Let us leave out the Indian scenario please..... In the Indian scenario, then yeah I guess the ipod is a good buy.... I guess the best buy.
Now, to answer hunt3r abt why it has 70% of marketshare...... It is marketing and hype. why does BOSE enjoy so much marketshare and popularity ?? Same reason for the ipod.....only thing is ipod isnt as bas compared to the competition as the BOSe speakers are (Was reading tons of links abt Bose today....that is why the BOSE comparison
).
And I have also used iriver and ipod.
I dont have much to bash the ipod..... I am using one now and it is very good. Rugged(how many times I have dropped it), good looks, easily navigation between the thousand of songs.
But the main thing I hate abt the ipod is this ---- PLAYING MUSIC !!! And if I remember correctly, that is what it was built to do right ??
I am not really ipod bashing here..... I am just stating my views. Different people have different views.
I used the same set of headphones with the iriver and the ipod. So, I never got to experience the original ipod earphones. That is the inly problem I have with the ipod.
And I am not an audiophile......not to the level of Amol, Eazy, zhops and Chaos (at least not yet)...... and I am not one tp pay too much attention to looks, etc....
If I had a chance, I would probably go for a Creative or iriver today. They may look slightly worse, they may take a few more fractions of a second to scroll through my songs, but I honestly dont care. I care a lot abt sound quality..... and that is lacking in my personal opinion in the ipod.
Not everyone is as fussy as me.
ipod is a good player...... A very good one. But I would have bought another player if I had the chance