Community poll forum: What MP3 player series is most likely to overtake the iPod?

I got one and i am in the US, gotta love ebay.

it will kill the ipod once released in the US

We used to carry around a Palm Pilot and and phone and a CD player. Now it's a phone and an IPod. Soon it'll just be the phone. (once they get the battery life up there).

mannnn...
ipods suck
i am sick of hearing ipod horror stories, "it died and when i sent in my 60gb video, they sent me back a 256mb shuffle!!"
fools....
i dropped my creative microphoto on pavement like, 8 times b4 it broke, so i contacted creative, the next morning there was a box on my doorstep...wanna tell me about customer service ipod fans?!
and plus, the microphoto owns all ipods, all day long, not to mention the M:vision. iPod's are like....STALE weaksauce compared to creative's mp3 players...
yea...that's right STALE WEAK SAUCE!!

the only ipods better than mine are the videos, cause mine does not do that, but I did get it a year ago for $100 less than a comprable ipod. I have dropped it a heck of alot also, and it has not broken.

P.S.
Other companies don't purpisfuly make their product scratchable to make you buy expensive covers!!

Bad: Battery life? Maybe an hour and a half for video and
if you only listen to music you may get 3 or 4
hours and that is it!
Video format must be supported by itunes or
converted by itunes, pain in the rear and just another way for apple to make money.
Super easy to scratch!!! I had it for a grand total of 4 days (before I returned it for a refund)and from the minute I took it out of the box I put it in a good Belkin leather case when i took it out, SCRATCHES!!! TONS OF THEM........FROM THE CASE!!!!AND YES I HAD THE "WHITE" ONE NOT THE BLACK AND STILL WAY SCRATCHED UP EVEN THOUGH NEVER LEAVING THE CASE!!!
Also I was told by the guy at Best Buy when I returned my ipod that they get them in for returns and complaints constantly! Enough said. He even guessed why I was returning it before I told him.
I would prefer drag and drop to using itunes, it's a pain to delete crap from itunes then plug in your ipod and update the stuff you deleted, should be a way to delete from the player in my opinion.

All in all, not good to me or at least not good enough for the $300 I spent, then again I am cheap and if I pay alot for something I have high expectations and I am picky I guess, although I am a bit of a technology junkie..(cell phones, mp3's, cameras), so I think I have a good idea of what would be expected from a GOOD mp3 player. If you are a die hard ipod fan you will probably be happy, but I was not. I will continue my search for the perfect player and I am now hunting the pink zen vision m

The only reason apple does have many other mp3 players beat in sales is because they have so many fools bowing down to their advertising. I will admit that apple mp3 players are good, but I still can't see why customers don't go for the better Creative Vision M. Advertising is a powerful tool when it comes to sales. Creative is stronger in other countries such as Singapore; they aren't as strong in sales in the U.S., because they don't advertise as much in the U.S.

I GOT A CREATIVE MICRO PHOTO AS WELL...WELL IT BROKE...AND I HAD ANOTHER WITHIN A WEEK...THEY RENEWED MY WARRENTY AND EVEN GAVE ME A DISCOUNT PRICE FROM WHAT I HAD ORIGINALLY PAYED FOR IT...TRY TO GET THAT OUT OF IPOD CUSTOMER SERVICES.

Creative isn't anything close to the iPod. Their volume is weak, their directory is weak, skip your HD mp3 player on some pavement and what do you expect? Your Creative player isn't made better to with hold your abuse, its just your one lucky ******* not to see it disintegrate into oblivion. Add on the best legal online music selection on the planet, the best software interface on the planet... well, add it up... the reason that the Creative players never took off, (they have been making them longer) is that they aren't designed for crap.

*Yes, I agree that the Vision:M series might be made of plastic, and cant handle a lot of abuse, but can an IPod Video? I highly doubt it. "Disinigrate into oblivion"? An IPod wont ever do that. It'll just have scratches and nicks all over from the cheap material they chose to use on the screen to make a few more pennies. Don't bring up wear and tear structure in an IPod agrument... you will lose horribly.

*Also are you reffering to the glorious click wheel as in design? It's nifty, but cmon... you can't say everything else is trash compared to it. Yes, Creative's controls bother me, being slightly more difficult than they need to be (I'm disabled, and suffer through my entire body, so I don't need things to be complicated) such as the push buttons. No need for them to be stiff, and frequently used. This field, I do agree, that IPod beats most in design.

