Your complaint about Apple's "fail[ure] ... on the connectivity front" amounts to the fact that iPods don't facilitate pirating tracks, and that is by design. That is why it is Apple, and not the maker of your cheap MP3 player, that was able to get the record labels on board and sell tracks legally online.
I don’t care about the success of Apple’s business model.
As a user, Ipod is less convenient than my cheap mp3 player.
I like my cheap mp3 player. it has line in 16/48 stereo wav.
That’s dat level. Good s/n ratio too, better than the ipod at the time. I just plugged my mp3 player into the soundboard using a standard stereo 1/8 to 2 rcas with 1/4 adapters. Great sound. and this was about $30 or so. also had a sd card slot as well as an external hard drive.
http://www.amdex.com/product-1011470264-5536-140.html - it’s gone up in price in the last 2 yesrs. $51.50 now. I bought a few of em actually. Back in August 09 I bought 3 of them for $77.55. It’s pretty rare when a piece of generic electronic equipment doubles in price over the course of 2 years.