iPod Shuffle Dissection

Can be seen here.

A coworker bought one at Macworld. The sound is good. For some reason, I expected it to sound… plastic, but the volume was cranked up very loud and I had to stab the volume down button repeatedly and thrash my arms like Leta.

Apple will sell millions of these things.

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  • http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca donna

    Want badly.

    Goddamnit, sell them in Canada already!

  • annie

    this isn’t really related to your post, but i saw this on ebay:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31411&item=5550873218&rd=1

    don’t know if dooce is into the massage thing, but some people are (i am!) and so i thought i’d bring it to your attention

    xo

    a

  • Zach

    Apple marketing will sell one million of these, the unit itself will not.

    Consider how many other flash ram mp3 players out there that are 1) cheaper, 2) have a digital read out, 3) support multiple media formats (i.e. mp3, wma, ogg and 4) have fm tuners.

  • http://fibermusings.blogspot.com Christiane

    I agree with Zach. The marketing ploys of Apple will sell millions of these, and not the product.
    *says the recent iPod 20G owner*

  • http://www.blurbomat.com dj blurb

    Couldn’t disagree more. Marketing will get the word out, but you are forgetting the biggest draw. iTunes software and how easily it interfaces with whatever iPod you have.

    I don’t want to hear shit about formats. NO ONE CARES EXCEPT GEEKS. And the shuffle is not for geeks. It’s for joggers and moms and normal people who don’t care about Ogg fucking nerdtastic Vorbis.

    Have you seen an iPod shuffle? Have you touched one? Have you listened? I have. They will sell based on size alone. That I can use iTunes and buy songs to put on there makes it sweeter. I can take my cheap ass iPod shuffle and listen to songs ALL DAY for a hundred bucks.

    Says, I the 40gig iPod owner.

  • http://unapologetics.org nessa

    I DESPERATELY want an ipod, but I can’t spare the cash right now (or, with a bebe on the way, can’t justify sparing the cash). Also, I plan to get a what-ever gig the $300 model ipod is for my husband for his birthday in couple weeks. We’ve looked at mp3 players over and over and over again and keep coming back to the ipod, as Jon mentioned, because of the itunes. Yes, my husband is a geek and was mildly concerned about ogg, but itunes ease/compatibility trumps in a major, major, major way. Time is valuable in our house and we’re willing to pay a little more for things that will continually be more convenient than anything else.

    That said, I have been looking into the ipod shuffle for myself. I need to get my hands on on to test it out, but I imagine this is the route I will go for my personal player. Again, Jon is right: I will be using it for running/ellipticaling and on those sanity-saving walks new moms often take with their babies.

    Apple’s marketing is briliant, yes, but their products hold up to the hype. So… *shrugs* I don’t see why this hair is being split. (She types from her powerbook). ;)

  • http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca donna

    I’ve never bought an apple product before in my life. The shuffle will be the first one.

    Why?

    Because it does exactly what I want an mp3 player to do, no more, no less, for a reasonable price. No other player comes close. I’m pretty nerdy, and even I don’t care if it plays other formats — my collection is 90% mp3. I don’t want an fm tuner. I don’t give a rats ass about a digital readout. And from the price comparison shopping I’ve done, no other player has 500mb for under $150 CDN. The same price range, you’re looking at 64mb or 128mb. I need more than that.

    For me, it’s ideal. Might not be for everyone.

    But don’t assume that everyone who’s buying one has been suckered in by marketing. For some of us, they’ve actually designed a product that fits our needs & wants. The shuffle is how I listen to music anyway — I throw my entire collection into a player, randomize it, and hit play.

    Gee, sounds familiar.

  • Zach

    All right Dj, we’ll set formats aside for the time being and address the next substantial deficiency, the lack of a digital readout. I like to organize music on my player in activity related genres (i.e. folders for “running”, “lifting”, and “skiing”) does the ishuffle provide an interface to do this (sincerely asking because I haven’t seen an ishuffle, touched an ishuffle, carressed an ishuffle against my bossom, massaged an ishuffle on the tip of my man member…). Also, 512 mb translates to roughly 15 hours of music. Consider one wanted to break from randominity and play a specific song, a digital readout allows a user to quickly sift through their playlist and find said song. Rather than pressing >> , listening to 5 seconds of the song, and continuing until said song is found.

    Donna, several 512 mp3 players with advanced features such as voice recorders, digital readouts, and slip usb fittings, at or close to ishuffles msrp.

    Nomad MuVo TX 114.99
    http://tinyurl.com/62ph7

    San Disk SDMX1 94.99
    http://tinyurl.com/5nx8l

    Lexar JumpDrive Sport Digital Music MP3 Player 81.99
    http://tinyurl.com/4zkzt

    And if anybody ANYBODY bring asthetics into this I’m going to kick a puppy. As long as a player meets functional requirements, quality, and dimensions it is comparable. Asthetics is a marketing tool which was my original point.

    Oh, and please don’t discount me as a Mac hater considering me and the girlfriend just dropped $2200 on a new imac g5.

