HP seeks larger role in iPod mania

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You and your wacky steamroller

I do see the promise in what you've proposed, but it has some major drawbacks. At the very least, getting the infrastructure built to support it widely is going to take years, if not decades. In the meantime, an iPod is a big improvement over what's currently available.

---Every year, new ways of listening to music come out, and people flock to them - even if the older tech works just fine---

The iPod took 3 years to really take off. I'd say it's proven its usefulness over time.

---The lure of the iPod is the lure of music without comercials---

No, the lure of the iPod is the lure of music you choose, rather than the tiny selection of bad music offered by commercial radio cartels.

---So I guess the lure of the iPod is to save space---

Yes, and the massive variety that comes with it.

---but the media has a "single-point-of-failure" that the previous generations didn't have - losing an iPod harddrive means NO music - whereas losing a CD meant just losing SOME of your music----

Not a proper analogy. You don't lose your music if you lose your iPod, because you've still got it on your computer. You need a computer to put music on the iPod, therefore, you'll always have at least 2 iterations of the music. A better analogy would be between losing the iPod and losing your walkman or car cd player.

---That's right, the WiMAX steamroller. Why save files yourself, when you can just connect to the internet and PLAY them?---

Because I don't want to rent music, I want to own it. How am I going to make a mixed cd for friends using your system?

What if I'm somewhere I can't connect to the internet?

Let's look at rental plans versus purchase plans. Let's pretend Napster's $15 a month is what your plan would cost. Each month, I can spend $15 and buy 15 songs from Apple, or spend $15 and get unlimited rental songs from WiMax. Let's say one month I'm short on cash. If I don't spend the $15 at Apple, no problem, I can keep listening to all the songs I've already bought. If I don't spend the $15 at WiMax, I don't get to hear any music all month.

---I wonder how much a $300-$400 iPod will be going for on eBay (in 2 years), when a $300 WiMAX handheld provides all things electronic (VoIP, audio, video, web)?---

2 years? My, aren't you optimistic.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 03/31/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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