thefletch Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Can anyone help me understand why the UK has gone so mad over ipods and iphones??Ipods may be pretty descent, but there are, and always have been plenty of cequal ompetitors?? Its got the the point where people dont actually realise that an ipod is a portable audio device like any other i.e. on a flight a while back they asked for us to turn off ipods and mp3 players, as if they are something different. Admittedly ipods are AAC players but can play mp3, like Sony use ATRAC, but the didnt say turn off you ACC ATRAC and MP3 players lolIphone's are exactly the same, they dont do anything other devices dont! Touch screen isnt new, music player on phone is old hat, and 3G isnt new either. so why the massive craze over them? Especially when they are soooo expensive?I do however want an iphone myself, my reason being 11gb of music on a dying ipod. I also commute alot, so why carry phone and ipod when they can be as one. Reason for wanting Iphone over other phones/portable audio is i really dont want to re-import 100's of CD's (not all mine anyway) into another program. Anyone able to enlighten me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quick_spider Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Clever marketing.HTC have been doing similar phones which are rebranded and sold, but not heavily advertised/marketed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Can anyone help me understand why the UK has gone so mad over ipods and iphones??I do however want an iphone myself, my reason being 11gb of music on a dying ipod. I also commute alot, so why carry phone and ipod when they can be as one. Reason for wanting Iphone over other phones/portable audio is i really dont want to re-import 100's of CD's (not all mine anyway) into another program. You answered your own question there Ted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Choosing the right carriers too. I have an HTC trinity, has wifi, 3g, etc. and is like 2 years old, but because my plan is shit I can never go online without it costing f**k loads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefletch Posted September 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Well i guess the price plan helps.In reply to Dr. Nick Riviera, i very much doubt that people want them so bad because they ipods are breaking. If they just want to combine then I'd assume its partly to do with the ipod craze that people get an iphone to save converting the media.Still not answers though, they are a few linked reasons. What made the ipod so big to begin with, when they where HUGE and had really shit batteries? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefletch Posted September 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 you want an iphone fletch!? f**k that...i don't get it either, the iphone is so big that i would not want one if someone came up and offered it for free. joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Nick Riviera Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Good marketing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 I think ease of use. Navigation is a piece of piss on both, and the itunes store makes getting more music ridiculusly easy. I mean as I sit at home on my wifi network I can download any music that I can think of to my iphone to listen to in about 1 minute! Same with Iphone applications, I'm going bouldering in france next week so i thought I'd see if I could find a french transator app for my iphone, found it, downloaded it and started chatting up an imaginary french chick (tu veux prendre un verre? Tu as beaux yeux, j'ai envie de toi, embrasse-moi - sorted) within about 1 minute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bondy Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 I have an ipod touch and an ipod classic, the ipod touch i use 90% of the time when im going out and i use it a hell of a lot and it has all my music on it and i think that its a much nicer device to use when looking through my music and selecting tracks quickly etc.The reason i have an ipod classic is because i have a shitload of movies and ive converted them all to .mp4 and i use it basically as movie library that i can watch all my films off of onto my t.v at very good quality. Although when ive used it as an mp3 player ive found it a bit bulky and annoying to use after using my ipod touch.I wouldnt want an iphone personally, just for the fact im quite happy with my ipod as a music player and my phone as a phone, its not going to make a big difference if i spent a load of money and got a device that did them both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 with the iphone, the features work together very well as most touch screens are pants, but it is also the brand name drawing them in. and as most have already said the reason why ipods are so massive is because of their marketing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manuel Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 What made the ipod so big to begin with, when they where HUGE and had really shit batteries?they made them white, with gimmicky controls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyseemonkeydo Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 they made them white, with gimmicky controls.I remember some guy in one of my lectures showing me his when they must've been fairly new out... I didn't have a bloody clue what the thing was!! I kinda looked at it for a bit and handed it back to him pretending to be all impressed. I'm so cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haz Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 they made them white, with gimmicky controls.As opposed to various horrible colours with horrible controls? