Sony have brought out an incredible new music player (http://www.sony.co.uk/PageView.do?site=odw_en_GB&page=MagazineWithArticleFirstSection&article=1101282389584&section=en_GB_Magazine_Entertainment) that looks like trouble for the iPOD.

I think the beginning of the end for the iPod started quite some time ago with the launch of MP3 players from the likes of iRiver. I remember reading an article called The iPod Killers in PC Pro back in July. Of course those who own iPods will claim that it's still the best, but personally I don't get that passionate about brands, I prefer to support whichever company is offering the best product at the best price.

Never had the desire to buy an ipod. I used to have a 128mb MP3 player and it took about 2 minutes everyday to just add the tracks I want..

Why sit there for hours on end copying cd's into Itunes then having to copy them to your ipod :loopy:

But why isn't the Blue one available in the UK?

i'm not sure why the entry of additional products intot he market has to spell the end of the first product. Surely it will just herald the redistribution of market share.

It's big news for Sony to finally support MP3 natively. As I read somewhere else, Sony sees the personal stereo (aka "Walkman") market as it's by right. Think they're gonna go quite aggressive on it. Thing is, in the same way that Sony ruled the personal stereo market by getting the Walkman name used by everyone to describe any manufacturer's model, Apple have already won that particular war. Any of the devices from Sony, iRiver, Olympus, Philips etc that are out there will only be populary known as iPods.

I think the I-pod will be around for a while yet, it's bought just as much as a fashion accessory as a usefull piece of equipment. There are several players better than the I-pod, but they don't look as good or have the same show-off factor.

reviews of the sony device indicate that whilst the tech is great and the build is impecable, the usability (software) is rather poor.
Which is a shame, cause it does look really nice.

The only way this could knock the Ipod of it's throne would be if it was sold for £99 or less.

My mate has a 40GB Ipod. It's design and ease of use is very impressive. He tried several other products before, and found the endless menus that they have, a turn off.

I have a sony diskman, which is fine for me for most things, and it connects to computer with a usb cable for upload. But the sony software which you have to use is extremely restrictive, you have to check files in and out every time to protect copyright, even if they are your own tunes or tracks you have made yourself!. In addition they don't tell you you can't upload back to the computer with the USB cable. It says this nowhere in the catalogue, software or instructions. This is very annoying as I can't upload my Band Practice easily without having to read in the whole thing in real time from the headphone socket.

Originally posted by Cyclone
i'm not sure why the entry of additional products intot he market has to spell the end of the first product. Surely it will just herald the redistribution of market share.

Since when was the IPOD the first product, Archos have been making MP3 hard drive players for years, long before apple investedin the market.

Although not the first as such Ipod did open up the market and make mp3 players more viable and popular. Ipod would be regarded as the current market leader in this field but its popularity won't diminish just because a competitor launches something similar. I seem to recall similar opinions raised when Xbox was revealed and a lot of people were heralding the end of the Playstation.

Xbox is just a PC in a box

Your point is what exactly???

No point to make, was just making an observation ;)

Originally posted by wibbles
I seem to recall similar opinions raised when Xbox was revealed and a lot of people were heralding the end of the Playstation.

I have heard there is a shortage of Playstations this Christmas, and people are paying silly amounts to get hold of one.

Steering back on topic, there are many many players out there that are technically superior to iPod. Anyone thinking about one would do well to have a read (especially all the reviews) atwww.advancedmp3players.co.uk (http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk)

I read a lot on there and still ended up going for a iPod mini, mainly due to form factor and the fact that iTunes is so good (imo) - the software support (as mentioned in earlier posts) can vary wildly between manufacturers.

Originally posted by karl101
But why isn't the Blue one available in the UK?


I bought my daughter a blue one at Apple in Birmingham last week

I bought my daughter a blue one at Apple in Birmingham last week
Very possibly. But the lack of blue models Karl101 was referring to is in relation to the Sony.

The iPod is a design classic. I think my 15gb iPod is my favourite possession.. its so well designed and easy to use. Wouldn't swap it for ten of the sony ones..

Originally posted by hotphil
Very possibly. But the lack of blue models Karl101 was referring to is in relation to the Sony.

True, I have now looked at the Sony link and blue is not available in the UK

Wouldn't swap it for ten of the sony ones..
I might. Having held the previous Sony model, I think I could be persuaded. It does make the iPod look big. If I hadn't just bought a mini I'd be considering one, but the price hike is massive and I don't need 20Gb - 4 is fine when combined with the Smartplaylist function of iTunes. Does anyone know if the Sony software has something similar?

Just imagine, In 5 years time, everyone will have a mobile phone(who wants one) with all the functions and capacity of these players and satelite nav too I should think.

My mate has just got an extremely impressive PDA based phone. Which can show and store movies. It's a bit slow though to use as a phone, as it's MS windows driven, and it hangs from time to time.

Im very happy with my ipod, and for some reason now that I use it more often than I used to the battery seems to last longer!

Anne23 hit it on the head, its a design classic, like the original walkman.

Sony are unfortunatly 10 steps behind, only *just* jumping on the MP3 bandwagon and are still banging on about ATRAC (which is far inferior to the mess that is MP3), Apple have just released the photoPod which im considering buying, despite only having my 20gb iPod a year!

atrac is technically superior, but not open source nor as common.

sony's design skills are 2nd to none and the new player looks incredible.

As i said initial reviews are saying that only the high price and the poor software implemenation are stopping it being the next 'must have' for every techno geek.

i-pods suck, there are lots of players WAY better than it, they only sell well due to their "coolness" factor... and there are companies out there that have been making excellant MP3 players for years and years... my Rio MP3/CD player is amazing, I'm hoping to get a Rio Karma early next year :)

If you read any real reviews you'll find the I-pod is technically the worst thing out there in terms of what it can do, the only thing it has in it's favour is it might help you pull dumb-girls easier with its coolness :P

you want something that will handle all the new better codecs, where you can get CD quality at much lower file sizes. MP3 is actually one of the worst formats for music as to get CD quality your talking around 320kb/sec whereas you can get it with things like OGG Vorbis at much lower

It does indeed support mp3 files now, but it turns them into Atrac, which means you cannot get back your mp3 files. Atrac has worse quality.

Originally posted by hotphil
It's big news for Sony to finally support MP3 natively. As I read somewhere else, Sony sees the personal stereo (aka "Walkman") market as it's by right. Think they're gonna go quite aggressive on it. Thing is, in the same way that Sony ruled the personal stereo market by getting the Walkman name used by everyone to describe any manufacturer's model, Apple have already won that particular war. Any of the devices from Sony, iRiver, Olympus, Philips etc that are out there will only be populary known as iPods.

atrac is technically superior, but not open source nor as common.
perhaps technically superior, but frequently not top in blind listening tests.