What makes iPods so special?

there’s nothing really special about iPods anymore these days. what sells them is that they keep getting thinner and that they’re backed by a big name company (Apple). people associate the quality of a product with a name. for instance, someone says they want a good system to play a video game on. you say, xbox/playstation/nintendo gamecube.

like filletofspam said, the problem is that iPods aren’t designed for the long haul in mind. it seems every two years (if that) Apple comes out with a thinner, better, more stylish generation of iPods that basically leaves last years models in the dust. and even if you wanted to stay loyal to your old school iPod, you’d have a hard time finding even Apple support to replace the parts and would basically drive yourself into financial madness. all mp3 players these days have basically risen to meet at least the standards iPod users have: photo, video/audio capability, etc. some have even gone above that, like Zunes which offer a radio capability (very nifty) and a larger screen.

another problem iPod is probably going to run into is that they’re unknowingly undoing themselves by releasing things like the iPhone. it’s basically an iPod that makes phonecalls. people will buy that over an iPod simply because of the double-touch property it has (and for the fact its a phone… that’s important too i suppose). they’re one saving grace lies in the hope that people aren’t intrigued enough to switch their phone services entirely to get their hands on an iPhone (currently, they’re released exclusively to one provider).

what it comes down to is, iPods WERE special years ago because they weren’t cd players and could hold more songs than most people will ever hear.