(This thread is specifically intended for the iPod and Cube comparisons going around, so please keep comments Cube marketing related. Oh, and it's the next Cube, not the NeXT Cube!)
Having scanned the forum comments over the past few days, the most common theme is "it's too darn expensive for an MP3 player" which is similar to the initial reaction to the Cube: "it's too darn expensive for a G4 with no slots."
In other words, many people are just not getting it.
Just as the Cube had many intangibles -- its silent opeation, its desktop compactness, its beauty -- which were ignored by lumping it into the "expensive G4 with no slots" category, so too the iPod is more than its current lump-category, "an expensive MP3 player with no PC connectivity".
Blazing fast FireWire transfers, voracious capacity for more albums than many people own (or at least want to listen to), stainless steel elegance, clever GUI interface to access its contents, and dual-functionality as convenient portable storage & backup device.
These are all things the "just another" product category doesn't have -- in other words, for those who do get it, the iPod is a great deal more than an expensive MP3 player.
Apple found 100,000 with the required taste to buy a Cube. Here's hoping the iPod gets a few more.
But will they? Are there more music connoisseurs than there were computer connoisseurs? Or has Apple pulled out another Cube?
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