iPod Mini Hits The 'Sweet Spot'? 481
Tooky writes "The BBC is reporting on a survey carried out by Jupiter Research which found that most consumers were only storing about 1000 songs on their portable MP3 players, claiming that ' The finding seems to be borne out by the demand for Apple's Mini iPod'." According to the piece: "Jupiter said digital music players with capacities of 5,000 songs will provide too much space for most people. It added that consumers rate other features as highly as the ability to store all the songs held on their PC."
Let's collect data... (Score:4, Interesting)
I ordered my iPod mini about two weeks after the iPods were available (about 6 weeks ago-ish), was told 3-5 weeks delivery, and it arrived at the 5 week point. A friend ordered his last week, and they told him 4-6 weeks.
Perhaps we should put together some more data points and extrapolate if this has been the trend since the iPod mini release.
For all the reasons described in the article, the iPod mini exactly fits my preferences--it's sufficiently small, long-loved, well-designed, and spacious. More specifically, for me, the breakthrough was to have a audio player that a capacity beyond ~500 megs that was also suitable for running/jogging--the mini is the first to break that barrier.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:5, Funny)
About the only thing more worthless than simple anecdotal evidence would be attempting to extrapolate trends from data gathered on Slashdot.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, unlike the over-cynical and ever-useless comments that serve even less of a purpose.
If a dozen people over the span of the last 6 weeks all posted that they had to wait 5 weeks for their mini, then that defintely says something about Apple and the demand. And that, sir, would make you an asshat.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've read a lot of horror stories about long waits to get an iPod mini, and so I guess we just got lucky. When my wife wanted to get me one of these for my birthday in mid-March, she just went to the local CompUSA and bought one. It sounds as though they had plenty of them on hand (at the
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:5, Funny)
I see the following scenario..
It was $999 with a $300 instant rebate, $300 mail in rebate from CUSA, a $100 mail in rebate from Apple, a $50 bundle rebate, and when purchased with a 5 year contract on a cell phone along with TurboTax and Norton Antivirus, you got a $50 gift card that can be used in the next 3 days on 2 different items in the store.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Insightful)
> that was also suitable for running/jogging
That's the whole reason I haven't bought a portable mp3 yet. RAM-based players don't have enough storage (or cost *way* too much), but HD-based players were too fragile (or also cost too much.) How much do you run? Is the mini holding up well? If it can take an hour-long run without a head crash or an explosion from the salt getting into it, I just may have to grab one.
Perfect for running (Score:5, Informative)
I've had my mini for three weeks now. Not, a super hard-core runner, but I average 25-30 miles a week, pace no slower than 7:30. I've found it to be absolutely amazing. The longest run I've used it on is about 45min and had absolutely no problems. Battery life is very good, the interface is absolutely perfect. Recommend buying the neoprene armband--very inobtrusive.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Informative)
Actually flash-based players are quite cheap. You can buy a Rio 500 on EBay for about $40. You can quite easily store an hour of music in them (or two with a smart media card). Can you run for more than two hours? If so I'm impressed. Most runners don't run that long, so flash-based players are perfect. They don't skip, have virtually no moving parts, and are small and light.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:5, Informative)
I run about once a week for about 60-90 min per run at about a 7 minute mile pace, and i often run shirtless. I just assumed that'd I have to buy the mareware sport suit thing for an added $30, but the clip that comes with it (from Apple) is superb! It's a really tight clip-grip and has a very narrow profile, causing minimal bounce (a huge contrast to a normal iPod in a mareware sportsuit clipped onto your shorts). I slide my mini about 1" downward on the clip, protecting the top from any sweat, etc--a simple solution, but effective.
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:5, Funny)
I got a laugh when reading that line out of context. ;)
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Interesting)
It isn't fancy but it works, and can jog all day and it will never skip.
