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[Kung Fu Jedi]

Hanging around at the Lounge and other sites I've never seen a single feature that was more requested. Hell, there are petitions for chrissakes. If you think it's a gimmick then we aren't going to see eye to eye on this at all, so there's probably little point in continuing the discussion. Thousands of albums were conceived and engineered to be listened to without gaps, and that's not even bringing classical and jazz into the picture, or even stuff like techno/dance mix discs. Those who download live jam band music, geez, they may as well forget about it.

Yeah, you're probably right about us not seeing eye to eye on it. And again, I should note that I DO ENJOY GAPLESS. It's just that I don't see it as a knock against Apple. I mean, if you don't like the iPod, go buy a different MP3 player that does gapless... Oh! Wait!

I know there are a lot of albums out that are great for gapless, but again, the average, mainstream customer doesn't care. It is limited to a verys mall subset. Now many of those in that subset hang out at places like the Lounge, or hurry to sign those types of petitions. But the vast majority of iPod owners don't care about the feature, have never heard about the feature, nor understand why you, or I, would want it.

The same type of people who hang out at the Lounge hang out at GAF for video games. They are not indicative of the market as a whole. I'll let you have the last word.

 

[shantyman]

Yeah, it was short-sighted to dismiss the iPod out of hand, but it *was* a ridiculous piece of shit in the beginning.

I still disagree. What product is a runaway success RIGHT AWAY? Very few. Most develop over time and this was no exception. Being limited to the Mac at first did not help either. It became a success because of the interface (do not underestimate this), form factor, and "cool factor." Remember when Shaq was out shopping for an iPod before they were mainstream?

I don't know if you saw last night's Fox Sports LA sportscast, but they did a segment of the Lakers on the road and they showed Shaquille O'Neal working out in the gym and using his iPod, and he goes on to rave about it. Then they showed 2 Laker players, Sumaki Walker and Jelani McCoy take a limo and go to the Apple Store at the Mall of America where they purchased two iPods. If Apple's ad agency is smart, they'll sign Shaq up today to do a major spot for the iPod.

Eric Corwin

Look at the date: http://www.macobserver.com/article/2002/01/24.6.shtml

Also, you keep choosing to ignore the form factor and that being the major reason it was os expensive, not simply "Apple Markup." Whether you like it or not, the iPod was more expensive than the other HD DAPs because if the 2.5" drive, which no other player had at the time. That's why they were cheaper. What was in greater supply, a 20 gig 3.5" laptop drive or a brand new 2.5" drive?

Finally, regardless of your opinion, look at this timeline, it's interesting (though a bit old):

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/instant-expert-a-brief-history-of-ipod/

 

[The Faceless Master]

You obviously can not read. Look what I wrote above:



No one was owned. Net nerds and geeks blasted it when it was announced and it went on the become the top consumer electronics device of thae past 5 years. Why does it matter that it took Windows support to do this? Let me think here... it doesn't. Your logic is poor and it exposes you as an Apple/iPod troll.

it had no success 5 years ago

it had no success 4 years ago

all your spin is just that, spin...

and wow, name calling, you have really got this argument locked up now...

:lol :lol :lol

you obviously have no idea what "success" is

it either was succesful and the guys were owned, or it wasn't and they weren't...

when apple changed the forumula *after the fact* the criticisms the people made *before the changes* were invalidated, thus they were not owned...

Spoiler

BUT YOU WERE LOL

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL POST!

 

[shantyman]

it had no success 5 years ago

it had no success 4 years ago

all your spin is just that, spin...

and wow, name calling, you have really got this argument locked up now...

:lol :lol :lol

you obviously have no idea what "success" is

it either was succesful and the guys were owned, or it wasn't and they weren't...

when apple changed the forumula *after the fact* the criticisms the people made *before the changes* were invalidated, thus they were not owned...

Spoiler

BUT YOU WERE LOL

ANOTHER SUCCESFUL POST!

I called you a troll, that's pretty mild.

The iPod went on to become the most recognizable consumer elctronics device of the 21st century so far. It is completely ingrained into the pop culrure vernacular. It is the name for a DAP, like Kleenex is for tissue or Jello is for flavored gelatin. How is that not successful? How did they change the forumula? By making it available to more users? That is not changing a formula, it is called a smart business decision. It was easier for Apple to get into the DAP market with a small pool of users, and then expand from there.

In my mind, people calling it a stupid idea that no one would be interested and then going on to sell millions means they were wrong. Because it did not sell millions on 2001 and 2002, they were right? Your argument has no logic.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

 

[SantaC]

:lol

That brings back the memories of the infamous HALO 2 SALES CROW THREAD.



Come on people, PayPal him the monies :lol

I miss TGG aka odentniN

 

[The Faceless Master]

I called you a troll, that's pretty mild.

