Is Any Company Going to Beat Apple’s iPod?
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Apple has been releasing the iPod for several years, and now has its new line out with an upgrade to their iPod Classic, a complete redesign of the iPod Nano, and a partial redesign of the iPod Touch. Apple is dominating the portable music industry with their impressive lineup showing no mercy to competing companies like Microsoft, Sony, and all the other big name companies. That just leaves one question… is anyone ever going to catch up to Apple?
Apple first started providing their form of the Mp3 Player in October 2001, not yet overwhelming the music community but starting to make a print. Following up in the years after the initial release the iPod Nano, and the iPod Shuffle came out. These brand new products astonished everyone with the size and the amount of music that could be held. They then came out with a new lineup of these iPods annually eventually adding the iPod Touch and The IPhone to their list of accomplishments.
A few days ago they once again released a new line of iPods (as I mentioned earlier). What i have noticed is that nothing significant has changed this time around. Sure the App Store has been added, there’s been a slight re-design, and the iPod Nano is rounded. But there is really no significant change to the iPod. Is this the chance that those other large companies like Microsoft to jump in?
Microsoft has put an initial effort into fighting Apple’s iPod by releasing their Zune a couple of years ago, along with a handful of other companies. Yes you guessed it, they didn’t put up much of a fight, and they still aren’t. But now that Apple has slowed their progress down this leaves those gigantic companies a chance to at least put up a fight to Apple. Now whats surprising to me is that that hasn’t happened. Microsoft and other companies haven’t released anything that can even come close to being similar or better than the iPod. This year i believe is the year that these alternative companies. If they don’t release anything that will significantly injure Apple i believe that they will leave Apple to run away with the portable music industry.
I would like to hear what you guys think on this matter. Do you think anyone will ever beat the iPod? Will Microsoft ever catch up to Apple and their iPod? If you have something to say related to this topic feel free to email me by clicking here or leave a comment below.
Thanks.
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3 Comments
Kittyburgers
September 16th, 2008
at 9:43pm
There is absolutely no reason to believe that Apple will dominate the portable music player market indefinitely. I’m sure innovation will happen at some point, fads will come and go. Sony didn’t dominate the Walkman market forever either.
It probably won’t be Microsoft, but I’m sure there are enough innovative companies out there that will be able to produce a music/video play that will far exceed the iPod in terms of features and build/quality.
Gordon
September 22nd, 2008
at 5:38am
I believe that the better unit is already out there - people just don’t care to look for it. This is another example of herd mentality. The iPod is the most popular, and has the most accessories, so most people don’t even look at the alternatives.
My Opinion of the “better unit”? I have a Cowon D2. 50 hours battery life listening to music, 10 hours if watching video. Great sound that can be adjusted however you like, small form factor. Fairly easy user interface. Uses Rhapsody for music downloads (I don’t bother- I just burn and copy CDs that I already have), and comes in 4, 8 or 16GB base memory with an SD card slot allowing you to increase the storage further. The Cons? Finding accessories.
gypkap
January 18th, 2009
at 7:59am
I’ve had an iPod for several years. The most important advantage of an iPod is the number of compatible accessories out there for it. The next most important advantage is that you can avoid iTunes songs (which are DRMed) and download CDs directly to iTunes. The biggest disadvantages to iPods are the DRM “feature” and the lack of a built in radio tuner.
I suspect that the only companies that can have an impact on Apple are Toshiba and Sandisk, because Microsoft hasn’t stepped up to the plate and tried for a home run,
Gordon, I’ve heard good things about the Cowron, but have never seen one in a store.