The difference between hard drive and flash. (Score:3, Insightful)
As for flash-based things, I used to say "I will never ever own a flash-memory based device" but now I noticed it's cheaper so I use memory cards and I love my new 256MB Cruzer Mini (USB 2.0 key)...but when it comes to a portable music player, for me anyways, the whole reason I replaced my Sony MP3 CD player (w
Re:The difference between hard drive and flash. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Informative)
Umm.. have you heard if the Rio Nitrus? (Score:4, Informative)
"the breakthrough was to have a audio player that a capacity beyond ~500 megs that was also suitable for running/jogging--the mini is the first to break that barrier."
The Rio Nitrus was the first player to use a 1" drive. It:
- has a capacity of 1.2gb
- plays WMA or MP3 files
- has a battery life double the iPod or the iPod mini (15-16 hours vs. the iPod's 8hr max)
- doesn't come with a defective headphone jack
Oh, and you can pick one up immediately at any local electronics store.
Best,
rt
Re:Umm.. have you heard if the Rio Nitrus? (Score:4, Interesting)
Fair enough, but what about the other factors critical witht he iPod? Namely, what's the price, size, and weight of the Nitus? Further, USB is pretty ugly next to firwire when you decide to drop 500 megs of new music onto it 5 minutes before you want to leave for your run. Separately, I owned two rios in my life (Rio 400? and a Rio 500). Both models had shoddy Mac OS support and froze up constantly w/ various mp3s.
Long-standing history of fulfillment problems (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple has consistently failed to meet ship dates and demand, mostly around the time they moved manufacturing from Ireland to Asia; quality also nose-dived with nearly every model having some sort of quirk or another. Sometimes it's due to manufacturing problems, but usually, it's a simple matter of failing to deliver products on time. In most companies, that gets people fired. At
Less hard drive space for less choice (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought it might be an interesting viewpoint to consider since we want Linux to be the adopted desktop for new computing, but don't want to give up the endless myriad of choices in browsers, desktops, cd players, etc. To the average user, the idealistic OSS philosophy is something they don't care about. They'll just wonder why they have to install two different desktops to run all the apps, three sound mixers to hear everything, and so forth. We criticize Windows for seemingly providing less choice. I think in the case of the iPod Mini, the public has clearly spoken with regards to their needs. They just want enough to get them by. Unlike you and I who would definitely find ways to fill up that extra space, most users are not like that.
Re:Less hard drive space for less choice (Score:3, Insightful)
I like good tools. That is why I much prefer a product (Like MacOSX) where someone has lavished attention on deciding what should be there, presenting it cleanly, and making sure that it all works seamlessly.
If they missed something that I need, I can
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Informative)
Being fashion concious
Anyway, I ordered the mini on 3/22, and the confirmation email said it would take about 3 weeks due to
Re:Let's collect data... (Score:3, Informative)
And I find that 1,000 songs on the iPod Mini is more than adequate. I have more than that stored on my computer, but am content to rotate content when necessary.
I broke my iPod Mini about a month ago and the turnaround to get it replaced was really quick. I shipped it out on a Tuesday and received
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:they can send them to me then (Score:5, Interesting)
In your case, I'd make a smart playlist that picks the top 5 GB of most plays and add some sort of most recently played filter depending on listening habits incase you listen to tons of songs once (say on random). You could also throw in a rated 3+ to narrow it down. Don't "delete" them... just take advantage of smart playlists.
Re:they can send them to me then (Score:5, Informative)
One with all your highly rated songs.
One with all your unplayed songs, in random order, limited to fit on your iPod.
One with your least recently played songs, in random order, limited to fit on your ipod.
Then throw some albums you want to listen to on a fourth playlist.
Consider the "my rating" to be the "I want to hear this again" marker. If you're listening to a new song, and it's rad and you don't want it to leave your iPod, mark it, and it'll go to your highly rated songs playlist.
Do the "these playlists only" synch. Now, everytime you synch, you get fresh songs. Just keep those less-listened to songs in iTunes. If someone ever wants to hear them (happens whenever I have a party) it's still on your computer.
I've got a 40 GB iPod, and I still need to do this, just so I have some way of managing the 25 _days_ of music on my iPod.
