iPod rivals ready for prime time at last?

Cnet ^ | 01/06/2006 | John Borland

[Panerai]

A shadow shaped like an apple is looming behind many of the star-studded speeches and product announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Even though Apple Computer is likely saving its biggest news for its own Macworld conference in San Francisco next week, there's little doubt that the Silicon Valley tech pioneer is on the minds of many at CES.

Apple's iPod has dominated the portable audio market so completely over the past few years that giants like Sony and Microsoft have been reduced to also-rans. Now, four years since the first iPod was introduced, the question remains: With new product lineups and services, can the iPod's rivals finally start reeling in the market leader?

Optimistic iPod competitors dot the Vegas convention halls this week. But even the biggest companies concede they've got a long way to go to catch the most successful consumer electronics product of the past decade.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in an interview with CNET News.com. "On the PC, our stuff is still the most popular stuff out there. It's not true in the portable device space, and I think we have to do some stuff to simplify the experience."

If there is hope for Apple's rivals, it may lie in the swiftly changing nature of the digital-media market. As consumers warm to online music, they're beginning to look for more choices, and different kinds of devices, Apple's rivals argue.

Part of the iPod's success, of course, is due to its seamless links to Apple's iTunes music store and software. Apple CEO Steve Jobs' bet that consumers would respond to a simple offer of 99 cent songs that can be easily downloaded to his iPod device has paid off handsomely.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Looks ain't everything, though.

Very true. I'm sure Pamela Anderson will agree with you in another 20 years.

[BADROTOFINGER]

Im not talking about a memory stick. Here, check it out for yourself

Sony PSP Hard Drive by Datel

You know that a larger one in the same size package will be out before too long as well. PSP is the sleeper candidate to dominate this market, in my humble opinion...JFK

[aft_lizard]

Did not know they had made a hard drive for them. Then I digress if they can make bigger capacity models at a fairly cheap cost then you are correct.

[SamAdams76]

The iRiver H10 is one hell of a unit for up to $100 less than an iPod and it has no proprietary file format bunk to deal with.

Wrong. The iRiver plays WMA files which is no less DRM-infested "proprietary file format bunk" than the AAC files of the iPod.

Both the iRiver and iPod play DRM-free MP3s so that cancels the WMA and AAC stuff out.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Both the iRiver and iPod play DRM-free MP3s

MP3 is what I meant but didn't express too clearly. My reference was to the M4P files that iTunes offers.

[SamAdams76]

Yes but whether you download from iTunes, Napster or any of the "legit" download services, you are going to end up with a DRM-infested file. It is not fair to punish Apple for their AAC (MP4) files when you get the same DRM crap in the Microsoft WMA files that the other services offer up.

[Mr. Blonde]

The iPod also works with the 360.

Looks may not be everything, but for the real target demographic of the iPod it is pretty close. Who wants something else when on a college campus you ain't anybody without an iPod?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I download MP3s encoded direct from CD from AllOfMP3.com.
Very inexpensive (2 cents per Mb) and totally legal. Their library is huge.

I have never bothered with WMA or any other format. I either rip my own CDs to MP3 or download them that way.