iPod envy

Michael Gartenberg | March 13, 2006, 10:46 AM

Omar Shahine still searches for an iPod alternative. Like Omar, i too have been searching to see if there's something on the market that can do what the iPod does and do it as well and it seems we both came up empty. Even getting one of the ex-Pixo guys to help with the new Samsung flash player didn't seem to help all that much. As we get close to the end of the first quarter in 06, it's still Apple way ahead here.

He writes...

I’m beginning to change my mind about things. Even though we have a great eco system for music stores etc, the reality is that our OEM partners are never ever going to create a product like the iPod. They are simply no match for the iPod Dock Connector, which as generated an ecosystem of hardware that’s probably more lucrative than the online music business.

I’m not such a zealot that I’m simply going to go out of my way to make myself miserable when the answer is probably an iPod. I don’t sync my music very often (like once a month) so using iTunes might not be so bad (eeek I can’t believe I said that). All I have to do is have my pc transcode all my music to mp3 or aac in a few days.

Of course one of the things that makes his views so interesting is fact that he works for Microsoft :)

As for me, we'll have to wait to see how the Urge service shakes out when it's released and if there's a proper set of devices along with it that are appealing enough to get users to try it out.