What’s the difference between an iPod and other MP3 players?
I personally don’t think iPods are THAT great..mainly because I’ve waged a war against iTunes and its monopolising.
but is there any difference between iPods and other mp3 players? Apart from capacity, etc. anything major that would mean the iPod is significantly better? Or is it all about branding?
Thanks
Exactly what I thought!
Thanks guys. I hate iTunes not only how it charges you more and its monopolising the industry but because its a shit media player!!!
Branding…
Apple managed to saturate the market with advertisement which people gobbled up.
iPods are average players, iTunes is a piece of crap.
People that "love" their iPods, love it because they haven't trying anything else.
So far, everyone I know that had iPods and other brands, after playing with my Zen players (I have 3 models between me and the kids) all switch to Zen.
If we take Yahoo answers as an example, iPods are the worse players out there… this place is flooded with iPod questions/problems.
Not bad for players that are supposed to be so good and easy to use.
iPods are worse for:
1) interface, so far, every other player I've used/have is easier to use.
2) quality, sound and built, they are average machines, on par with the low cost chinese players.
3) synching, iTunes is garbage. And you are locked in with it, and their audio format that very few other players can use. Compared to almost every other player will play mp3 and wma.
4) owners made to believe that they are "special" for having an Apple product. I find that just about every Apple owner ends up with a stick up their butts as if owning an product makes you better than others.
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April 30th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
its all about branding
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April 30th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
It’s all about branding.
Ipod is made by Apple and then each one of them have their on little special gadgets or special features.
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April 30th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
the price
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April 30th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Probably not even capacity.
The main difference is even when you buy an Ipod tune they want to charge you again for moving it to another MP3 player.
Mostly its branding
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April 30th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
About £80
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April 30th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
all branding. I hate ipod and iTunes
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April 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Ipods are sleeker and the software is >proprietary
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April 30th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
The name just makes it more expensive.
Then you have to go to the effort to download itunes. Most other MP3’s allow you to use your media player which is much better
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April 30th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I love mine, but you could argue their not that great. Simplicity was a big factor in why i brought mine. You just plug it in to you PC and it syncs to your music library, that’s a big time saver.
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April 30th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Branding. They all do the same thing anyway, play music. Sure, an iPod may have some snazzy add-ups, like watching movies there, but personally, I don’t think I’d want to watch a movie on such a small screen.
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April 30th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Definitely about branding. I-pods are quite rubbish and overpriced!
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April 30th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
A mp3 player is an mp3 player. I personally have a Zune. I am very happy with it. I don’t buy music but I can. I have 80 gigs and cannot use it all, but I have a radio on it and iPods do not. It is about branding and perceived value.
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April 30th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I agree with Hama. Also some MP3 players allow you to use WMA files, which sound superior to MP3, iPod don’t allow WMA obviously, so therefore the sound isn’t as great.
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May 1st, 2009 at 12:15 am
Branding…
Apple managed to saturate the market with advertisement which people gobbled up.
iPods are average players, iTunes is a piece of crap.
People that "love" their iPods, love it because they haven't trying anything else.
So far, everyone I know that had iPods and other brands, after playing with my Zen players (I have 3 models between me and the kids) all switch to Zen.
If we take Yahoo answers as an example, iPods are the worse players out there… this place is flooded with iPod questions/problems.
Not bad for players that are supposed to be so good and easy to use.
iPods are worse for:
1) interface, so far, every other player I've used/have is easier to use.
2) quality, sound and built, they are average machines, on par with the low cost chinese players.
3) synching, iTunes is garbage. And you are locked in with it, and their audio format that very few other players can use. Compared to almost every other player will play mp3 and wma.
4) owners made to believe that they are "special" for having an Apple product. I find that just about every Apple owner ends up with a stick up their butts as if owning an product makes you better than others.
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Having several mp3 players, of different brands and models.
May 1st, 2009 at 12:26 am
I had an iPod thought it was a cool toy for about a month…
Now I use the Walkmen from Sony 8gig version best thing about it, it comes with headphones priced at around 100$ and the player it self is 200$ I have never heard such great sound on a mp3 player. I know you could buy extra super headphones for your iPod but that’s paying more and you still have to deal with the retarded sound quality from aac files and ofc they are drm so no copying allowed.
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May 1st, 2009 at 12:59 am
Yes. Apple has had huge market share, mainly because of
looks & quality. I own an ipod. I have tried MP3 Players, and
I have liked ipods because of the ease of use & User Interface.
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Previous Knowledge
May 1st, 2009 at 1:19 am
The brands. They are all the same price with the same space if you look at them so there really isn’t a big difference. iPods just look cooler.
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May 1st, 2009 at 1:49 am
It’s mostly styling. Some find the iPod very easy to use, although there are plenty of other players that match or better it.
The biggest benefit is the integration with iTunes Music Store. If you aren’t using that, then this kills one of the best benefits.
