[John Q. Smith]

I reckon that the Great iPod Backlash is not a long way off. The masses will not tolerate being held in bondage by the Clickwheel, and soon they will demand freedom for themselves. Glaring white headphones were fashionable last year, but this year they will be the symbol of oppression, and artificial limitation of choice. The Mighty Apple think that they can continue to keep us in our chains- to keep us buying only one brand of music player- but they themselves are destined to fall. The iPod Shuffle is the first sign of this weakness. Soon, they will be trying to force us into buying even more ridiculous products, like gigantic tabletop iPods, and at this point, the consumers will be fed up. They will yearn for choice, for black headphones, for lower prices, for better music stores, and they will rise up against Apple and destroy the iPod.

[Xeo]

Well I think you are crazy, but I think the iPod does have enough trend to it that it will go "out of style" eventually and probably within the next few years.

However, there is plenty of choice out there so your argument makes no sense. People might stop buying iPods but it won't be because of some angry mob who decides to boycott it.

[John Q. Smith]

Well, fair enough.

[CD Hanks]

Originally posted by Xeo:
Well I think you are crazy.

You should have ended the post there.

[OB1]

"not a long way off..."? Since early 04' the white iPod ear buds have been a huge fashion faux pas.

[- - e r i k - -]

Who cares if iPods are fashionable or not? It's still the best digital media player out there. And in my book, that's the only thing that matters. Bring on the competition I say. They've had long enough to catch up, but they haven't. Yawn.

[chris v]

I reckon that the Great John Q Smith Backlash is not a long way off. The masses will not tolerate being held in bondage by the John Q Smith, and soon they will demand freedom for themselves. Glaring white John Q Smith was fashionable last year, but this year they will be the symbol of oppression, and artificial limitation of choice. The Mighty John Q Smith think that they can continue to keep us in our chains- to keep us buying only one brand of John Q Smith player- but they themselves are destined to fall. The John Q Smith Shuffle is the first sign of this weakness. Soon, they will be trying to force us into buying even more ridiculous products, like gigantic tabletop John Q Smith, and at this point, the consumers will be fed up. They will yearn for choice, for black John Q Smith, for lower prices, for better music stores, and they will rise up against John Q Smith and destroy the John Q Smith.

[OldManMac]

[Cubeoid]

Originally posted by chris v:
Soon, they will be trying to force us into buying even more ridiculous products, like gigantic tabletop John Q Smith, and at this point, the consumers will be fed up. They will yearn for choice, for black John Q Smith, for lower prices, for better music stores, and they will rise up against John Q Smith and destroy the John Q Smith.

[hardcat1970]

I don't know why so many people against the ipod. This is the very first product I remember that is actually the very best in the market and wins.

[amsalpemkcus]

It's amazing how people have been willing to pay so much for the ipod. I have never thought they are worth so much. Apple surely makes a killing on each unit sold.

[Cubeoid]

Up to this point this thread has been treated, well bucketed i might say with a healthy ammount of hyflamarity (hilarious flamery). However, it should be noted from a modern sociological point of view that the original post by one John Q. Smith did infact hold a significant ammount of true validity cupped in a sociological orb.

To further explain this I now direct your attention to Filip.

Filip: Thank you Cubeoid. Here my good people we have a typical exmaple of modern socialists or left leaning folks, voicing their rage at another example of corporate machinery interacting with our social organisms.

To skip away from such quasi-scientific symbolisms, let me put it with simplicity which I hope will be fully taken in by readers. In our current age we seem to be shaken among a number of levels of society, most prevelant lately, has been the uprising of anti-globalisation (anti-capitalism) activists which shun and bring to public shame, multinational corporations such as Phillip Morris, McDonalds, Nike, General Motors, and GAP.

With the rise of these anti-corporate youths (most activists are college students, or unemployed hippies) corporations have been using sad attempts to blend in to this new "dollar" on the market. "The anti-market dollar".1

An example is pop singers acting the part of revolutionary leader of social change in their video clips, and eating out of the hand of babylon the next moment. Think Madonna.

The iPod is from Apple. The company whose tagline reads "Think Different" , or has it become "Buy iPod" or in some underground circles "New Hotness!"

Two words can explain this phenomenon, which has become so common place in today's society. Selling Out. This is what the anger is, the cry for a real revolution. A revolution which bursts through the cabaret of comercials and exterme products. But will we see this event in our lives, and if yes, is it upon us soon.

1. Something that the great Bill Hicks was so vexed in a joke came to pass into reality.

[OB1]

Originally posted by Cubeoid:
To skip away from such quasi-scientific symbolisms, let me put it with simplicity which I hope will be fully taken in by readers.