  • http://ishane.blogspot.com Shane

    It is all a part of Steve’s evil plan.

    Zach, the shuffle probably isn’t for you…it’s not for looking for one song and playing it (hence the name, “shuffle”).

    I am going to get a shuffle. To complement my 20GB gen1 ipod…perfect for working out (although I still haven’t ruled out the mini).

  • http://www.blurbomat.com dj blurb

    Zach. You eliminated yourself from the target market the second you said “the lack of a digital readout”.

    It has nothing to do with Mac/PC or aesthetics. It has to do with target markets. The target market: people who want an iPod, but don’t want to pay $249 US. The other part of the appeal, that no one has mentioned is iTunes and the Music Store. iTunes is a great organizer and sync tool for lots of music, whether I have a huge iPod or a shuffle, getting my music on and off is easy. That’s part of the appeal. I know a couple of switchers who bought large capacity players from other vendors and when whey saw iTunes and the iPod work together… game over.

    The iPod shuffle has play-in-order or shuffle mode. If either of those don’t appeal to you, you won’t like the shuffle. There are lots of options for you. But none of them will let you easily purchase music and listen as easily.

    Zach, you’re obviously not a hater.

  • http://www.lompyville.blogspot.com marsha

    First, all ipods organize the music, cause it’s iTunes that does the organizing with playlists. Of course you can choose to put certain songs on the Shuffle and play only those but the idea behind it is that you plug it in and get a RANDOM SAMPLING of your music to surprise you!

    That’s why they called it Shuffle!

    As a Machead I am dying to get one of these. My origianl ipod is failing. It’s been a hardy beast, but the hard drive is falling and it’s a pain to manage the music cause the ipod freezes my machine if it hits the bad sector. Still plays well but I would be delighted to have a small light, non-breakable as it slips from my fingers, player to plug in everynight and play my library at random cause that’s all I do anyway with my ipod, shuffle it.

    I don’t need any digitial readout cause I just walk round NYC and listen to the soundtrack in my ears.

    So it really depends on how you would use it.

    Otherwise I would save my money for the iPod Photo and go show of all the photos of my kid to anyone I meet!

  • http://undecidedlyso.blogspot.com/ Courtney

    This is an excellent product in so many ways. Once again, I’m psyched that Mac is starting to focus on the folks who don’t have a lot of cash to spend on their products, but love them just the same. I listen to the Shuffle option on iTunes on a daily basis, if I don’t like a song, it’s simple to skip to the next with a touch of a button. To have that as an mp3 player to workout with is great.

  • http://chaoticphoenixak.blogspot.com amit

    now i dont know much about the ishuffle at all, but what i do know is that there are other flash mp3 players out ther that support a shuffle (aka random) function as well as all the other common functions like picking a specific songto play…so my question is, other than the compatibility of the itunes software, what other reason would there be to buy one of these?

    maybe it’s just me, but i would find it annoying if this only allowed you to shuffle through your music selection esp. when there are others out there that allow you to do both

  • http://ishane.blogspot.com Shane

    amit,

    aside from being the hippest kid on the block?

    It’s also one of the smallest players with the largest capacities.

  • Jennifer

    Is it just me or does this look more like a pregnancy test? I’m not hating, it just crossed my mind!

  • http://www.blurbomat.com Jonna

    I own and love my 20G iPod – and frankly, I was perplexed enough, as was my HotGeek husband, by the iPod Mini – I mean, to geeks, the thrill of the iPod is the amount of storage! Features! Playlists! In a handy package! – so I would naturally be skeptical of the Shuffle. And then I noticed the throngs of girlfriends of mine who were gravitating toward the mini and saying things like (I wish I were kidding), “It’s PINK!” in a squealy voice and running out to buy them with their name engraved on it. In pink or purple or whatever.

    Who cares if it’s marketing or not? The function is definitely there to back it up for the target market. Sure there are other devices that are of the same size and scope and function, but I *will* bring aesthetics into it because, as proven by my oh-so-scientific research, as outlined above, it obviously matters to their target market (e.g.,the “It’s PINK!” squealers). Plus, people who are most likely to buy the Shuffle are the same folks who are likely to buy from a brand they recognize and feel they can rely on, i.e., Apple.

    I concur Jon – they will sell millions. I’m glad to see Apple doing well, even if I am a PC user in most of my life (save for my iPod devotion), out of necessity.

  • erica

    have you seen this? it includes an interesting graphic about the marketing strategy that has brought apple’s products closer and closer to mainstream mass marketing.

    http://www.nixlog.com/apple/

  • http://thefathousewife.blogspot.com/ Mrs.Strizzay

    I just listen to the radio, and like, if I don’t like the song I turn the channel. I have 10 stations at my finger tips with once touch of a button. And it only weighs, like, 12 pounds. No THAT my friends is what I call portable.

  • http://www.seanna.com seannarae

    i think it’s gorgeous, and will spawn & breed multiple instances of itself just like the wee sperm it resembles. (ok, eww. sorry)

    but neither i nor anyone who i’ve talked to get ‘get’ why it doesnt have a display.