Of course, model matters. If you’re talking about the iPod Touch, it runs thousands of games and applications and does most things that a PDA or Blackberry can do (except make phone calls).
If you’re talking iPod Classic, then… yes, it’s all about styling, branding, and iTMS.
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May 1st, 2009 at 2:21 am
Some of these people are crazy, MP3 sound way better than WMA. Some MP3 players Have a diff way of storing your music, some are no more than a flash drive with headphones. The ipod Is by far the best. it does have a few things that irritate people such as they want you to use i tunes but you don’t have to. They will convert WMA file to Mp3s It will Play your fav Movies & more.
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May 1st, 2009 at 2:49 am
Branding is exactly the word. The iPod family is designed to run with iTunes - in fact you need to use iTunes to transfer files onto it if you want to be able to play them. The more recent iPods have a decent enough interface with album cover views and everything else that iTunes has in order to be extremely user friendly for people who are happy with the way iTunes works.
But then not everyone likes iTunes (I must admit I’m not a massive fan myself) and it is annoying to have to go through iTunes to transfer files to an iPod. You can of course just view your iPod on a computer as if it were just like any other portable storage device, and transfer your files that way through windows (or whatever operating system you use) but then you wouldn’t be able to playblack the files.
There are plenty of other good mp3 players out there of course, and many have a decent enough interface as well allowing you to sort files by album/artist etc. It’s just that the iPod has been marketed very well. Its very name has status and it’s well supported by the fact that it comes from Apple who’ve done really well with their computers over the years.
The popularity and universal nature of the iPod does have one extra advantage though, which is that lots of people have loudspeaker stations on which to mount their ipods and if your mp3 player is an ipod you can stick yours on there as well if the need ever arises. I’ve been at parties where ipods are used for music and its handy to have a few friends with their ipods around so there’s more music available to play.
And of course just because a product has been carried by its excellent marketing rather than the quality of the product, that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad product. Budweiser is an example of top drawer marketing. As a drink though I avoid it like the plague. But not everything’s like that. While it’s not good to go with something just because everyone else is, ignoring something purely for the same reason is no better a policy.
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May 1st, 2009 at 3:10 am
Branding, popularity, and accessories. iPods have an enormous amount of accessories all of the ones that don’t have a dock station will work with regular mp3 players. Other than that you can find ones that can do all the same things maybe not a touch screen, but that’s to easily scratched and ruined anyway. My cousin has an iPod nano and I had to help her set it up since she’s only 11. They can only work with 1 iTunes player at a time, it wouldn’t let me download music off of my computer for her without having to erase what she had on there and none of my songs were purchased from iTunes they were from my CDs!. Regular mp3 players don’t have that problem.
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Experience
May 1st, 2009 at 3:18 am
MP3 players is just a blanket term for all portable music players that use a built in memory to run. iPod’s are MP3 players too.
MP3 players come in a variety of shapes, sizes, capacity, and options. I’m having trouble sleeping right now, so I’m going to break it down a bit.
Memory:
Most iPods use a mini-harddrive as their memory. The touch and phone do not, which is why their memory is so much smaller. Harddrive MP3 players have large capacity but are easier to break, especially if you’re very active while using your MP3 player.
Flash memory is the other option. Smaller storage (8GB is common now), but usually longer battery life and smaller physical size. These can be shaken violently without fear (unless it falls out of your hands!) as there is no moving parts inside.
Many MP3 players come with a slot for SD cards, which are a pretty cheap way to extend your memory by 2GB. Newer MP3 players support high capacity SD cards, which currently go up to 32GB on a single card.
Options:
Honestly, iPods don’t have that many options compared to many slightly cheaper MP3 players. FM radio and FM radio recording are pretty standard. The ability to record music or people talking by plugging in a microphone (or using a male-male 3.5mm cable hooked up to some speakers) is pretty common too.
My MP3 player (Cowon D2) came with a touch screen, FM radio, FM radio recording, a calculator, TV out support, in-line recording, built in microphone, a notepad/drawpad, a text viewer, and flash support. I can play games made in flash on my MP3 player. And my MP3 player is a fairly old model.
Other thoughts:
iPods generally have a bad battery life. Many last under 8 hours running music, especially after you’ve owned one for 6 months. Their batteries are not replaceable without cracking open the case. A battery you can replace yourself is a plus. If you can’t find that, you can do what I did and find something with absurd battery life. 52 hours running music, 10 hours running video.
Now I’m starting to feel tired, so I’ll wrap this up rather abruptly. If you’re thinking about a new MP3 player and want more than an iPod, check out:
http://dapreview.net/news.php
I started there when I was going to buy my first MP3 player. They have a ton of reviews and their forums have some pretty helpful people on there.
There is one thing I’ll give iPods though. So many people use them that there is a whole lot of support and accessories ready for you if you want them. If you have a problem with it you can easily find people that would know about it. With non-iPod MP3 players you have to find a group of people that use it too if you run into problems.
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May 1st, 2009 at 3:54 am
iPods are fantastic.
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