Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
The reason why the current generation of competing mp3 players are just as easy to use as Ipods is because they evolved to become more like Ipods  .
They most certainly did not start out that way. |
I was actually referring to designs from some years ago, rather than the current crop.
On three occasions between 2005 and 2008 I was comparing extant models with the current iPod with a view to purchase, and each time concluded from industry reviews and comparisons with friends' iPods that the competing devices were as easy to use and better on those core features.
Seriously, do you really believe that it was so hard to use earlier Creative Zen devices that they were 'only for geeks'?
I've owned two (Zen Micro and Zen Xi-Fi), and they were simplicity itself. I also picked out the iRiver Clix for my wife, which she still uses and loves. She is so far from being a geek that she's coming back the other way.
Whether or not they copied useability elements from the iPod doesn't change the point I was making, which was that it's mostly the marketing that leads average users to buy iPods, given that the core functionality of battery, storage capacity and sound quality has often been better on the competing devices.
Anyway this has drifted way off topic. Feel free to respond, of course, but I'll move on at this point.
Graham