It seems that Apple computers is starting to focus more and more on music these days. This would appear to be a logical extension for Apple; the iPod is a hip accessory these days among certain groups of people, iTunes largely dominates the legal music download arena (and everyone who reads this is downloading music legally, right?), Apple really needs a new revenue stream, so this is probably a good strategic move for them.
The bad news is that they probably won't have this niche all to themselves for very long. Rio has a good mp3 player, Archos has some neat toys, and Sony is almost certainly looking for a way to sell not only some hardware but to leverage their existing library of music into an iTunes-like solution.
As a side note, I'd recommend the Cowon iAudio — I bought one last year and I'm rather enjoying it. 256m holds enough music for a day at work. Throw in a voice recorder (which I use to make mp3s of things from time to time) and it's hard to beat it.
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As a side note, I'm new to the good people here at BlogCritics. I'd like to thank Eric for this opportunity and I'm looking forwards to contributing to the community.
--Casper
Article comments
1 - Steve Rhodes
But why buy a Cowan when for less than the price of a 256MB SD card you can get a Mini and a bit more you can get a 15GB iPod?
I agree that Apple will face stiff competition from other companies and will have to continue to innovate. Still, they've done pretty well so far.
2 - Mac Diva
Casper, the friendly ghost! We haven't talked since I was eight.
Jobs says the iTunes Music Store has a third of the music downloads as of November. He projects more with Christmas purchases. I think to beat ITMS, competitors will have to offset the cachet of Apple in entertainment somehow. Maybe if Sony also wins a Grammy for innovation, it can do so.
I am sympathetic to the voice recorder issue. I hadn't been concerned about having a second generation iPod because my new PDA, the Tungsten C, has that capability. But, getting it to work is damn near impossible. You need to buy a secondary market program because the one Palm packages doesn't work well and virtually no earphones fit the audio in port. So, now I am wishing I had an MP3 player with a voice memo.
3 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Casper and welcome, we are very happy to have you with us.