mental notes

I think I'm finally going to do it. I'm going to use my blog to sound off about something that's been on my mind as of late. Something I've rocked the boat with numerous times, in numerous circles.

It's about my concerns about the iPod. Before you stop reading (and thereby playing the part of the five-year-old child with his hands over his ears screaming as loud as he can), at least entertain the notion of being open-minded (as I have) and for a moment, see why I came to opinion that I have.

I'm going to say this right off. The iPod is a good music player. It's probably the first player to come out with an easily usable interface, that behaves in a consistent and predictable manner. The audio quality is also good, even with those stylish eggshell white earbuds that come packed in. Furthermore, an iPod owner can load the iTunes software on their PC or Mac, plug in their sparkly new device and it just works (most of the time). There is a lot of merit to the iPod, and that accounts for why its sales have far exceeded any of the competition's portable digital music player.

But as anyone who stood in line for hours to see Star Wars Episode I, has bought a Chrysler PT Neon...erm CRUISER, or played Myst on their PC or Mac will surely tell you that sales are a poor indicator of quality or functionality.

With everything that the iPod is, there are an equal number of things the iPod ISN'T. The iPod is a reliable device...up until its unreplaceable battery fails. The iPod's software is easy to use and works well...as long as you use Apple's iTunes software and not any 3rd party software, which is broken immediately upon updating iTunes. The iPod sounds good...I've certainly heard better and worse. (In my own tests, I favored the warm audio quality of the iRiver H10 against the rigid and plastic sound of the iPod Mini). The iPod's impressive catalogue via iTunes lets you download damn near anything you want for only .99 per track quickly and easily...but iTunes isn't the only music store on the Internet, and if Apple had their way it would be. The iPod has enjoyed the best sales of any portable digital music player...but that doesn't mean it's the best player around.

See, that's the rub. The iPod has enjoyed such a loyal - almost militant - following, that its patrons will stand up and fight for everything their iPods are, with little regard to what they aren't. Surely, such a die-hard following of fanboys (and fangirls) must be a good thing for Apple, right? For now, but the American consumer is fickle. For now, Steve Jobs can enjoy his newfound riches in iPod sales, because they'll be short-lived.

When the iPod first came out, I thought to myself "hey, they're advertising an MP3 player on TV, now people will finally start buying them!" I started seeing joggers trading in their goofy FM Stereo headsets for those almost illuminescent white earbuds. iPod quickly became a household name. Where I saw just an ordinary MP3 player (not a new invention in my mind), the masses saw iPods, and that's what they bought, with little regard to the other devices that performed the same function. The advertising worked.

Now some of you would have me believe that the reason for the success of the iPod is due to it simply being better a better product, and that may be partially true. What you can't convince me of is that every person who bought an iPod has read and researched their buying decision.

Most parents who don't know Little Jimmy has been downloading Good Charlotte and Linkin Park records illegally from Kazaa on their brand-new Dell PC will even know why he wants an iPod so badly, but it sure seems like a great Christmas present. So, mom strolls into Best Buy and says "Little Jimmy wants an I-POD thing" and the blue-shirted monkey happily produces a smallish box that mom begrudgingly pays $300 for so it'll pacify her kid.

Enter Microsoft. I'm not a Microsoft fanboy by any means. I'm sitting at a Windows XP system right now, behind a 4-port KVM connected to 2 other Linux boxes, and the 4th connection I'm saving for when my iMac Mini comes in (someday :( ). I like to consider myself agnostic, possibly even open-minded. I'll even give MS the benefit of the doubt in saying that not everything they do is with evil intent. Hell, Bill and Melinda Gates are always over in Africa trying to find a cure for AIDs or some damn thing like that, so they can't be all THAT BAD, right? Then there's Apple, and their mascot Steve Jobs, who also is CEO of Pixar...Hey, anyone who gave us Monsters, Inc. (that movie still makes me cry) can't be all bad, right?

Okay, so we have these two businesses just trying to make a living, another day another couple of million dollars, right? So, honest and jovial Apple releases the iPod so that everyone can enjoy music. How nice of them! Oh, and look at this. They've also opened up a nice music store so that all of the good, honest citizens who fear God and the RIAA can buy lovely music to fill their iPods with for a menial buck a song. And all that money goes to support artists. Such a deal!

But all is not well in Microsoftland. Apparently, Bill and Melinda Gates have been going around to people's homes and ramming Windows Media Player RIGHT DOWN PEOPLES THROATS with RED HOT POKERS, while they lie squirming defenseless, unable to click on Add/Remove programs or download Winamp. Then the Europian Union steps in, spanks the evil Micro$oft with a record fine and orders them to sell a special version of Windows sans Windows Media Player software, which people promptly download anyways. Or iTunes, since we all want to support the do-gooding Apple empire which, rumour has it, hands out flowers for little school girls to put in thier hair, tutors the mentally handicapped, and helps elderly ladies across the street.
We all know that's not how it goes down, but your average Apple fanboy would have you believe that scenario. The truth is, Apple is a business just like Microsoft, and no matter how biased one may be, they're hardly distinguishable. They both have pushy stockholders that only want the company to make money. And neither company will let the other stop it from achieving that goal. Two houses, both alike in dignity.

