For example: design, durability, ability to play many codecs (wma,wav,flac,mp3,aac,ogg, ...), user interface, battery (Replaceable? Rechargeable? How long does it last?), sound quality.

The Ipod has an excellent user interface, the quality of the material is pretty good and it looks very cool. Apple are famous for their design. The distinctive white earbuds are also very fashionable, allthough that has nothing to do with the quality of hardware (I replaced mine with a couple of Sennheisers of superior quality anyway). And I suppose the Itunes music store also contributed greatly to the popularity of the Ipod.
If you don't care about any of that, then you might want to consider buying something else. Obviously it helps to compare reviews before you make your final decision.

I think most like it for the shiny little case... no one seems to care that it's not compatible with most music formats on the Internet today and, like most all of Apple's products is proprietary...

I guess it's like most things made nowaday's. take car's for example... Pretty little packages on the outside, crambed with all sorts of junk on the inside that has nothing to do with driving.

KC

Thanks for the replies. If it plays mp3's, I'm pretty happy. I've just been looking at things like size, capacity, and user friendliness(buttons and such) like JunctaJuvant mentioned. I personally can't stand earbuds or any headset included with portable devices for the matter. I'm currently using a pair of high-end Sony's I bought in Japan a while back. I'm a bit of an audio buff, so I use the VBR mp3 format for better quality sound rather than the standard 96khz(?) bitrate. Ignoring the larger file size, is this much of an issue when comparing portable mp3 players?

I'm not 100% an expert on the history of MP3 players, but I think it's some combination of the following:

1. When MP3 players were becoming more popular, Apple was one of the most recognized names--I had no idea who Creative was; I'd never heard of that company. What's RIO? What's iRiver? People remember Apple, even if the other companies were making MP3 players first.

2. Apple's iPods look slick. I happen to think the scroll wheel is an ergonomic faux-pas, but it looks cool, and that's what people care about.

3. Apple advertised way before Creative got on board with it's Zen Micro. Apple silhouettes were all over the TV and the billboards.

4. The iTunes interface is much nicer looking than Windows Media Player, and it works with both Mac and Windows.

And once the momentum picked up, the others just could not follow. I happen to like my Sandisk MP3 player very much, though--which I ditched my iPod for.

i think apple advertisments are really good , they even got u2 on one of them , those silhouettes and their "60s colors" are really powerful , apple is among the best in creating an "exclusive" image when you are owning apple stuffs but that mentioned problems with power adapters and batteries are really something ...

You are correct on that point... Advertising has a big effect on products. but I think apple tends to cater to the loyal and whatever they come out with will be sold to the apple loyalist, but they need to recruit windows users.

It may work for the average Win user but Linux user's tend to have more common sense and don't fall for advertising hype. be as it may.

KC

QUOTE :: " user's tend to have more common sense and don't fall for advertising hype"

thats the basic requirement for a mindset and the hardest one for most ...

although i'm dont think i can bring myself listening to any music with devices like ipod and the like , but i have to say that as for the common sense when choosing a computer or any other working/entertaining tools , for some , they may be thinking along the line of choosing between a "custom tailored" build iptables "software" firewall 486 computers with linux installed and a truly dedicated "hardware"(hardwired??not sure about the exact terms) firewall equipment as sold by some of the major companies where pricing and some "inconveniencies" might be neglegible and not that important , infact i think ipod can be hacked with linux , another interesting new knowledge we might learned ...

I don't know if I agree with this. If anything, I'd say Apple screws over the loyal every few months. My sister-in-law got an iPod last summer. What does Apple do out of the blue two weeks later? It lowers the price of all its iPods $100 US. My wife got a Powerbook last fall--G4, the latest. What does Apple do three months later? It releases new G4 Powerbooks at the same price with drop-protection and a better trackpad system. Mac Minis come out and Mac afficionados snatch them up right away--dealing with a measly 256 MB of RAM or paying for a more suitable memory base. What does Mac do a few months later? 1. Announce it's moving to Intel 2. Bump up the base memory for the same price.

No, Mac does not cater to the loyalist I don't think. I'm not sure how their "halo effect" is doing, but I believe their desktop marketshare is something like 5% (maybe I'm wrong) and their MP3 player marketshare is something like 70%, so they may not be recruiting Windows users for Mac computers, but they've just about dominated the portable music player market.

I got an ipod mini this summer. What does Apple do? Releases the Ipod Nano and stops selling the Ipod mini. So? What would you expect Apple to do? Post a warnings on their Apple store like this: "We will be deciding to boost sales of the Mac mini in two months time by offering more ram, because a psychic told us that 256MB will not be enough to generate the sales we need. So please do not purchase until then."
Apple are no different from any other business, as far as making money is concerned.

Actually, hate Microsoft as much as many people do, at least Microsoft lets people know when their products will become obsolete or unsupported.

A company like Dell would be a better example, because they sell hardware. So does Dell announce 50% discounts two weeks in advance, and advise people not to buy anything until then? ;-)

is it because of the stiff competition between apple and other similar like creative etc that makes company like apple really works that fast , i mean the speed between decisions making and marketing releases , there may be some "hiddened" marketing tactics behind all this , but thats really fast , thats how the wonders of capitalism works , the workable and the functional ones survive and triumph in stiff democratic competitions as equals , bad equals or good equals or a mixture of both , definately still democratically equals(erh ? what is that ??) , freedom of choice for the masses drives technology break-through and quality in products designs and packaging , the ultimate democratic benefits all goes to the consuming masses ... oh well ...

A lot of companies will try to keep new product announcements under wraps to because it will hurt sales of the current selling product.
Some retailers have price gaurentees where they will refund the difference under certain circumstances.
iPods and Apple products are popular because they are Fad products. Think of them similar to the latest pop singer, they are not popular because they can sing well, they are popular because the entertainment industry wants to generate revenue so they pick someone and market them like crazy and to get people to buy their records and stuff they endorse and such. Apple works the same way, Hollywierd liked the little mac bacause it came in colors so they could fit in the laterst fad fashion even though it was a bad design. So they rode that wave then got some smart designers and marketters so keep on top of the latest fads and keep the products moving. Look at the tech specs, they are inferior to most everything else out there and look at all the problems they are having with their products yet people still buy them and claim they are the best ever, its all about the marketing momentum.
Microsoft was the same way, remember years ago when Windows was up against OS2 and Novel and Unix's. IT shops knew better than to put a windows server into production use but some high level Manager with no techinical ability would get free subscriptions to magazines full of Windows ads and then come down and tell IT he just bought 25 new windows servers for them. That type of marketing works well, make your car look cute and all the 13year old girls in the world will beg mom and dad to buy it, put a teen age girl with no talent in a short skirt and low cut skirt and let her lipsynch to a recording on stage and kids will rush out to buy her latest CD, put some flash memory in a cute case and give it a cute name and it becomes the latest fad. Last years beanie babys are this years ipods.

kind of true , but i still think that in the computer or manufacturing world , work-horses like programmers , hardware engineers and technology researchers are all the same , i mean in general they can really switch their bosses easily and without much difficulties , as in the top "brain" from this can also work for the other competitor if he/she wanted to , not exactly same as other industries ...

geez, i feel like a caveman with my ipod mini - black/white screen, curb scrappers & a kick stand.