The iPod went on to become the most recognizable consumer elctronics device of the 21st century so far. It is completely ingrained into the pop culrure vernacular. It is the name for a DAP, like Kleenex is for tissue or Jello is for flavored gelatin. How is that not successful? How did they change the forumula? By making it available to more users? That is not changing a formula, it is called a smart business decision. It was easier for Apple to get into the DAP market with a small pool of users, and then expand from there.

In my mind, people calling it a stupid idea that no one would be interested and then going on to sell millions means they were wrong. Because it did not sell millions on 2001 and 2002, they were right? Your argument has no logic.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

the device they trashed didn't go on to sell millions.

it was called the same name, but it wasn't the same device.

you said it yourself, a smart business decision...
a decision that didn't involve staying the course, it involved change...
changing the forumla...
like new coke in reverse...

you must be dizzy by now...

:lol :lol :lol

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Price drops and expanding connectivity to PCs are no-brainers. No pass.

 

[terrene]

I still disagree. What product is a runaway success RIGHT AWAY? Very few. Most develop over time and this was no exception. Being limited to the Mac at first did not help either. It became a success because of the interface (do not underestimate this), form factor, and "cool factor." Remember when Shaq was out shopping for an iPod before they were mainstream?

It became a sucess because they de-loused it and lowered the price: wala, it was no longer a piece of shit. USB support, real storage space, PC support, and reasonable prices -- there you go, successful. But this man was not "owned," as the original poster asserts:

Raise your hand if you have iTunes ...

Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port ...

Raise your hand if you have both ...

Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device ...

There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.

They had to fix ALL of those things before the iPod really took off, which wasn't until the third gen of their product. If the next generation of the XBOX is somehow a staggering success and becomes the dominant console, this thread is something like pulling up GAF quotes where guys reacted negatively to XBOX 1. It's a different product at a different price point - shut the **** up, you have no crow to serve.

Now, what was funny was the guy who thought Apple was going to release a "direct neural interface" for computers. LOL!

 

[Beer Monkey]

A Mac zealot friend of mine swears that originally Apple was planning on never going to move the iPod over to Wintel, that they wanted to use it to sell Macs. If so, they wised up.

 

[BlueTsunami]

The amazing thing is that after all these revisions the feckwads at Apple still haven't implemented gapless playback even though Rockbox proves that it can be done. Listen to Dark Side of the Moon and it sounds like somebody took scissors to it.

(60GB Video owner)

I've never owned an iPod and have actually recently thought about getting one...and I won't now because of that...wtf? I hate hearing gaps between tracks that are supposed to transition seamlessly

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

It became a sucess because they de-loused it and lowered the price: wala, it was no longer a piece of shit. USB support, real storage space, PC support, and reasonable prices -- there you go, successful. But this man was not "owned," as the original poster asserts:


They had to fix ALL of those things before the iPod really took off, which wasn't until the third gen of their product. If the next generation of the XBOX is somehow a staggering success and becomes the dominant console, this thread is something like pulling up GAF quotes where guys reacted negatively to XBOX 1. It's a different product at a different price point - shut the **** up, you have no crow to serve.

I'm not sure that you Xbox analogy holds up, as the iPod changes from one genration to the next, are evolutionary, where as video game console changes lean more towards the revolutionary. Regardless though, your point does still hold that the 3rd Gen iPod was a different product.

However, I would contend that the market wasn't ready to explode until the 3rd Gen iPod was released. When the original iPod was released, there wasn't a lot of demand for these products, no matter who was designing and selling them. However, that market grew, and was ready to buy the product at the time that Apple was really polishing the iPod up.

It's a similar thing with DVR's. When Tivo was released, it was a nice product, but there was no market for it, outside of a few tech geeks. Now, years later, the market has expanded, and you see a lot more non-geeks owning DVR's, even if they're not Tivo's. Sometimes a product is released before the market is really ready for it.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I've never owned an iPod and have actually recently thought about getting one...and I won't now because of that...wtf? I hate hearing gaps between tracks that are supposed to transition seamlessly

Simple fix. Just go buy one of those other MP3 players that are gapless.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I've never owned an iPod and have actually recently thought about getting one...and I won't now because of that...wtf? I hate hearing gaps between tracks that are supposed to transition seamlessly

Get Rockbox on the hardware of your choice. iRivers are nice.

 

[shantyman]

the device they trashed didn't go on to sell millions.

it was called the same name, but it wasn't the same device.

you said it yourself, a smart business decision...
a decision that didn't involve staying the course, it involved change...
changing the forumla...
like new coke in reverse...

you must be dizzy by now...

:lol :lol :lol

I guess we have a difference of opinion about the variation between 1st and 3rd gen iPods. I don't see it as a fundamental difference, you and terrene do.

To each their own.