You tell me which is a better deal:
1) Buy a 512 MB Memory Stick ($160) or the 1 GB version ($270).
Now you've got easily transportable, non-volatile storage for your files and stuff.
Except you need a Memory Stick Reader to use it.
That'll be another $41.
2) Buy a 512 MB iPod Shuffle ($100) or the 1 GB version ($150).
Now you've got easily transportable, non-volatile storage for your files and stuff.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: Apple will throw in - free - the following: a music player, as elegant and stylish as any functional object on the planet; a 12-hour rechargeable battery; a lanyard; earphones;
and a U.S.B. 2.0 connector so you don't need a reader.
Pick up the clue phone.
Apple has just disemboweled the flash memory market.
Or - at the very least - brought prices down to where they should've been all along.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
joe, flash memory players (512MB and 1GB) are about $20 cheaper than the iPod shuffle. Memory stick, etc is not a fair comparison. Better compare the 512 MB Muvo($89 street)
The Memory Stick is not the same format as the Flash-based iPod shuffle. Samdisk 1GB CompactFlash is $70, 512MB is $42. A Lexar 1GB portable flash-based drive is $80 - far cheaper than the same-sized shuffle
Oh, also, you can get Sandisk MemoryStick at $63 for 512MB. (all prices are from zipzoomfly.com - one of my favorite sites)
The shuffle is just one of the pack, apart from the Apple styling and branding.
Note how bad it looks when you call the shuffle a shuffle, as Apple does, and not a Shuffle - poor branding there.
2 - Tom Johnson
I get what you're saying, Joe, but Memory Stick is a pretty expensive and non-standard choice (I've never seen anyone using Memory Sticks for thumb drives) when when you can get a 1GB flash drive for $82 or a 512k flash drive for $44 that'll work in any computer with a USB 2.0 interface (which is most computers that were bought in the last year or two.)
3 - Dave Nalle
I didn't even know there WERE MP3 players that take the memory stick. Most of the ones which take memory cards take the SD cards, and those are less than half the price you quote. I covered this extensively in my iPod review earlier. Unless you need an insane number of songs the TDK Mojo 256 is a better buy than an iPod and abotu equal in viability to the iPod mini.
However, what's going to blow the current iPods away are the next generation of MP3 players which will take removable microdrives and compact flash memory which can give you up to 4.4 gigs of removable memory at a price as low as $40 a gig. Rumor has it that the next generation of iPods will also take removable CF memory.
Dave