Five reasons not to buy an iPod
Eliot Van Buskirk is a very brave man. Last week The Guardian suggested that there might be other manufacturers out there who one day could come up with a better MP3 player than the Apple iPod. Over 100 outraged Macsters e-mailed to say how wrong the paper’s views were.
Writing for CNet Eliot has gone one better and suggested Five Reasons Not to Buy an iPod. Click here to read his excellent feature.
Although like The Guardian he concludes that the iPod is still way clear of the pack he writes he has been overwhelmed by e-mails from Mac users.
It’ll be interesting to see if Sony’s forthcoming hard disk video player is Mac-compatible. If it is and proves to a better product than the Video iPod (which given Sony’s heritage it could well be) will Mac owners who have bought Apple computers because their number one criteria is quality (ie Macs are generally superior to their Windows based rivals), rush out to buy it? Or will brand loyalty mean they buy the Apple device. Just a thought…
One thought on “Five reasons not to buy an iPod”
With the ipod, essentially a disk, a $15 battery, and $10 of electronics wrapped in $5 of plastic parts, you are SOL in several ways immediately after you purchase one. Want to count the SOL ways ?
SOL 1) The Price – costing Apple about $50, the smallest 1.8″ Toshiba disk drive custom made only for Apple is sold as an Ipod for $300. Including the other parts, that’s 300% for Apple. Way to go, Apple ! (Remember the Cinema Display which mysteriously dropped from $3000 to $1500 overnight because of a nice little company in Taiwan competing ? Same deal: You’ll NEVER get a voluntary break form Apple !
SOL 2) Warranty: NONE ! Nada !, ZIP !
SOL 3) When it Degrades: I tried to get a battery from Apple – Gosh, It must be a really good one. Apple asks $350 for it. Doesn’t that make me feel good ! (Commercial replacements are now down to $50, I understand)
SOL 4) When it Breaks: Mine stopped connecting to the computer although it continued to play. Apple said: “Bad Drive”, only $350 for a new one. Gee, I wonder where I heard that price before ? Did they test the drive ? No. Frankly, it would be the first drive ever in my experience to fail that way, but I’m a consumer – what would I know ?
The first SOL is luck – that’s the way it goes.
The second SOL is on you – you got me, Apple.
The third SOL is on me – I’m a fool.
The fourth SOL – I’m a stupid fool !!
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