Re:they can send them to me then (Score:3, Interesting)
- 1 GB of my newest music (so I can listen to the new CD that I just RIPped).
- 1 GB of my highest rated music.
- 1 GB of my most played music.
- 1 GB of randomly selected music (to keep things interesting; if I play it a lot, it lands in the 'most played music' list.)
- All of my purchased music (if I paid for it, I probably want to be able to listen to it)
- All of my 'checked' Audible books. (After I finish a book, I uncheck
Re:Dynamic playlists don't sync songs! (Score:5, Informative)
When I plug my iPod into my Mac, it updates the rating on the relevant song. The highly-rated playlist on the mac then grows to accommodate the song. The Mac then synchronizes that longer playlist to the iPod.
Similarly, if my random unplayed playlist is limited to 2GB, when I plug in my ipod, it marks those songs as played, which takes them out of the unplayed playlist, which means they are replaced with other songs so that the playlist remains 2GB. The modified playlist is then synched with my iPod, which includes the new unplayed songs.
There's a Limit (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, there's a limit to how much I can get through this P2P pipe. The university keeps shutting down my Internet connection for filesharing. Give me time!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More space is useful for other things, though. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:More space is useful for other things, though. (Score:3, Insightful)
Shouldn't be suprising (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shouldn't be suprising (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Shouldn't be suprising (Score:3, Interesting)
re: iPod. I think it's not too hard to see why people want one when you compare them to their competitors.
Re:Shouldn't be suprising (Score:4, Informative)
"Documentation and support Electronic documentation, getting started guide and one-year limited warranty"
Shows to go ya (Score:5, Insightful)
It just shows that what we as wireheads look for in a tech product is not always what the average non-geek consumer wants. For me, the concept of "too much hard drive space" is completely foreign and absurd.
Re:Shows to go ya (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not that average consumers are actually afraid of "too much hard drive space." It's just that, once you can fit several hundred songs on the player, it's enough. Other things like price and size become more important than yet another doubling in size of an already capacitous drive.
It's like the way most guys select girls. If she's "pretty enough" (doesn't matter where on your priority list this one stands, because it's usually the first thing you find out) then you move on to checking out her intelligence specs, then check to see if she has a serviceable sense of humor. One might be willing to upgrade his girlfriend to the deluxe supermodel edition, if the upgrade was totally free. But if the upgrade seriously degrades the performance of the "sense of humor" or "not totally full of herself" features, no right-thinking guy would make the exchange.
I'm thinking the mini is a better value for me. One thousand songs (fifty hours of music?) is about enough for a cross-country drive. If you drive back, you might have to suffer through repeats. That's an absolutely sick amount of music, and I don't feel a compelling need for more.
People don't like every song they have... (Score:5, Insightful)
The average radio station might have access to thousands of songs on their premises, but in a typical broadcast day they're only going to use about 40 to 50 of them.
1000 songs at roughly 3 minutes each is 3,000 minutes. That's 50 hours. We're talking enough music to go two days without having to re-dock to swap songs without having to repeat anything during constant playback. By that point, you'd want to hear your favorite songs again.
Sure, having more space on your iPod is great if you intend on using it as a data transfer and backup device. However, your average jogger doesn't care about that, and they in fact would rather shave off the 2 ounces and 2.64 square inches off the form factor. Smaller is better sometimes.
Re:People don't like every song they have... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sometimes they are used for even different aspects, I have my "Teach your self Spanish," various music types, and finally I am experimenting using it to store my checklists for flying.
Re:People don't like every song they have... (Score:3, Funny)
$find ~/media/music | mplayer -playlist - -shuffle
The average radio station might have access to thousands of songs on their premises, but in a typical broadcast day they're only going to use about 40 to 50 of them.
That's because the average radio station is getting kickbacks for saturating the airwaves with the newest hot track from the latest flash in the can pop star, and if they played a different track of
Re:People don't like every song they have... (Score:4, Insightful)
So it appealed to audiophiles and control freaks.
The idea of the iPod Mini is that it's a massively portable, durable, attractive device. It will play 1000 of your favorite songs, which is still 83 albums. Probably the equivalent of the average Joe's "CDs I listen to pile."
