Good design, good interface, good back-end software for your PC to manage your collection, good website with new music available for download (at a cost, of course). Most of the potential competitors have only had one or maybe two of these attributes. Some have none.
Ok, so it's an mp3 player. I hear you on the integration of the different parts--the website, the software, the hardware. But we're talking about an mp3 player? I'm just trying to clarify that it doesn't have any special functionality that I'm not aware of. It plays mp3s. That's it??
My wife listens to the music through the software as much as she uses the shuffle I gave her.