Some guy named “Bias Alert” said:
There's supreme irony in the fact that he admits to owning two lame-ass iPod wannabes, and then in the same breath he counsels that product innovation would help such lame-ass devices better compete against the market-dominating iPod. This is the typical, massive doublethink one needs to sustain to prefer known inferior products over demonstrably superior ones, and when the market decides (understandably) to go with the superior product, resort to FUD about "proprietary" or "promote choice" -- poor substitutes for real innovation.
I disagree.
I bought what I felt were the best products available at the time. And I still believe the Carbon (or the new Zen Micro) is the best choice for a mini HD player right now. They’re simpler to use, and offer better features.
But they’re still portable audio players based on micro HDs. When I said INNOVATE, I meant do something new… like integrate it with a phone, PDA, or something like that.
Right now, Rio and Creative do the same thing that Apple does, only better. But if they want to really revolutionize the market, they could try doing something different.