[durasell]

The iPod still has the best design, I have to admit that. They were smart enough to know that it's part fashion and not all technology. The players offered by Dell, for instance, look like something a NASA engineer would own in 1967.

The first company that comes out with a cheap, cheap player wrapped in a plastic case that looks hip, will eat Apple's lunch.

[Terpfen]

They were smart enough to know that it's part fashion and not all technology.

No, they were smart enough to know that a simple interface combined with a bundled program that allows you to buy content would be successful.

You people who keep saying that the iPod is on its way out completely miss the point of the iPod's success: it makes content available for the consumer. Cheapo Chinese mp3 players will not.

[N3WBI3]

They are already out there:

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/07/22.10.shtml
http://p2pnet.net/story/4203

None of them work with iTunes (which is a huge part of the iPods success) and none of them innovate or push, they wait for apple to make a move and then follow.. This will hurt apple if they stop moving but they have not yet done that.