Is that each step of the end-end experience is simply "nice" and hasn't been obviously designed by a techie. The whole package is just pleasant to use.
Anything that doesn't make it easy to plug device in, load up software automatically, buy music / video, listen / watch media in software, unplug device, listen / watch media on the move, fails at the first hurdle. That pretty much rules out anything that requires use of an on-device file browser or an explorer window in windows.
Anything with any more than around oh .... let's be generous and say 5 (left, right, top, down, centre) *intuitive* multi-function buttons equally has lost before it's left the factory. Don't knock the ipod until you've experience the click-wheel.
Then you have the device's graphical interface which needs to actually be tailored to someone using it to play media (as opposed to fitting around the underlying software). Sounds obvious right?
The amount of companies that fail to grasp these three basic requirements is absolutely astounding. If any of them aren't there, you've got yourself an "MP3 player", as opposed to a "music player" and it should be fairly self-evident which of those markets is bigger.
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The thing about Ipod + Itunes...
Is that each step of the end-end experience is simply "nice" and hasn't been obviously designed by a techie. The whole package is just pleasant to use.
Anything that doesn't make it easy to plug device in, load up software automatically, buy music / video, listen / watch media in software, unplug device, listen / watch media on the move, fails at the first hurdle. That pretty much rules out anything that requires use of an on-device file browser or an explorer window in windows.
Anything with any more than around oh .... let's be generous and say 5 (left, right, top, down, centre) *intuitive* multi-function buttons equally has lost before it's left the factory. Don't knock the ipod until you've experience the click-wheel.
Then you have the device's graphical interface which needs to actually be tailored to someone using it to play media (as opposed to fitting around the underlying software). Sounds obvious right?
The amount of companies that fail to grasp these three basic requirements is absolutely astounding. If any of them aren't there, you've got yourself an "MP3 player", as opposed to a "music player" and it should be fairly self-evident which of those markets is bigger.