So it appeals to "normal" people who want the LOOK of the iPod, the ease of iTunes and of course iTMS without needing the massive capacity.
Anyway, for S&G I did an ipod playlist of everything I've listened to in the past three months. It's only 1086 songs -- and I listen all day long.
Re:People don't like every song they have... (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree that the iPodmini hits the sweet spot for a lot of people, but your above quote misses the key point:
*which* 50 songs are you going to want during the day? I have 10 gig iPod and at least once a week I go, "darn, I wish _blank_ was loaded up."
The really great thing about the iPod is that you have all your music whenever you want it --- not only when you planned to use it. And some of us have a heck of of lot of music... (30 GB and counting, in my case. well-enconded symphonies chew up a lot of space...)
Some of us prefer to save money (Score:3, Funny)
And those of you that complain about skipping. Thats okay, mine doesnt skip, I cushion it by about three hundred dollars IN CASH.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003
Re:Some of us prefer to save money (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, shuffling songs between disks may take a bit of dexterity, but that's just another benefit! Before you know it, you'll be seamlessly mixing tunes as you go!
Thanks for the tremendous idea. It's amazing how coporate America can create these artificial needs in an attempt to bilk us out of $100's of dollars.
Re:Some of us prefer to save money (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Some of us prefer to save money (Score:3)
For example, I've saved over three thousand dollars these past four years by doing all of my own automotive repairs and maintenance on my family's three vehicles.
I feel much more satisfied soaping up after a long session under my wife's Subaru than I did burning MP3 CDs back when I still had my Rio Volt.
Re:Some of us prefer to save money (Score:5, Funny)
That sounds like the easy way to find out. All you do is let go of it, and hear if it skips.
The hard way would surely involve differential equations or a computer simulation on a beowulf cluster.
Hrm, but. (Score:5, Interesting)
Style is nice, but I think that thinking in terms of higher bandwidth formats, one needs to think about the larger capacity of the other iPods.
Re:Hrm, but. (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe they just want to toss music on the fucking thing and get on with their day.
Incidentally, I recently re-ripped all my "archival" VBR MP3s to 160 kbit AAC, because I liked the sound better. It's not as detailed, but AAC distortion is different from MP3 distortion and I think it's significantly less obnoxious.
Re:Hrm, but. (Score:4, Insightful)
b) while it doesn't improve quality significantly, playing back 320kbps MP3s on your iPod WILL use up the battery almost twice as fast as 160kbps encoded (AAC or MP3) audio, for example. The buffer hasn't gotten any bigger, so the disk has to work twice as hard per hour to keep it full during playback. battery life is way more important to people than the quality difference between 320kbps MP3 and 192kbps MP3.
Re:Hrm, but. (Score:3, Interesting)
Depends very heavily on how the caching is done, how much of the load is actually the hard drive, and a number of other factors.
One could more accurately say that playing back 320 kbps MP3s will not use your battery any more than twice as fast, nor probably any less than ten percent faster.
Until I have empirical data I'm keeping an open mind.
-fred
noisy environment (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, why is it an ugly truth that consumers haven't trained themselves to be annoyed by minor artifacts in 128kps MP3s? That's a good thing; they can enjoy music with less investment of time and money. Almost all the musical ideas come across at even 128kbps. You might miss the last fadings of one section of orchestra for classical music, but you can't hear those over much noise anyway. I can hear a little difference in many songs between 128kbps and 192kbps, but all the essential details of music I have any chance of hearing even over light typing are preserved even in 128. If you don't focus on the errors, your brain does a very good job fixing slight infidelities, as well.
It's no skin off your nose that most people can enjoy music without focusing on slight imperfections.
In addition, you are exageratting about the tolerance of the average consumer to low sound quality. Almost no one would put up with sub-64kbps MP3s. Napster and internet downloads showed us that consumers felt a good balance of size and quality was 128kbps. People just wouldn't download 64kbps because it was too distorted. However, I would love being able to sample albums I wanted to buy by downloading 64kpbs MP3 versions. It would allow me to make an informed decision about whether to download the songs, and the quality reduction would be sufficiently annoying to convince me to purchase the album.