Yeah? You wanted to make your point as simply as possible? Because your post read as if you wanted to come across like a 1st year sociology student who's learnt some new words that he hopes will baffle people and make him appear highbrow.

[John Q. Smith]

Originally posted by OB1:
Yeah? You wanted to make your point as simply as possible? Because your post read as if you wanted to come across like a 1st year sociology student who's learnt some new words that he hopes will baffle people and make him appear highbrow.

yea, those stupid college kids and their fancy "word learning"

[amsalpemkcus]

Originally posted by Cubeoid:

With the rise of these anti-corporate youths (most activists are college students, or unemployed hippies) corporations have been using sad attempts to blend in to this new "dollar" on the market. "The anti-market dollar".1

Think Madonna.

The iPod is from Apple. The company whose tagline reads "Think Different" , or has it become "Buy iPod" or in some underground circles "New Hotness!"

Two words can explain this phenomenon, which has become so common place in today's society. Selling Out. This is what the anger is, the cry for a real revolution. A revolution which bursts through the cabaret of comercials and exterme products. But will we see this event in our lives, and if yes, is it upon us soon.

Sounds like you are ejecting your brain tissue in your diarrhea!!

[euchomai]

Originally posted by amsalpemkcus:
It's amazing how people have been willing to pay so much for the ipod. I have never thought they are worth so much. Apple surely makes a killing on each unit sold.

I feel like the price of the iPod compared with the other portable music choices we have is a really great price. When you can go to Best Buy and see Creative selling 512 and smaller units for over $100 you can see how much value 4 gigs and up really is.

[MacGorilla]

This thread is stuck in the Great Vortex of Stupidity™

[hardcat1970]

Originally posted by amsalpemkcus:
It's amazing how people have been willing to pay so much for the ipod. I have never thought they are worth so much. Apple surely makes a killing on each unit sold.

It's because apple has to pay good money to those "talented people". Good design and good marketing effort are well demonstrated in this company. One thing that creative, and many other Asian companies don't get it is because they don't think design is important. They often packed with bunch of features, but like i said, ipod is the first product that are actually the best when it first came out.

If apple didn't come out with scroll wheel and itunes music store combination, do you think any other companies would have think of that? Do you think the creative zen micro would have come out the vertical pad concept?

[goMac]

Apple always usually seems two steps ahead of fashion. Fashion follows Apple. I think 2005 will be the year of the restyled iPod which will make an entirely new fashion statement. People will replace their iPods to get rid of the new ones which no longer match fashion.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

word up homey

i just took my ipod and tossed it into the ocean. i deleted itunes and my mp3 library and started using my sister's jewelry box instead.

for portability i started smoking crack so that i hear stuff all the time without the need of a device


and i farted

[willed]

This post is unnecessary.






















As is this thread.

[JHromadka]

It must be stopped!

[Superchicken]

I think actually that the Mac user culture goes fairly well with the anti-corporate anti-M$ mentality. I think people think of that somewhat.

[TheJoshu]

I enjoy using my iPod. It's a quality product and I like what it does.

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

insane

[ManOfSteal]

Proud of you.®

[ReggieX]

Originally posted by amsalpemkcus:
It's amazing how people have been willing to pay so much for the ipod. I have never thought they are worth so much. Apple surely makes a killing on each unit sold.

They don't make a killing on each one. I've looked at all the other hard drive MP3 players out there in the last year (bought my iPod in December 2002), and all their so-called features are things I will never use, so they're not features to me. The iPod plays music and as a bonus I can keep phone numbers on it if I can't remember one for some reason. That's all I want and that's all I need, so it fits perfectly. If someone wants more "features" they're welcome to find a unit that fills that need, and they should stop thinking that the iPod is the only MP3 player out there.

[hardcat1970]

Originally posted by ReggieX:
They don't make a killing on each one. I've looked at all the other hard drive MP3 players out there in the last year (bought my iPod in December 2002), and all their so-called features are things I will never use, so they're not features to me. The iPod plays music and as a bonus I can keep phone numbers on it if I can't remember one for some reason. That's all I want and that's all I need, so it fits perfectly. If someone wants more "features" they're welcome to find a unit that fills that need, and they should stop thinking that the iPod is the only MP3 player out there.

Actually when apple started adding extra to ipod, it nearly killed them with the infamous decreasing battery life. I had my original 5GB ipod playing music and everything went fine. It didn't lose any battery life when it did not play for several day. However once the updater firmware 1.1 was released, and the battery life went south.

[Millennium]

I don't think we'll see giant tabletop iPods, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a large set-top box based on the iPod platform, as the "media server" that people are always bringing up as a rumor.

