Ha!

Welcome to my world bidge! ROFL

Never said otherwise, You are the one said they are horrible at marketing... You threw in their pc marketing when we were talking about mp3 players... Failing to see why you arguing when we have the same conclusion...

That's a minority opinion... no a fringe opinion, right there. Apple didn't "start the mp3's" but they sure exploded it into a business that is about to overtake their computer business. A business that many competitors including Microsoft are dying to get a piece of. It's not all marketing. They innovated when it comes to the user interface if nothing else. Was there another harddrive-based mp3 player in existence when the first iPod came out? If so, it was such a marginal product that no one remembers it.

The funny thing to me is, why would people spend the extra money on most of those "boom boxes", for that kind of stuff it would just make more sense to get something not made for the ipod that has the same sound quality, 'cuase you can save yourself a chunk of change. I haven't seen any real add-on that makes me start to drool. The only one that even makes me go, "neat", is the remote controls.

I don't have anything against ipods

Well, I think one of the things that you are overlooking is that most the other companies that make these devices are mostly small computer part companies, and have never had a TV advertising budget to get their name out there.

Don't buy an IPOD!!!!
 

I bought a 2nd generation IPOD mini and loved it. It lasted 6 months before the battery could no longer hold a charge. Because there was a scuff on the upper left hand of the IPOD from when I dropped it 2 days after I had bought it, and before I had bought a protective case, Apple claimed that my IPOD therefore was no longer under warranty. They would repair my IPOD case and replace the battery for $230. I did not want the case repaired, but that didn't matter. Apple insisted on repairing the case and would not replace the battery without that repair. The metal on the IPOD is very soft on the edges, which almost makes me believe this was done on purpose so that the IPOD will get scuffed and thus get Apple out of their warranty. Buyer Beware!

I tried buying a battery on the 'net, and replacing it myself. But the IPOD is a very delicate and intricate device, and I think that buy opening it up you reduce the tension holding everything together, so that now it won't work reliably.

In the future, I will be buying a Creative Labs Zen Micro 6gb because it has a replaceable lithium ion battery that does not need to be sent in to Creative to be replaced. You just snap out the old and snap in the new. This is a HUGE consideration. The Lithium ION batteries only usually last about 18 months, if you are lucky and don't use your MP3 much.

try dell. Good price .

Or the 20 GB Olympus MP3/camera for 199. Someone said that is sells for 150 .

I didn't say marketing had nothing to do with it. I was objecting to Valiant's claim that it's all marketing.

iPods have certainly had some battery problems and it would be nice if they had easily replaceable batteries like the one from Creative that you mention, but not everyone has the same warrantee problems that you ran into. My wife has an iPod that locked up about 6 months after she got it and despite the fact that the case had been significantly scuffed up from being dropped without a cover, they gave us no problem when we took it into the Apple Store to have it replaced. I'm sorry to hear that you had a far less satisfying experience. Good luck with the Zen Micro.