How will apple fight back?

macsrbetterthanpcmacsrbetterthanpc
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Not that apple is behind in the mp3 player race, but microsofts zune packs a serious punch. The overall features of the zune seem to be better than the iPod. But now the ball is in apples court. How do you think apple will fight back? I still think there is a shot of a shockingly good iPod to come. I don't think Apple will go through the Holiday season without a total redesign of thier iPod line. It just wont happen. I'm gonna go ahead and say October or November there will be an event invitation for a new iPod. What are your thoughts?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 42
    rageousrageous Posts: 2,170member
    The iPod has consistantly been behind in "features"



    It's consistantly ahead in ease of use, better input method, looks, size and most importantly: cachet.



    The Zune release changes none of those things.
  • Reply 2 of 42
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    The iTunes is the 'secret sauce' that Zune doesn't have. But, the wireless transfer of songs is an appealing feature. I'm curious how MS was able to put this in Zune without the record companies going ballistic, especially now that MS is opening a music store. The wireless transfer feature could allow Zune to get a little of iPods marketshare.
  • Reply 3 of 42
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    i'm still waiting on 'battery life'.



    nothing to see here, move along.
  • Reply 4 of 42
    digital disastadigital disasta Posts: 495member
    Visually, I think the iPod is more appealing. Since Craposoft had something to do with the Zune, you know it's not going to work right, you'll prob. be able to download viruses on it, it will crash, freeze, and restart itself all the time, I mean come one, they can never do anything right. Yes...I have a 360, does it have problems...&$^*& yeah it does: freezing, locking up, bad LIVE updates, some original games that are supposed to work, just don't, you call and ask why...They have no idea lol. I don't think Apple has to much to worry about. Let them come out with the stupid "Zune" and a few months later watch Apple come out with a new iPod that makes the Zune look like its 10 years old....&*% Craposoft
  • Reply 5 of 42
    flinch13flinch13 Posts: 228member
    Okay... I can sum up my opinion of the Zune in one word.



    Brown.



    The end. I will throw up if I ever see someone with a brown Zune... honestly, it's ugly. I don't think Apple is in all that much trouble... they're working on something great.
  • Reply 6 of 42
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rageous


    The iPod has consistantly been behind in "features"



    It's consistantly ahead in ease of use, better input method, looks, size and most importantly: cachet.



    The Zune release changes none of those things.



    Constantly being behind in features IS a feature! Most folks voted with their pocketbooks and didn't buy the feature heavy MP3 players because the feature setup sucked! Fewer, more relevant and most importantly easy to use features won in the court of consumer spending.



    Lamenting about how Creative, Dell, Sony or anyone else (carelessly) slaps on "features" thinking "the feature is the thing" has fallen into the trap the bloatware like MS Word is better only because it has more features. Who routinely uses features in Word that weren't available 10 years ago in Word 6.0? Is this paradigm of more for more better for its own sake?



    I don't think so. One of iPods most important features is control of marginal feature creep.
  • Reply 7 of 42
    mzaslovemzaslove Posts: 519member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by backtomac


    The iTunes is the 'secret sauce' that Zune doesn't have. But, the wireless transfer of songs is an appealing feature. I'm curious how MS was able to put this in Zune without the record companies going ballistic, especially now that MS is opening a music store.



    I believe the transfered songs are able to be played 3 times in a given amount of time, then one has to buy them (unless they have a lifetime subscription to MS's service). Something like that.
  • Reply 8 of 42
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Are you sure it's an actual *transfer*? That sounds very un-MS. My understanding was that it was *sharing*, just like iTunes does - it doesn't actually send the file.



    OTOH, now that I think about it, that would necessitate a lot of drive access on the host Zune...



    My prediction: wireless sharing will DESTROY battery life. It will cause much more hard drive access, *AND* wireless sucks battery life like mad. ie, a great bullet point feature that fails to live up to marketing in real life.



    Now *that* sounds like MS.
  • Reply 9 of 42
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mzaslove


    I believe the transfered songs are able to be played 3 times in a given amount of time, then one has to buy them (unless they have a lifetime subscription to MS's service). Something like that.



    Came across that at Ars after I posted. That does make that feature a lot less appealing but I gotta think that the DRM will be circumvented and ZUNE could take off across colleges across the country as poor students 'share' their music collections.
  • Reply 10 of 42
    banchobancho Posts: 1,517member
    I'd find bluetooth a lot more appealing than 802.11anything on a music player. I'd think that with more cars coming equipped with bluetooth I could pair my player to my car and not need any cables/adapters. That's the feature I'd really like. It'd be nice if I could travel somewhere, rent a car and be able to use my iPod with no hassles.