Frankly, I'd be happy if they just opened up FairPlay.

[Dale Sorel]

It's a silly music player, for crying out loud

[Kilbey]

Originally posted by Dale Sorel:
It's a silly music player, for crying out loud

Well said.

[Superchicken]

I think iPod will continue to become a marketing brand, I'm not sure if Apple wants to kill it the way Microsoft did .net IE everything became a Microsoft .net product even if it wasn't related. I think instead we might see from the iPod group in the company a product that was like the iPod but perhaps called the iBox, iSomething or other, that will integrate with the iPod, the Mac platform, and if need be Windows to handle the video aspect of the digital home. We'll probably see the Mac and the iPod continue to intermingle but not be one and the same. That said I think we'll see Apple coming out with some nifty iPod influenced stuff that will be nifty for the home. Imagine a click wheel on a remote control? Control volume, shuffle through channels, etc.

[Lancer409]

i'm happy with mine. as long as you are happy with what you got .. why worry about someone who's crying over the iPod?

[Eriamjh]

Those who do not have an iPod and have bought something else, hate the iPod.

Those who bought an iPod, love it.

Since those who buy iPods outnumber those who buy not-Pods, the love will continue.

[chris v]

I got my hands on an iPod shuffle yesterday. All you hatas are just hatin' cos you just don't know.

[Aiglos]

Originally posted by John Q. Smith:
Soon, they will be trying to force us into buying even more ridiculous products, like gigantic tabletop iPods, and at this point, the consumers will be fed up. They will yearn for choice, for black headphones, for lower prices, for better music stores, and they will rise up against Apple and destroy the iPod.

I don't know what you're talking about. I have black headphones. Sennheisers are great!

My choice is vast, but I choose iPod. Though their original ear buds sucked.

[TubaMuffins]

Originally posted by chris v:
I got my hands on an iPod shuffle yesterday. All you hatas are just hatin' cos you just don't know.

true. i hated the ipod mini until i went to apple store and played around with it, same thing will probably happen when i get to play with the shuffle too.

[macintologist]

Doesn't it seem like since the iPod/iTMS craze Apple has lost some focus on it's true purpose...making computers?? It's now a year and a half after WWDC 2003 and still no 3Ghz Powermacs. We are still at just 2% or less of marketshare. I hope someone gives Steve an ass-kicking to get him back in line of concentrating on making great COMPUTERS.

[typoon]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Doesn't it seem like since the iPod/iTMS craze Apple has lost some focus on it's true purpose...making computers?? It's now a year and a half after WWDC 2003 and still no 3Ghz Powermacs. We are still at just 2% or less of marketshare. I hope someone gives Steve an ass-kicking to get him back in line of concentrating on making great COMPUTERS.

I agree with that. I was looking to upgrade my aging Qucksilver to a 3 GHz G5. Instead of waiting I went out and go the "Next Great Computer" the Mac mini. This machine I think will really help Apple more than a 3GHz G5.

[chris v]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Doesn't it seem like since the iPod/iTMS craze Apple has lost some focus on it's true purpose...making computers?? It's now a year and a half after WWDC 2003 and still no 3Ghz Powermacs. We are still at just 2% or less of marketshare. I hope someone gives Steve an ass-kicking to get him back in line of concentrating on making great COMPUTERS.

I would agree with that if there were any 3 GHZ processors to be had. To be fair, the entire industry has kind of hit a wall. Intel is pretty well stuck at 3.2 for the last year, too.

[Xeo]

Originally posted by chris v:
I would agree with that if there were any 3 GHZ processors to be had. To be fair, the entire industry has kind of hit a wall. Intel is pretty well stuck at 3.2 for the last year, too.

While that's true, the G5 is an entirely different chip and shouldn't be at a wall just because Intel is. They did promise 3GHz by a certain time and that came and went.

Personally it doesn't bother me. Not like I'm getting ready to shell out for a G5 any time soon anyway.

[Link]

Intel stuck at 3.2ghz? You can get a P4 for 3.8ghz and overclock those suckers up to 4.5ghz or so without any sort of special cooling.

I think the reason intel ditched the P4 was because they couldn't market anything else, and it wasn't the future of their line because going past 4ghz = crappy yields.

So yeah, dropping it while they can repair the damage could be a sensible idea.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

It feels like to me, people are "over" computers. It is just a part of daily life now.

Seems to me Apple can continue making great computers all they want but what they need is "THE NEXT BEST THING". They need to latch onto it and ride it until the company is in better position tha they are currently.

They already lost round one, round 2 seems to be coming up. The iPod is not it or atleast not all of it. I'm willing o wait this out, it's not like Apple is going to go out of business or anything.