    “who looks at a display when its wrapped to your arm at the gym?”
    …a lot, I think. even if its loaded with albums or clutches of tracks you know well, you still have to >> and listen, >> and listen ad nauseum until you get to your track? How does one get to the 113th track?

    I’m with Zach on this one: i think the lack of display is a hindrance to ultimate slam-dunk, 1-cylinder shy of a V8. I think people want the power to *see* what song is playing. But the ‘will of the people’ has, in the past, proven to be an unpredictable animal.

    and as a recent iPod 40g owner, i *always* have it in shuffle: 7430 tracks randomly queued on my way to & from the ferry.

    With this many tracs – and here is where my analogy to the iPod Shuffle gets thin – is that i have music in there that i’ve not listened to in YEARS. When one of those tracks comes up, i am *constantly* inspecting the trackname/artist/etc.

  • JYJ

    “Why I got the Shuffle” (or, “Voice of the Target Market”):

    1. I’m using it as a walkman, and I was having trouble justifying the expense of the original iPod in my view of it as a glorified walkman.
    2. Despite having 1,500 songs in iTunes, I don’t need to have them all on my player. Just like I don’t buy the jumbo case of crackers at Costco, I’m just not the type of person who buys extra Gigs that I can’t see ever using.
    3. I’m using it as a walkman for marathon training – light weight, easy to carry, enough tunes to build up the miles – total package.
    4. Oggs… WMAs? Dude… no clue what that means. Give me something that I can stick in the port on the side of my iBook, hit enter, and load the tunes. Good-to-go.
    5. Yes I am a sucker for industrial design. But no, I’m not so dumb to just buy a product for its “shell” – the Shuffle combines the goods on the inside and outside.
    6. The hidden benefit of slick marketing: at the bottom of it, a campaign is only as good as the product it pitches, otherwise the public figures out they’ve been duped pretty quickly and popularity wanes. There’s no other way to say it, I like Apple products, millions of other people do too – so I’m satisfied with my decision.

  • http://www.suburbanbliss.net MelissaS

    My husband wants one badly. We already shelled out $250 on the ipod (first generation) and ha ha ha…it’s too bulky! We’re so incredibly spoiled.

    He uses his mainly for running and it is a bit bulky on the arm while running. We could get a mini but that would be overkill really and more money than we care to spend. The $100 shuffle is nearly perfect for his needs. Now, the stupid armband is $30. Give me a break Apple.

    What about wireless ear buds? When will those come or have I just missed them?

    Ms Strizzay…the radio sucks, at least here it does.

  • http://www.livejournal.com/users/MakingMyWayHome/ Kristina

    I clicked the link and the first thing I thought was “what the fuck is that?!” I’m 20 years old and just not up on new technology. Sigh.

  • http://chloeishere.diaryland.com/ Chloe

    I think it’s adorable, and just what I need! I’m on one of the free sites that are giving it away if you blah blah (no worries, I will never spam out my link here. Or anywhere else, cause that’s obnoxious). So, I’m waiting… cause I’m a college student, and I don’t have 150 bucks either. But I can’t wait! Shuffle!

  • http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca donna

    Zach: You mentioned several products in the shuffles price range. Alas, I’m in Canada, and here’s the prices for the devices mentioned:

    512mb Shuffle: $130
    512mb Muvo: $220
    Sandisk: Only one available that I can find is the 256mb version. $130.
    Jumpdrive: Couldn’t find it at any of the usual large electronics stores, although there are jumpdrive flash drives. The 512mb version is $80, but it doesn’t play mp3s.

    Trust me, I’ve done my homework. Shuffle still wins. :)

    Also, you can create pre-set playlists and thus avoid the “random” thing, although for my needs, I wouldn’t. The iPod is still the only device does exactly what I want for the best price available to me. Asthetics doesn’t count into it at all, although I like how small & light it is.

    And so I’ll be getting one. Feb 11th… can I wait so long? Bleah.

  • http://www.noise.mellowcotton.com bering

    i’ll have to agree with seannarae, what i enjoy about shuffling 6800 songs is hearing something i either haven’t heard in years, or didn’t even know i had, and being able to look at an LCD to know what it is i’m listening to.

    That being said, the absence of a display is couterbalanced by price + space + simplicity.

    As to marketing, i think these things have become self-marketing. I didn’t see an add or tv spot. I came across it on the apple site after looking into many different models (the only other really small 1 Gb is the Sony, and just the name costs $300), read the specs and felt…relief? Simple, cheap, small. Voil‡.

    Dumb as it may seem, i feel i haven’t been paying attention the way i used to when i buy a new album. It just goes on my 30Gb iPod and fades into the mass. So i’m looking forward to having something small i can use the way we used to use a cassette walkman (!!!), and listen to an album several times in a row without being tempted to see if my iPod is going to randomly juxtapose Vivaldi and Nirvana.

    I’ll keep my 30Gb to lug aroung on trips and to play at parties.

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