*Best legal online store? How about Napster and Yahoo's monthly charge instead of a dollar a song? I mean, buy more than 16 songs a month and you're getting ripped off! Terrible. No other options. Then Bill (Gates) and the gang are making a video collection with a monthy charge similar to Napster, so Apple can't abuse that either with 2.99 a movie charges. Not to mention there's already Google video available (as sparse as the collection is)... I bet both Google and probably Microsoft plans will be compatible with other players w/o the ghetto quicktime formats, where as Apple will stand firm with making it "Apple Only" to keep thier ITunes customers stuck with them as long as they own an IPod, and if not, they'll at least get $25.99 out of you with the quicktime conversion software. Whomped.

*Vision:M's video rumbles and rolls all over Apple IPod's. Not to mention that the video playback battery life is double on the Vision:M. Audio... they both lack in my opinion, although Creative has the upper hand between them, as they better be sitting in the sound card business. Sony, IAudio, and even IRiver players have better audio quality, they just all suffer from severe flaws in other areas (which is a shame in some cases).

*"the reason that the Creative players never took of, ... is that they aren't designed for crap" Phew... thats a good one. I assume you know that the similarities between IPod Video and Vision:M are astounding no? So why would you disgrace it...? And in addition, this gets to the "OMG Copycats, flame flame troll troll burn Creative," but yes, they did immitate the interface on-screen in many ways, but cmon. What obligation do they have to "be creative." They gave a product of their own, with a similar GUI, oh boo hoo. That's like saying Recycling Bin sucks in Windows because it copies Mac's trash can... It's MS's twist on a similar feature which they cannot get anymore creative with. Suck it up.

- I'm done. Sorry to disagree on almost everything you said, I'm just stating my opinion.

The iPod has become as synonymous to portable music as Google has to web searching. Apple owns the space and it's strictly theirs to lose. The next two Nano/Micro/Pico players could be junk, but Apple will be the dominant brand for a long, long time.

Given the missteps of its competitors and the downfall of Rio, I wouldn't be surprised if they are ever surpassed in the pure-player space -- it'll take the next killer phone that changes the market to actually affect the major players' ranks.

-MattL

Hey buddy - check out the new PMPs on the market. They are custom made for just that - getting vidoeos portable so you can take them with you.

I have a Cowon A2 30 GB, and love it. The battery life is fantastic - just what you need for a long plane ride and a couple of videos. They provide the conversion software with the device.

So check them out, you may find one you like.

Good luck.
Susan

Another player WILL NOT overtake the iPod. The iPod IS the defacto standard. Apple sells more iPods in a day than Creative sells in nearly a quarter..

The iPod is still the best designed player out there.. Sure, Creative has done a good job at copying the iPod, but it is still severly lacking compared to the iPod..

The iPod is not a winner just because of hardware.. It is a winner because of hardware AND software.. iPod AND iTunes. The thousands of iPod accessories and the fact that over 40% of all auto manufacturers now offer full iPod integration in vehicles as a factory option doesn't hurt either..

But the bottom line is that the hardware/software combo of iPod/iTunes is something none of the other players can match... ITunes has the largest content catalog of both music and video, it is the easiest to use, and it now holds an 83% marketshare of all legally purchased digital music...

In order to sync the same info to a Creative player as an iPod you need to go through about five sync processes as compared to iPod/iTunes one step one-click process.

The creative vision makes you:

1. Sync and purchase your music from a non-iTunes music service. (Napster is on the verge of bankruptcy by the way!)
2. Use seperate software to sync and manage your podcasts.
3. Use seperate software to sync your photos.
4. Use seperate software to purchase, manage and sync your videos.
5. USe seperate software to sync your contacts, and calendars.

Meanwhile iTunes handles all five of the above steps with ONE CLICK!

There are several other MP3 players out there on the market, and the one I have as well as the one that it replaced both synched in one step with my computer.

I don't like iTunes. I get my music from different sources, and it is not that easy to get outside music put into iTunes.

I haven't found a program out there that doesn't do exactly the same thing as itunes, and in some cases, does it better.

Heck, Windows Media Player does the same thing as itunes!!!

I would agree that itunes is the weak link. It is sluggish, and not done very well in windows. But the interface is better that windows media.