Re:Hrm, but. (Score:3, Insightful)
Nonsense. The average consumer cares very much about sound quality. It's just that for the average consumer, sound quality is a binary value. Either it sounds good or it doesn't. It's boolean.
Some people think sound quality needs to be described using a 64-bit long long, so they can talk with great precision about just exactly how good something sounds. These people are whackos and are best ignored.
An MP3 at 128 kbps does not sound good. It gets a ze
Mini (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Mini; New Market Research Tool! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, but our personal preferences and "better-than-you attitudes" could be the basis for a valuable new market research tool. Whenever the consensus on Slashdot is that a new product is "lame," the only proper conclusion is that it is going to be a big hit. If you're lucky enough for the Slashdot consensus to be that your product "sucks," then, Yoo Hoo!, buy your company's stock.
On the other hand, if the Slashdot crowd praises your product -- particularly if they go on and on and on about its infinate configurability and the fact that there are many ways to accomplish the same task -- you might want to take a second look.
For example, I just criticized the new WiFi radio as a crippled WiFi laptop [slashdot.org]. So how do I buy the stock?
/. predictions (Score:3, Funny)
Realistically (Score:3, Interesting)
It is much easier to organize the songs on the computer, if for no other reason, the sheer size of the screen.
I would much rather sacrifice some storage capacity for a smaller model
If you have too many choices (songs ) on your portable device, you may just end up not using (listening to) all of the choices (songs ) anyway. After a point, as the number of choices increases, the ability to make a decision suffers, and the time it takes to make a choice increases.
Re:Realistically (Score:3, Interesting)
I know a few folks who have ripped hundreds of their CDs to their hard drive, and with no backup. This seems stupid. Although, so does the 4 weekends t
Is it such a surprise.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, I've started re-ripping all my old CDs, this time using 320 kbps mp3s, and these soak up the space big-time. I can imagine using 80 gb easily within the next few months. No, the iPod mini is great for "low" quality rips and downloaded music, and apparently people seem to be satisfied by that. I would too, though and here lies a small problem. I want GREAT sound for my system at home, but when I'm on the run with my iPod and its earbuds, a 128 kbps mp3 is going to sound just about the same as a 320 kbps mp3. This is why I wish iTunes would downsample the mp3s on my computer for use on the iPod.
Might I suggest... (Score:4, Informative)
FLAC + 128kbit aac? Yes, I know this will take up 8-900k/s instead of 320k/s. But if you put a reasonable price on the time spent ripping those CDs you don't want to want to re-rip them often if at all. If you can afford the iPod, you can afford a 250GB drive.
FLAC is lossless, about half the size of a CD, and you can encode to any format you want in the future. You should never have to rip your CDs again (unless disaster strikes your HDD).
For your iPod, I would suggest using AAC instead. Better size/quality ratio. Should you ever change your mind and go for a player without AAC support, simply remake from FLACs, shouldn't be worse than a script job.
Kjella
More data.... (Score:5, Funny)
No no no (Score:5, Insightful)
I would not buy a device that holds 1000 songs if I only owned 999. I would buy one that holds thousands because I wouldn't want my device being obsolete in a year or less.
I own a 15 gig 3g iPod and it's almost full. I'm hardly a power user either, I just collected a shat load of CD's since childhood.
For all of those critics: (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll chant that the next time I read another industry pundit complaining about Apple's lack of WMA support (or another /.er complaining about no Ogg Vorbis support).
A feature I rate highly (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, I can use a more effecient pair of open ear headphones, but I don't want to be one of those jerks on the express bus where
eveyone can hear that I'm listening to Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" at moderate to high volumes.
You know what this means (Score:4, Insightful)
Had it been left up to the tranditional personal stero makers, I think they would have release a HDD based product that could hold 10, 20 CDs max so that people wouldn't abandon CDs. Apple gave people more space than they had ever dreamed of in one little gadget.Because apple didn't have a vested interest in CDs they release a product that essentially made them obselete. Sony for example would NEVER have done this. It would have effected their CD sales.