    I've used FM tuners solutions before and hated every one of them fiercely. The sound quality is poor and in radio saturated areas it's tough at best to find a station they'll work on.
  • Reply 11 of 42
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yeah, avoid the radio tuners, get a simple tape adapter, or, if your car doesn't have a tape drive, see if it has an audio in jack on the front, or more likely until last year's models, on the back. (Say, for a CD changer input.)



    Not full iPod integration, (ie text on the display, etc) but functional, and MUCH better quality than a crappy FM tuner.
  • Reply 12 of 42
    gargar Posts: 1,201member
    It's brown
  • Reply 13 of 42
    poppetpoppet Posts: 90member
    Microsoft have probably put something in there so it knows what you had for breakfast. Don't trust microsoft at all anymore. XP likes to send messages to microsoft with all your info so I am not going to support them!
  • Reply 14 of 42
    132ghz,4tb ddr8 sdram,95tb hdd132ghz,4tb ddr8 sdram,95tb hdd Posts: 126member
    I hate Microsoft in the first place.



    But this...its disgusting !

    Brown ? Hahahaha...it reminds me of what its similar to.

    Please..iPod wont even feel a gust of wind.
  • Reply 15 of 42
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacsRbetterthanPC


    Not that apple is behind in the mp3 player race, but microsofts zune packs a serious punch. The overall features of the zune seem to be better than the iPod. But now the ball is in apples court. How do you think apple will fight back? I still think there is a shot of a shockingly good iPod to come. I don't think Apple will go through the Holiday season without a total redesign of thier iPod line. It just wont happen. I'm gonna go ahead and say October or November there will be an event invitation for a new iPod. What are your thoughts?



    After reading what you say here, I think we might see the new VPod before the end on the year. As it doesn't interfere with the new ones they just brought out.
  • Reply 16 of 42
    darth_appledarth_apple Posts: 199member
    I really like this description of the new Nanos from PC Magazine...



    Quote:

    This is the finest flash player out there in terms of look and feel. Other players have the iPod beat in terms of features, but I like the iPod's lossless compression and Audible support, as well as the cool new search feature.



    -----



    This revamped nano still lacks an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and video playback, so other premium flash players such as the popular SanDisk Sansa e200 series still have the iPod trumped on features. But then, the Sansa e200 doesn't do gapless, support lossless compression, or support Audible audiobooks. And the nano syncs with your Microsoft Outlook (2003 or later) contacts. It's a good bet that this will be Apple's most popular iPod yet, and with good reason.



    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2015696,00.asp



    I think PC Magazine summed it up pretty well, I look forward to spending some money on the iPod line or to be more precise on the new Shuffle... my Girlfriend will probably get a Nano too
  • Reply 17 of 42
    1337_5l4xx0r1337_5l4xx0r Posts: 1,558member
    How anyone can look at that big brick and say it's a threat to Apple's iPod line is beyond me. It's a sad asian rip off, playing catch up and failing miserably.
  • Reply 18 of 42
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R


    How anyone can look at that big brick and say it's a threat to Apple's iPod line is beyond me. It's a sad asian rip off, playing catch up and failing miserably.



    c. 1986: "How anyone can look at that Windows 1.0 and say it's a threat to Apple's Macintosh line is beyond me. It's a sad rip off, playing catch up and failing miserably."



    Just sayin'.



    Never underestimate a massive marketing machine with essentially limitless funds aimed at clueless consumers.
  • Reply 19 of 42
    mike egglestonmike eggleston Posts: 719member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacsRbetterthanPC


    Not that apple is behind in the mp3 player race, but microsofts zune packs a serious punch. The overall features of the zune seem to be better than the iPod. But now the ball is in apples court. How do you think apple will fight back? I still think there is a shot of a shockingly good iPod to come. I don't think Apple will go through the Holiday season without a total redesign of thier iPod line. It just wont happen. I'm gonna go ahead and say October or November there will be an event invitation for a new iPod. What are your thoughts?



    Apple will fight back with the following strategy:



    Apple will send a Hallmark Card saying "Our Deepest Sympathies"
  • Reply 20 of 42
    cuencapcuencap Posts: 99member
    Why would Apple have to fight back when they are already the front-runner in this "race", and the Zune is Microsoft's (weak) attempt at equaling Apple?



    We (haha..Apple) are miles ahead in technology and ideas. While Zune is being debugged, Steve and his people are already thinking 2 iPods ahead... similar to the engineers over at GM/Ford already working on 2010 model cars...
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