Music on the road

[Sev]

Actually it's because iPod is the Smirnoff of the MP3 world. They rely upon overexposure to "dominate" the market.

If you were looking for a hard drive based mp3 player then

iriver
rio
creative

All make players with a longer battery life, better sound quality, more sound options and generally at a lower price. Not to mention they come with better software, and while they have a slightly less idiot-proof design they are substantially more powerful software and hardware.

There are other lesser known options, but those are the big three. Personally I own both a rio karma and a creative jukebox 3. I'd take either of those over an iPod any day of the week, even at twice the price.

[Awox]

Those water proof iRivers look VERY cool.

[allawybiker]

Actually it's because iPod is the Smirnoff of the MP3 world. They rely upon overexposure to "dominate" the market.

If you were looking for a hard drive based mp3 player then

iriver
rio
creative

All make players with a longer battery life, better sound quality, more sound options and generally at a lower price. Not to mention they come with better software, and while they have a slightly less idiot-proof design they are substantially more powerful software and hardware.

There are other lesser known options, but those are the big three. Personally I own both a rio karma and a creative jukebox 3. I'd take either of those over an iPod any day of the week, even at twice the price.

I hate these non-ending arguments, obviously you have your negative opinion of Apple and that's fine. They do have the best user interface design hands down. But here are my final comments on this topic...
Lower price? Here are examples of current pricing (US retail):

iRiver 512MB MP3 Jukebox with Color DSP (T10RED) : $150
iRiver 1GB MP3 Player with FM Tuner (IFP799T) : $165
iRiver H10 5GB MP3 Player Lounge Gray (H10SLATEGREY) : $249
iRiver 20GB Jukebox with Color LCD (H10REMIXBLUE) : $299
Creative® 512MB Zen Nano Plus MP3 Player (ZNPBK512MB) : $110
Creative® 1GB Zen Nano Plus (70PF163300017) : $140
Creative® 5GB Zen Micro MP3 Player (ZMIC5RDBL) : $180
Creative Labs 6GB Zen Micro MP3 Player (ZMIC6BLK) : $199
Creative Labs Zen MicroPhoto 8GB MP3 Player (ZMP8GBGY) : $250
Apple 30GB Color iPod with Video (MA146LLA) : $299

and Rio? No one sells them anymore!

BTW, most of the above iRiver and Creative players are on sale. I guess when your products do not compete, its time to slash prices to make them appear more competitive...
The IPOD might have become a status symbol or something like that, but for me...it's in my jacket pocket housed in a nondescript protective case; only I know what it is and how sweet it is

[Sev]

You're paying a little more for better sound quality, longer battery life, and a stabler less likely to break system when you shell out for anything but an iPod. iPods have a history of poor build quality, horrible battery life (in terms of how long it lasts before needing to be replaced), subpar sound quality (compared to any other player), and if you want to get right down to it, spyware coupled with the software.

Additionally with some of those models you're also paying for a battery that doesn't cost $150 to be replaced by a certified tech.

And user friendly interface means "we took away as many options as possible."

Like I said, iPod relies solely upon brand name recognition in the stores. People will buy what they recognize, this is the same reason there is a new version of the iPod every summer, because they can keep advertising them. Everytime I see the white headphones I flinch.

[CNF2002]

I bought a 128MB MP3 player for 80 bucks from Microtek...it has expandable memory (SD Card slot), very simple interface w/o the fancy screen to suck up power, and runs forever...I don't ride with it, but I enjoy it nevertheless.

What would I do with 30GB of memory? What would I do with 60,000 songs on my MP3 player? How would I FIND any songs in that?

[JustJames]

I also got myself an IPOD 5G Video 30 GB (after IPOD 2GB nano) and listen while riding on FWY. If I don't wear any headphone then ear-plug will be in my ears intead so either way it will block some of the traffic surronding sound.

BTW I use IPOD brand in-ear headphone with similar to Sony and can be use as ear-plug. I've heard the sony wire is so thin and easy to peel off.

[allawybiker]

I also got myself an IPOD 5G Video 30 GB (after IPOD 2GB nano) and listen while riding on FWY. If I don't wear any headphone then ear-plug will be in my ears intead so either way it will block some of the traffic surronding sound.

BTW I use IPOD brand in-ear headphone with similar to Sony and can be use as ear-plug. I've heard the sony wire is so thin and easy to peel off.

Oh, that's the one thing I hate about the Sony earphones. Wire is very soft and has already broken and exposed the wires, but nothing electrical wire cannot take care of...but still at that price they should be much better...

[flynrider]

How would I FIND any songs in that?

That's where the fancy screen comes into play. The large capacity, disk based systems have a user interface that allows you to search for songs using various parameters (artist, title, genre, etc...). The high-capacity models are for those that want to carry their entire music collection around with them.

I don't actually have one of these players yet, but I'm in the market for one (for the plane, not the bike), so I've been trying out various players that my friends have. I've tried the Apple, iRiver and Sony versions. I haven't found any significant differences in performance. What it will come down to is the user interface. Different people have different requirements, so you really have to try them out and see what will work best for you.

[storysunfolding]

I've been using a minidisc player for about 5 years now. Three days continuous on one AA battery, NOAA weather radio, FM tuner, the local tv station broadcast but the only drawback being small capacity of each disk. Of course I have 20 good playlists with 80-100 songs on each one with me at any time and that's enough for me.

Pros: No one wants a minidisc player so theft is next to none; battery life is incredible; features like NOAA make it nice for the jeep, bike and boat; small enough to fit it and all 20 discs in my pocket; great for my use

Cons: Not big enough to hold my 51 gb of music; not the best interface.

[cb360]

Actually it's because iPod is the Smirnoff of the MP3 world. They rely upon overexposure to "dominate" the market.

If you were looking for a hard drive based mp3 player then

iriver
rio
creative

All make players with a longer battery life, better sound quality, more sound options and generally at a lower price. Not to mention they come with better software, and while they have a slightly less idiot-proof design they are substantially more powerful software and hardware.

There are other lesser known options, but those are the big three. Personally I own both a rio karma and a creative jukebox 3. I'd take either of those over an iPod any day of the week, even at twice the price.

My wife had the Zenmicro and an Iriver - of course I ended up doing all the install setup config stuff... I vastly prefer the ipod - it's simply better engineering. The build quality blows the others away - or at least it did in '03. She's had two now. There's so many of these things now I don't care to keep up with them all. I think you can change your own battery now too. I'm sure the other players have come a long way, but the ipod is a very nice product. overpriced? I don't know - they still have models that'll do stuff the others won't and they have a larger capacity. People vote with their wallets. Personally, I could give a rat's "O Ring" - I listen to am radio and that's all i need.