the way iPods work so I have skewed expectations). The design is trying to be edgy but it just comes off as weird and awkwardly non-functional. The software just doesn't work as well. The store functionality isn't even close to iTunes. I think Microsoft could top the iPod (and some things on the Zune are really cool UI-wise), but they've got a long way to go. They would basically need to take the shine they have on the device now and rethink the entire experience from a UX perspective to really get anywhere, though.
- sekou 17y agoThat depends on what you mean by "better." Several brands of mp3 players have had superior sound quality, powerful equalizer customization and the ability to play more formats. But Apple had the streamlined iPod+iTunes experience, as well as fantastic marketing.
- arethuza 17y agoNot only that, but the 3-rd party ecosystem around iPods is huge. e.g. the gym I go to has a new set of exercise machines that have iPod connections on them - I can plug in my iPod (which has a lot of ripped DVDs in it) and watch the movie through the large screen on top of the machine rather than using the tiny iPod screen.