e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tenderloin]

Apple sits on digital-music throne with iPod and store

February 16, 2004

There may be a mini-revolution – iPod mini, that is – with Apple's release of its junior digital music player, due out soon. The full-size iPod dominates the field with about 25 percent to 30 percent of the digital-player market.

Since 2001, Apple has sold more than 2 million iPods, 733,000 in the last quarter alone. The company has achieved the kind of market share with the iPod that it never will with its computers, unfortunately.

The iPod's success parallels that of Apple's online iTunes Music Store, which has sold more than 30 million downloads since it opened for business in April.

Both the iPod and the music store work with Windows-based PCs as well as Macs.

The mini, at 3.6 ounces, or 2 ounces lighter than its sibling, will hold 4 gigabytes of music (about 1,000 songs) and sell for $249. It will come in a rainbow of colors – blue, pink, green, silver and gold.

The full-size iPod now starts with a 15-gigabyte hard drive ($299) and goes up to a 40-gigabyte model ($499).

Yes, there are other less-expensive – and perfectly decent – players out there. And there are new ones in the offing.

This spring, Sony, which started the whole portable-music revolution 25 years ago with the creation of the Walkman, plans to launch a downloading service that will work with its new players. Players from iRiver, Dell and Gateway are also well-regarded.

Class by itself

But the iPod is in a class by itself. Not only is the device inspired, the software it uses makes it easy to add and update music. In many ways, the iPod is the epitome of what good technology should be: easy to use and awfully fun.

It is also one of the most personal gadgets in the personal-technology universe. Forget spreadsheets here! We don't need no stinkin' spreadsheets! To heck with e-mail. Bah, humbug to boring desktop calendars. We're talking music here! Who doesn't like music?

And while iPods may look alike, each holds a key to its owner's personality. In a country replete with strip malls, tract houses and big-box retailers, the iPod represents individuality. No two iPod owners will have the same music on their devices.

Being able to carry your entire music collection on this one device, no matter where you go, makes 12-CD players in cars seem very 20th century.

An early bump

Careful readers will note that I said "in many ways" – but not all – the iPod is the epitome of good technology. When I got mine recently, it worked great – the first time. After that, it was like amnesia had struck the player. I wound up sending it back to Apple, and it was returned to me 10 days later, repaired and ready to rumba.

So far, so good. I add new tunes to it almost daily, and now have more than 600 music files on it, with more than half of them coming from my own CDs. With a 20-gigabyte drive, I have about 4,400 songs to go before it's filled up. I'm a happy camper.

The battery issue

There is controversy about the iPod's battery life over the long haul. The iPod has a hard drive that stores music and uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery, with up to 8 hours' play. Most other players rely on flash memory for storage and AA or AAA batteries to run.

Last fall, Casey Neistat, a New York filmmaker, took his 2001 iPod to an Apple store in Manhattan last fall to ask about replacing the device's battery. He said he was told that his best bet was to buy a new iPod, that a replacement battery was not an option. That resulted in his creating a Web site (http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com) to protest Apple's handling of the matter. The site got lots of publicity. And it probably spurred Apple to create a $99 battery-replacement offer, which Neistat now describes as "fair."

Still, Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit by some who say the company has misrepresented the iPod's battery life. Apple says it is doing its own investigation.

Suzanne Choney: [phone]; suzanne.choney@ uniontrib.com

iPod mini wins over press
By Karen Haslam

Apple's new iPod mini is earning rave media reviews prior to it hitting US shops on Friday.

Regarding its styling, Cnet states: "The Apple iPod mini's design surpasses even that of its photogenic older sibling."


Similarly a Mercury News article says: "The Mini's elegant exterior. The one-piece anodized aluminum shell, the same casing as Apple's PowerBook laptop computers, is a thing of beauty."


The mini also receives praise for its diminutive size. The Mercury News makes the following comparison with the standard iPod: "The regular iPod squeezes into a shirt pocket and drags down your shirt front. The Mini gets lost in a shirt pocket. The regular iPod can be cradled in your hand. The Mini can be hidden in your fingers."

Cnet notes: "The new player takes up less volume than any other player that uses Hitachi's 4GB one-inch hard drive."

The tough exterior of the iPod mini is also commented on. Cnet describes its "stylish, anodized-aluminum shell" and states: "It is so tough that we felt as if we could stand on the device without consequence."

Also praised is the iPod mini's new style scroll wheel. Cnet says: "The tastiest design treat to our palate is the revamped scrollwheel."

Similarly Bizreport states: "That ClickWheel is a revelation. As a result, this may be the first MP3 player that can be operated while wearing mittens."

Other new functions are also highlighted. Cnet singles out Autosync mode saying: "iTunes sizes up your Mini's available storage space and creates a playlist that fits the capacity perfectly, consisting of songs you've rated highly or listened to more frequently."

One area where Apple could have received criticism is over battery life. But all the journalists who have reviewed the new device are satisfied with the battery performance of this new model.

In fact Bizreport found that battery life surpassed Apple's promise: "Battery life, at about 10 hours, actually exceeded Apple's estimate of eight hours."

One area where the iPod mini did attract criticism was price, with the Mercury News noting that a 15GB iPod costs a mere $50 more.

The author of the Mercury News report says: "My digital music library is now 8 gigabytes, so it wouldn't fit in the Mini. But it would fit in the 15-gigabyte model with lots of room to grow. This cools my love-at-first-sight reaction to the Mini. I don't yet own a portable hard-disk music player, although I'm seriously contemplating a purchase this year. But it won't be the Mini; at the moment, I'm leaning toward the 15-gigabyte iPod."

But Bizreport doesn't see the need for the extra gigabytes. The report states: "Unless you just can't live without having your entire music library in your pocket – say, if you're planning a trip around the world -- the mini iPod's more than enough."

In Cnet's opinion: "At $250, the iPod Mini is more expensive than some hard drive-based players with larger capacities, but bragging rights alone could make it worth the price."

Despite the author's decision to opt for the 15GB iPod, Bizreport still believes that the new iPod mini is better than the original iPod. The report states: "The old iPod worked fine, but this is better. This kind of painstaking perfectionism explains why the iPod continues to sell so well -– the rest of the industry runs on a "get it working, then move onto something else" mentality."