This is where I get closer to my point. There sits your waiting iPod, ready to be filled with your favorite music. You load up iTunes, and start buying tracks at a buck a pop (remember, folks we're doing this the LEGAL way). There, almost a hundred bucks later, you've got an iPod filled with all kinds of new tracks that you can't wait to rock out to. Ahh yes, sweet sonic AAC goodness, and you don't even have to worry about Metallica busting down your door and shoving a Fender Stratacaster up your pooper for stealing music.

You listen, and realize "oh hey, I'm not to wild about this track...or this one...or this." and then it dawns on you that you've payed for these tracks, you hate them (hopefuly, you love some or most, of course) but really you've payed into music that you may not enjoy. Or, maybe that Richard Cheese album you payed $10 for just doesn't sound as good to you the third or fourth time around. Guess what, you bought it, you own it. There are no returns at the iTunes Music Store.

Okay, so lesson learned. Next go around, you'll listen to the 30-second samples and be more careful, right?Only, who wants to be tied to a computer listening to samples of music? Portability: That's what you bought an iPod for, right?

Well, there's have good news and bad news. While Apple has been marketing the hell out of their device, Microsoft has gone and released Windows Media Player 10, complete with some new DRM tricks that Apple never thought of...

The good news is that now owners of players emblazoned with the Windows Media Plays For Sure logo can enjoy legal, downloadable content from a number of providers (like Walmart Music and PassAlong), and even a select few players allow for downloadable subscription content (Such as the venerable Napster, Yahoo!, and Rhapsody services). Imagine, for the price of one and a half Richard Cheese albums a month, you can fill up your music player with as much as you want, without incurring a further cost.

The bad news is that since Apple uses it's own proprietary DRM that's been cemented to proprietary AAC files (lovingly called FairPlay), all those happy iPod owners out there aren't going to enjoy the benefits that WMP 10 provides. What iPod owners get as a small bone tossed in their general direction is the new free Podcasting feature that Apple is touting.

From what I understand, Podcasting is simply a pre-recorded stream that you can upload to your iPod for future listening. This stream might include music (preprogrammed by someone else, not you), news (which by the time you listen to it might not be news anymore), sports, or entertainment content. Better still, it's compatible with ANY iPod whose batteries are still functional.

And really, it can be done with any competant music player, except that the Podcasts are in Apple's own FairPlay. Apple advertises "Radio is finally free" on their website. Guys, Radio has always been free, it just didn't take a $300 device to enjoy it. Most competant portable music players also have FM tuners built right in for listening to truly live radio. The iPod requires a bulky attachment to enjoy live radio.

Then again, we're talking about the iPod, not a competant music player. Podcasting seems to be a pretty shoddy attempt at preserving iPod's dominance. This wreaks of Apple's admission that they've run out of ideas to plaguerize and profit from. It's only a matter of time that people start to realize that the iPod is nothing special.

So if the iPod isn't the best, what is? The truth is, there is no "best"...yet. Sure, there are a lot of REALLY GOOD contenders, like the iRiver H10 or the Toshiba Gigabeat, but none are quite there yet. It'll only be a matter of time before some crafty and innovative vendor knocks the iPod right off its throne, offering more choices (Support for WMA, Janus, others), ease of use, features, sound quality, and great price. Shouldn't be hard to do, really.

What's going to ultimately kill the iPod is Apple's attitude of Apple vs. The World. Buy an iPod, and you're pretty much guaranteed that you're going to give Apple more money through iTMS. Apple has the stranglehold on the music store, and the hardware that plays back the product. No one else can make iPod-compatible hardware, and no one else's hardware can play a Fairplay-encoded file.

This seems eerily similar to the days of the Laser and Franklin computer systems, that were single-handedly sued out of existence by Apple. Now it seems that history repeats itself, only no one else is daring to crack Apple's Fairplay, and Apple isn't licensing it, either. Thus, no choice is given to owners of iPod hardware. Apple has even gone out of their way to break any third party iPod compatible software with recent updates to iTunes. Nevermind the hassles that non-iPod owners have to go through just to have iTunes and Quicktime software exist on their systems without the additional processes being thrust upon you (What DOES that little blue Q do for you?), with no ability to prevent them during the install process.

Apple supporters remain mute about this behavior and pass it off as acceptable. Why is it okay when Apple does it, but not Microsoft?

iTMS and iPod have the market share right now. Whether or not iPod fans will admit it, there are numerous competant alternatives, some that use Microsoft's DRM, some that use Real's Janus, some that don't use any sort of protection at all. Front runners might say the war is over and won, but the truth is, the Portable Music market is in its infancy.

Apple had a good run, but it's not the only game in town, and it's complacency is going to make way for new blood to overthrow the king. The only question is who?

(Some) Sources:
http://www.bythom.com/apple.htm
http://blogs.dasmirnov.net/paul/2004/11/21/why_the_ipod_sucks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding
http://www.vialicensing.com/products/mpeg4aac/standard.html
http://www.playsforsure.com
http://www.apple.com/podcasting/