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Doc links:
"I'm quoted in Apple's ipod Shuffle Stifles Podcasting, in Internet News. The headline suggests that I (among others) think the iPod Shuffle is bad for podcasting. Not so:"
Read at: http://garage.docsearls.com/node/view/524
Here then follows my rant on this interesting marketing non-issue:
Jeez, why are folks having such a hard time with the iPod? Is it because Apple finally did something right and they just can't stand that?
The iPod validated the MP3 player industry and kicked it out of a meandering puddle of mediocrity while also setting the standards. Apple still owns the front-lines because when Steve gets it right he puts a dent in the universe. There are still so few successful alternatives to the iPod because an ugly piece of shit with a crappy audio circuit playing nasty WMA files won't sell to anyone who actually cares about music. Apple's success is based on QUALITY, design and marketing. Oh yeah, and features.
Even iRiver - the brand that has come the closest - cripples their products with names like "H10," and the sonorous "100 Series or "800 Series." How can they fail with such memorable monikers. Finally their products are decorated in that exciting generic silver & black lack-of-color-scheme. Finally they hang control buttons all over just to drive home the point that they don't now how to market consumer products. iRiver is just fine for the early adaptors all six-thousand of them, but poop for normal people. Where's the innovation? Where's the design? The iRiver and the others will remain just geek devices until the they learn to include Mom and the kids in their market instead of piling up 'features at a price point' then packing the pegs at WalMart. And by the way, you don't launch a great product straight into WalMart, as the 'competitors' have all done, Walmart is where great products go to die.
I can just see the face of someone who gets an iRiver as a gift. They'll feel cheated because they didn't get a real one. Apple has created and shipped a very neat product so good that it defines it's category - a very tough act to follow. The only way Apple can loose in the near term is to screw it up like they did with personal computers over a decade ago. Perhaps they've learned that lesson.
So, until the 'competitors' compete with the entire iPod product, and the entire iPod market, they will always fall short. I can't see anyone except Sony doing that and even they have been stepping into it neck deep of late.
Why is this so hard to understand?
9:53:05 AM
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Doc Searls, the famous 'Alpha Blogger' has gotten caught up by the fever to deny the iPod and Apple credit for what they've done. At least he does the right thing and sets the record straight: