I don’t understand the ipod craze, personally. They’re overpriced, for starters. Namely, the ipod nano. Yes, it’s small and “cute” but jesus christ, $200 for 2GB and $250 for 4GB? You’ve gotta be kidding me, right? I picked up an iriver H10 6GB for $167.50 on ebay and they can easily be found for right around $200 online if you don’t buy from Ebay. So let’s see here… for the same price as a 2GB nano, you get 3x the storage and the same color screen. Size-wise it’s slightly larger but that’s pretty negligible.
With the ipod, you’re basically tied to itunes for synching and purchasing music online. Some of the online music stores like Rhapsody and Yahoo Music will allow you to transfer music to the ipod using their software but the ipod itself won’t play music you purchase from their store because it’s in wma format and the ipod doesn’t support wma files. Basically if you want to BUY music you have to pay $0.99 per track via the itunes store. With my iriver H10 I can use any software except itunes to transfer music to my device…. Not only that, I can purchase music from any online music store (except itunes) and even transfer subscription content from Rhapsody to Go, Napster to Go and Yahoo Music Unlimited. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me. I pay $7/month and have access to over 1 million songs at any given time and can transfer any of them to my mp3 player and listen to them until my heart’s content. Let’s see here… 1000 songs from itunes music store = $1000. 1000 transferred via Yahoo Music = $6.99 per month or $60 for a whole year. Also, if I choose to purchase the music (meaning it won’t expire when I cancel my subscription), it’s only $0.79 per track. Still cheaper than itunes and in better quality, too.
Another nice thing about the iriver? I can replace the battery if it goes dead and refuses to charge. The cost? $39.99 via iriver’s online store. Ipod batteries aren’t user-replaceable. Well, let me re-phrase that. They’re user replaceable but not by your average joe and they’re not MEANT to be replaced by the end user. You’re supposed to ship it off to Apple and have them replace it. Heck, I can carry a spare battery for my iriver H10 and if my battery goes dead and I don’t have the charger with me, I can just swap out batteries for another 7-8 hrs of playback time. $40 for a battery? That’s cheaper than most cellphone batteries!
Features? Well, I don’t see any features the ipod has that the iriver doesn’t. The iriver does photos, text and FM radio along with playing mp3 and wma. Not only that, it has the capability to record fm radio and has a built-in microphone to act as a voice recorder. If you purchase the optional dock ($39.99) you can record via line-in sources as well. The ipod doesn’t do fm radio nor does it record jack shit. It also doesn’t play wma, instead opting for apple’s proprietary formats that just aren’t as common today as wma (despite it being microsoft proprietary). Both include a touch-sensitive interface, though apple’s click wheel is arguably somewhat more intuitive. The iriver can be used as a removable disk drive by plugging it in and powering on while holding the circle key… This makes it show up as a disk drive with a letter in windows explorer. The same can be done for the ipod, though I’m not sure how. I’m sure it’s no more difficult. Both include decent headphones in the box… However, the iriver includes a carrying case with a belt clip in the box. It’s uglier than shit, but it works and saves you from having to buy something right off the bat just so you can carry it around on your hip. The ipod is available in more colors…. uhhh, ok.
Accessories? Well, for the most part, everything that you can get for the ipod you can get for the iriver (or any other alternative player out there). Amusingly, the ipod nano armband is $29 while the iriver one is a whopping $7.99. Both players have an available dock. Surprisingly Apple wins this round as their dock is $10 cheaper ($29.99 vs $39.99 for the iriver). You can buy an inline remote control for the iriver for $25 that allows you to operate the player’s basic features without having to actually have it in your hand. The ipod nano does not offer such an accessory, though the ipod mini and full size ipods do. They are a bit more expensive, though since they’re of the wireless variety and are more meant to control your ipod when it’s stationary and plugged into your stereo, not while you’re out on the go. Replacement USB cables are $5 cheaper for the iriver than for the ipod ($14.99 vs $19.99). Car chargers are about $20 for each. All in all, most accessories are a bit cheaper for the iriver than for the ipod, mostly because the ipod crowd seems to be more fanatical about their devices and doesn’t seem to mind overpaying for things (the device itself included).
All in all, the only reasons I see for buying an ipod over an iriver H10 or even a Creative Zen micro would be a) you have a mac… in which case the ipod is your ONLY choice… or b) you want to be “cool” because “everyone else has one”. My opinion stands that the ipods are basically for either the uneducated consumer who buys things because everyone else has one…. and for mac users since no other player works with the Mac from what I can tell.