I think this will lead to a glut of about 1GB sized iPodlets pushed as an alternative to the admittedly pricy ipod, by companies who, because they're also in the record business, don't really want us using compressed music anyway.
Begs the question. Will that drive apple out of the music player business? Recall, the mere 4GB mini has sold like hot cakes.
I expect the Sony HardDiskman to arrive soon..... With over 15 hours!!! of playback!!
They will of course be useless as portable hard drives. IMO the handiest extra of the ipod.
Sound quality (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Sound quality (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sound quality (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, obviously more capacity is better at the same price and size.
I think the point is (despite the usually bad headline/summary) that the typical consumer doesn't care that much about capacity beyond about 1000 songs.
If a player can hold 1,000 songs, and costs $200 then it will beat a player that can hold 10,000 songs but costs $250.
I'd bet that if you could shave another $50 off the price by lowering the qu
Gabe's Sweet Spot (Score:3, Funny)
20G is too small (Score:3, Interesting)
can't wait till the 100G models come out.
Too much space? (Score:5, Funny)
bought my wife a mini ipod (Score:5, Insightful)
1) it's small..really small
2) it's dead easy to use
3) it "just works", which is a big deal to my wife, despite her CS and Math degree. she hates fiddling with stuff
4) it came in pink
5) I got it engraved with a romantic saying for valentine's day
I cannot tell you how important factors like "pink" and "small" and "easy to use" are to people outside of the 18-25 yr old males.
Re:bought my wife a mini ipod (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, I'm almost 27 and I can still figure this technical stuff out!
.
quit
exit
bye
^X^S
^C^C
Re:bought my wife a mini WHAT? (Score:3, Funny)
And they say size doesn't matter.
a PDA with a Laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't we see a PDA with capacity for 5000 songs, image, movies, audio recordings, or database files?
Sound quality and running (Score:4, Interesting)
Wary of too much space? (Score:4, Interesting)
As for the 1,000 song figure it seems rather odd to me. I'm a college student who doesn't pirate music, I have what I'd consider an average if maybe smallish cd collection along with about a gig or so of stuff on my computer (I don't keep my rips, they just go onto the iPod) and I still have around 2,000 songs. I realize as well that while I may not be cramming my iPod at the moment I'll be glad I have that extra space when I get more cds and don't quickly run out. I have space to grow on this and hopefully it will be able to last much longer as a result.
People are lazy. As soon as they realize how inconvenient it is to swap songs around they'll be complaining about size and wanting more just like everyone else. At some point those 1,000 songs won't be enough and they'll have a rather strong backlash regardless of how they feel now.
I have a 10 GB iPod... (Score:3, Funny)
My girlfriend has an iPod Mini because it is pink.
4 giga-what? Pink.
Low-calorie alternative? (Score:4, Interesting)
The iRiver iGP-100 [iriveramerica.com].
Major Disadvantages: 1.5 gb drive. No firewire.
Major Advantages: It's slighty larger than a stopwatch. Costs $200, not $250 (before accessories). No Software Interface on either Mac, Windows, or Linux*. FM tuner. Flywheel navigation (just like a Blackberry), excellent GUI. Backlight. Firmware upgradable. Passes the Girlfriend Aesthetics Exam with flying colors.
For the size and craftsmanship of the device, I firmly believe that this player is the better deal, especially if you already have a full-sized iPod (or equivalent). It is easy to operate within a pocket -- just orient the flywheel, and you can navigate the filesystem with ease. The other buttons fit naturally beneath your fingers when you hold it in your hand. The player does not require any accessories to use fully; my girlfriend can exercise with it clipped on. It also comes with a case. I find the 1.5 gb drive is perfect for a trip's worth of music, or a few weeks of commuting. This is useful if you have a lot of music that is overlooked in your normal music listening, or if you aquire music quickly.