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RR_Trials Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Have you seen the iPod's? Correct me if i am wrong but are they not the best LOOKING PMD's around.From the very start they were good looking as a-posed to nearly everybody else's MP3 i see which IMO look really tacky and cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Correct me if i am wrong but are they not the best LOOKING PMD's around.U R RNGAt the end of the day it's down to personal taste though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Harrison Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 The ipod was large to begin with because it contained a hard disk drive. In 2004 I decided that a 10Gb version was worth the £199 I paid on account of that, and the easy to use controls/scroll wheel. Just over a year later I had it changed for a 30Gb version when it broke, and eventually that stopped working too. I swore never to buy an Apple product again.However, I am an iphone 3G owner. It irritated me that just about everyone who talked to me about it for the month after I got it assumed I must be some kind of Apple fanboy, or be obsessed with having a good mobile phone. Unlikely - since I first had a contract cell phone in 2000, I have always had functional and basic handsets. Phone calls and SMS, thanks. I don't need some shitty camera to take blurry pictures of things which either a. aren't that memorable, b. I can find better pictures of online or c. things which would be better photographed with a real camera. I also didn't need a phone that would serve WAP pages on a tiny screen with an overpriced data plan navigated using the keypad; I didn't need polyphonic ringtones resembling the latest chart hits; I didn't need a wallpaper or the ability to show my friends the latest pr0n movie that some chump had sent by Bluetooth.I was impressed with the first iphone (although I didn't own one) and always thought that it was missing one useful feature: GPS. And that's what made me want the second version. Now I have an ipod with a far better multi-touch interface, Google maps/photos linked to GPS, web browsing on the move.But why the iphone over other 'smart phones'? Simply because of the screen size, interface design and multi touch. So far, I'm yet to see others that come this close. The iphone has, for me, proved incredibly useful, and is worthwhile because the functions are things that I really needed. I've always had fairly large phones. Little plasticky silver phones are about as good as little plasticky silver digital cameras.True, there's always going to be hype, there are always going to be people who buy one as it's the latest thing. There'll be people who just want the ability to bitch about on Facebook or MySpastic all day, or just generally mince about in cafes, college lessons and pubs with the thing out on the table, nevermind the fact that they can't really afford the contract. BUT, if you want an ipod, navigational device, email and web-browser in one, then the iphone is VERY useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 People like iPods because they are really nice to use, same with the iPhone. There's a lot of marketing and fashion stuff going on these days but it started with a simple, easy to use music player. From what I've seen in the Apple shop, the iPhone is just really nice to use too. Compare this to Windows Mobile phones which seem to be able to do a million things in a really awkward clumsy way, the iPhone just does a few things very well. Which I suppose is quite similar to the Mac OS X vs Windows argument. Windows is much more versatile, but it's not as nice to use. HTC have been doing similar phones which are rebranded and sold, but not heavily advertised/marketed.Yeah, but they're terrible to use compared to the iPhone. Feature-wise, my HTC phone can do everything, but it's completely rubbish and unfriendly to use (Which, to be fair, has more to do with Windows Mobile than the HTC hardware itself). I am going to get shot of my Windows Mobile phone as soon as the contract runs out. I'll keep it as a GPS with Tomtom on it, because that is about the only thing that it actually does well - probably better than the iPhone as it'll give me directions etc. Kind of ironic that they tout the iPhone's GPS functions so much... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoyoyo Posted September 12, 2008 Report Share Posted September 12, 2008 Personally i hate the click wheel thing, whenever i use someone elses ipod ,which seems just about everyone, i find it takes ages to get to the song i want, with it constantly going one either way. Commpared to my sony mp3 player which i find is much easier.Don't get me wrong i do like them and would be tempted to get one if they weren't so much and didn't seem to have a battery problem every year and 1 day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Fashion Accessory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nc7r Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Personally i hate the click wheel thing, whenever i use someone elses ipod ,which seems just about everyone, i find it takes ages to get to the song i want, with it constantly going one either way. Commpared to my sony mp3 player which i find is much easier.Don't get me wrong i do like them and would be tempted to get one if they weren't so much and didn't seem to have a battery problem every year and 1 day.Don't you think that's just because you're used to your own one and the sensitivity settings on each ipod are different? Pretty obvious! You're good at what you're used to...Fashion AccessoryDefinately. I think that Apple's marketing and designers have done a good job at brand awareness. Their marketing fund is huge compared to it's competitors and has combined fashion and function compared to one or the other with most competitors. iPods are far the most popular audio device in the UK so that's why they say iPods on planes and think that saying them is something people can easily relate to as being an audio/video device which they need to switch off. Meh. New ones are pretty nice though I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew_Gibson Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 I was considering an iPhone, after havin a talk to a guy in CarPhonoWareHouse he put me off a bit. Saying that the battery is poor, But I had a lil play on it was was really nice to use. The Price plan I would have/need is the £35 a month one (on O2) they are a bit steep but when you get free unlimited internet I suppose its okay.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anzo Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 Funny thing I've noticed lately though...anyone with an iphone can't keep it in their pockets for longer than 2 seconds and/or have to have it shown constantly (ie. left on the pub table, in the restruant or at work).I wouldn't mind one I suppose; though I'm not going to pay ridiculous prices for what is, at the end of the day, just another phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greetings Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 Fashion AccessoryYeah exactly. They're not advertising it as something that will help you organise your life as they would with a PDA. It's just meant to be a gadget which you can justify buying since it has a few practical applications in day to day life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 Well I like the idea of a PDA that you can use in public without looking like a complete nerd. Unfortunately now you might look like a fashion-conscious twat instead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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