A LOT of companies should be writing thank you notes to Steven Jobs this year, if the emptiness of my local Big Box shelves is an indication. And Bill Gates should start to worry. A lot.
Through a holiday gift, I have now been anointed a Nano-toting member of the iPod generation. The gift package also came with an Apple iPod USB power adaptor, so there's an additional $29 list added to the initial $199 purchase of the 2GB device.
Add on to that the time I spent feeding in 107 CDs into iTunes and we're already into some non-trivial exercise. True, loading the music was pretty straightforward, but I was still disappointed to see the sum of my humble music collection - plus a couple of podcasts - compressed into a paltry 5.15GB. Put another way, I can take the sum total of my music collection and write it to a dual-layer DVD and still have plenty of space left over.
But what's a Nano without a few more gadgets? I wanted to buy a Nano armband (list $29) so I could wear it while working out and/or clip it to my belt, but no joy. Best Buy's stock of Nano-frills had been stripped bare of Nano-wear, so I was left to feed my sudden urge to catch up with the 21st Century of Music with a DLO Transpod Dock, a combination of charging cradle and FM transmitter for the car ($99). You simple take this gizmo, plug it into the car's power outlet (i.e. fag lighter) and then drop the Nano into it, then spend about five minutes futzing with radio station tuning to find an open channel so it can broadcast into the car's radio.
Let's stop and do the maths. One Nano ($199) + USB charger ($29) + Nano armband ($29) + Transpod ($99) = $356. That's about half way to the price of a laptop or a mid-range desktop box! And it's all tiny little plastic bits and pieces clipping away at the wallet in bits and pieces under $100 after you get the initial iPod, be it the Nano all the way up through the 60GB Video iPod. Put another way, I'm going to spend nearly as much money on extras as was spent for the initial device.
If I decide to get really hog-wild, I can go buy songs at $0.99, but I haven't gotten that bored with my existing music collection and various freebie downloads you can pick up on iTunes. There's also the whole universe of podcasts to add variety.
Instead, there are other alternatives for the Nano to consider. The pair of supplied earbuds are adequate, but I can go super-hip and get an Apple-branded pair of earbuds with the cords in a lanyard style to hang the Nano from for $39. Or get a stylin' Nano color "tube" to keep it scratch free for $29 or get a dock for… $29. Or, I can get rid of my legacy boombox and replace it with a pair of speakers for anywhere from $125 for the low-end to high-brow Bose speakers for $299.
Why should Bill Gates be afraid? Every iPod gets a copy of iTunes installed on Windows PCs. Every copy of iTunes gives Steven Jobs the ability to sell music and TV video to users today. Without the expense or complications of buying a Windows XP Media PC. It's not clear if iTunes will lead to more Mac sales over the long run, but it can't hurt.
Through a holiday gift, I have now been anointed a Nano-toting member of the iPod generation. The gift package also came with an Apple iPod USB power adaptor, so there's an additional $29 list added to the initial $199 purchase of the 2GB device.
Add on to that the time I spent feeding in 107 CDs into iTunes and we're already into some non-trivial exercise. True, loading the music was pretty straightforward, but I was still disappointed to see the sum of my humble music collection - plus a couple of podcasts - compressed into a paltry 5.15GB. Put another way, I can take the sum total of my music collection and write it to a dual-layer DVD and still have plenty of space left over.
But what's a Nano without a few more gadgets? I wanted to buy a Nano armband (list $29) so I could wear it while working out and/or clip it to my belt, but no joy. Best Buy's stock of Nano-frills had been stripped bare of Nano-wear, so I was left to feed my sudden urge to catch up with the 21st Century of Music with a DLO Transpod Dock, a combination of charging cradle and FM transmitter for the car ($99). You simple take this gizmo, plug it into the car's power outlet (i.e. fag lighter) and then drop the Nano into it, then spend about five minutes futzing with radio station tuning to find an open channel so it can broadcast into the car's radio.
Let's stop and do the maths. One Nano ($199) + USB charger ($29) + Nano armband ($29) + Transpod ($99) = $356. That's about half way to the price of a laptop or a mid-range desktop box! And it's all tiny little plastic bits and pieces clipping away at the wallet in bits and pieces under $100 after you get the initial iPod, be it the Nano all the way up through the 60GB Video iPod. Put another way, I'm going to spend nearly as much money on extras as was spent for the initial device.
If I decide to get really hog-wild, I can go buy songs at $0.99, but I haven't gotten that bored with my existing music collection and various freebie downloads you can pick up on iTunes. There's also the whole universe of podcasts to add variety.
Instead, there are other alternatives for the Nano to consider. The pair of supplied earbuds are adequate, but I can go super-hip and get an Apple-branded pair of earbuds with the cords in a lanyard style to hang the Nano from for $39. Or get a stylin' Nano color "tube" to keep it scratch free for $29 or get a dock for… $29. Or, I can get rid of my legacy boombox and replace it with a pair of speakers for anywhere from $125 for the low-end to high-brow Bose speakers for $299.
Why should Bill Gates be afraid? Every iPod gets a copy of iTunes installed on Windows PCs. Every copy of iTunes gives Steven Jobs the ability to sell music and TV video to users today. Without the expense or complications of buying a Windows XP Media PC. It's not clear if iTunes will lead to more Mac sales over the long run, but it can't hurt.
hyeah: