Competition for iPod?

Source: BetaNews.com

Creative: 60GB NOMAD Zen Dwarfs iPod
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
May 1st, 2003, 11:57 PM

Looking to draw Windows users away from Apple's wildly popular iPod, Creative has released a mammoth update to its NOMAD Jukebox Zen portable audio player. The hard drive based Zen boasts an immense storage capacity of 60GB - twice that of largest iPod.

The NOMAD Jukebox Zen sports a sleek aluminum case and USB 2.0 connectivity for fast song transfers. Creative has priced the Zen at $400, $100 cheaper than Apple's new 30GB iPod.

"We've heard from our users that they would love to see a huge capacity NOMAD Jukebox Zen to take their entire music library and their digital files wherever they go," said Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo. "And of course they demanded a great price. With the NOMAD Jukebox Zen with 60GB we've delivered a breakthrough capacity in a portable player."

Creative claims a battery life of 14 hours in the NOMAD Jukebox Zen, slightly higher than that of the iPod. The Zen offers the ability to edit playlists directly on the device, and a "Find" function to quality search thousands of songs. An optional FM Wired Remote is also available featuring an FM tuner and microphone.

But despite Creative's superior capacity and lower price, Apple has leapfrogged its competitors in terms of dollar market share. According to NPDTechworld, Apple held 27 percent of the market in the fourth quarter of last year, followed by S3's Rio unit with 10 percent.

Apple's third generation iPods debut May 2, while Creative expects to ship the 60GB NOMAD Jukebox Zen later this month.

all the PC users i talked to dont care much about the space anymore, cause anything over 20 GB is plenty. they want it to look cool and the iPod does that. and now that it has USB 2.0 im sure the WiPod (windows iPod) will sell much better

Yes, but windows users also tend to be very price conscious. That's the iPod's downfall. If a company such as Creative can create a unit (such as the one above) and sell it for less, then there could be a real problem. I personally believe the iPod is at last $100.00 overpriced for each model which is why I'm not in a hurry yet to get one.

I agree schweb. The iPod is WAY overpriced. They are aiming for their "upper-class" clientelle, which is wrong. They should be aiming a little more to the middle-class / younger crowd. I don't know many 16 year olds that can afford a $400 "walkman", but I could probably find a million that would use one. And the way the job market/economy is now, I don't know many families that are willing to part with that kinda dough for a "kids toy".

I was thinking VERY hard about getting the 15 gigger. But $400? That is a lot. If it was $300, like schweb thinks it should be, I would have bought it without a thought. I even searched the net for like 2 hours to find THIS (outdated link removed), which will allow me to hook an iPod up to my stock car stereo. So now, I am looking at another $50 on top of the iPod to get it work where I want it. Which obviously is MY issue, but I still gotta consider that into the price.

Apple, lower the price and you will see these things fly off the shelf.

eBay is the way to go. I got a new car stereo for $85 with rear RCA input and a 10GB iPod for $300. $385 for 2000 songs where ever i go isnt bad at all. ill post pictures when my new Nikon CoolPix 2000 comes in next week that i got for $150 off ebay (retail $230)