4 gb for $250 is clearly the better deal. But the....philosophy of design is an invisible modifier to that price, at least in my eyes.
===---===
anecdote (Score:3, Interesting)
Congratulations (Score:5, Interesting)
You obviously don't understand who the mini is being marketed to (hint: not geeks).
Re:Congratulations (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll take a shot: There are other people in the world besides you. These people think and act differently than you.
I think that about covers it.
Re:Congratulations (Score:3, Funny)
You're referring to the people I keep calling idiots?
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Size
2) Design (!!!)
3) Target audience
For a data point, I have a 15g iPod, and my wife has a blue iPod mini. I need more space. She needs a small, lighter MP3 player. Different preferences.
It's not all about the 4gigs vs. 15gigs.
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Size
2) Design (!!!)
3) Target audience
4) marketing/brand recognition
5) Crappy headphone jack......wait that's not good!
I think name recognition is one of the key things here:
I wonder how well the ipod mini would be doing if it was exactly the same as the ipod except for being covered in sharp, prickly spikes.
Some people buy $100 sunglasses. It's marketing. How many Apple press releases^W^W^W news stories have you seen about the ipod mi
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:5, Insightful)
My answer is you're asking the wrong question. What the buyers are asking is "The mini iPod holds more than enough music, fits in my pocket better, and is $50 cheaper. Why would I buy a regular iPod when it doesn't do anything extra, doesn't fit as nice, and cost more money?"
From their perspective, those extra 11 gigs don't do anything for them, because they aren't even using the 4 gigs up.
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:4, Insightful)
Talk about extra space all you want, but when you can choose what to put on and take off and you're actively syncronising, it doesn't matter. Or at least it doesn't matter 50 dollars worth.
And for only 50 cents more. (Score:5, Insightful)
But some of us just don't need that extra bit of food, regardless of how little the cost. The marginal cost is still more than the marignal benefit.
Go take a basic economics class. Bigger is not always better.
Re:Too much space is driving me nuts! (Score:5, Interesting)
1. She wants a music player, not a hard disk.
2. the mini controls are laid out better for one hand use
3. the mini is lightweight for running (the regular pod does not feel that heavy until it is bouncing on your belt).
4. She never transfers large files.
5. She has small hands and likes the feel of the mini better.
6. She looked at the other players that are similar in size and weight to the ipod mini and said: 'the controls stink and the interfaces are a joke. I wish I had something like the ipod, but smaller.'
7. She is not a cheapskate.
Here is why I like my 15GB ipod better than the mini:
1. more space
2. I got it for $1 as part of a promotion from my ISP.
3. I sometimes transfer large files.
Re:Play what you can. (Score:3, Insightful)
Simple. Because:
Re:Play what you can. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because I don't want to listen to the exact same 10 hours of music day in and day out. I can see all kinds of advantages of having a hard drive that would last longer than the battery life.
One could bring their portable music device to work, recharge it overnight without changing the songs on it, and still get a fresh batch of music the next day. Say one day I'm in a classical mood and the next I'm into speed metal; with a gigantic hard drive I don't have to choose beforehand what kind of music I plan to listen to.
Re:Play what you can. (Score:5, Insightful)
Excellent reasoning skills.
Just like," what good is an entire menu selection in a restaurant when you can only eat one meal at a time?"
nice.
Re:Play what you can. (Score:3, Interesting)
Massive hard disks allow us to be as picky as we want, thus spending less time managing music than we do playing it.
Furthermore, I have a car charger for my iPod.
"Year of Linux on the desktop" (Score:3, Insightful)
This is not a troll. Seriously, this whole thing exposes Slashdot opinion for what it is. It's time to actually listen to users for a change and not what the +5 upmods say.
Re:OGG's the geek favorite, but consumers? (Score:3, Insightful)
If Apple decides next week to "refocus on their core product market" and the iPod and iTMS go the way of the Newton, those people will lose their music. The value of a DRM-free, standardized file format will quickly become obvious to everyone.
Re:Well, iPods are still useless for me (Score:4, Interesting)