Another MP3 Player. News?

See the technology media try to get excited about another MP3 player.

I just read about the SanDisk e-something today.

iRiver relocated and wants to offer a better experience.

Sony’s set to joust with Apple? I do like the medieval touch, but it seems a stretch. (Full Disclosure: I owned a Sony/Nike MP3 player about 5 years ago. I think it was 64 megabytes. It had this crappy software for uploading music that crashed my computer two out of three times I used it. I ended up literally throwing the thing away in frustration.)

Creative flails.

I’m all for competition, so I’m a little torn over the attempts at excitement over a new commodity player from one of the guys fighting over 1/5 of the market. There are a few people/companies talking about the next step in MP3 players, namely that it won’t be just a music or video playback device, but when will the rest of the media catch up?

Phone, video, PDA, dictation machine, GPS, heart rate monitor and more in some crazy as yet to be determined/announced configuration? Though I am concerned about too much convergence and multitasking.

Five years ago, we had like 20 printers in our building. A few laser printers and lots of ink jet printers. We had five fax machines and four copy machines. It seemed they were all over the place. In 2004 we got this massive Savin Printer/Scanner/Fax/Copier. We thought it’d be great that all of those functions are now in this one machine, saving us money and space and work and adding ten years onto the life of every employee.

But here’s the problem. The other printers are gone... The other copiers are gone. We have two fax machines in the office. When one person wants to print 10 copies of a 50 page presentation, in color, and three people want to make two photo copies and one person want to scan a press clipping (that’s me…) The system breaks down. And imagine for a moment, what happens when the machine breaks, which it does about once a month. It's chaos.

I complain, but I like the machine. There is usually not a problem, but there are problems.

So right now, I carry around my wallet, my keys, my phone and my iPod. When I travel I add my Powerbook and digital camera to the mix. I can see a time when a few of those things "converge". But am I looking to Creative or Zen to make it happen? I’m banking on Apple and here’s why.

1. I’m pulling for a lifestyle unit, that’ll change the number of things I carry around in my everyday life.
2. Style: At the very least, it won’t be an eyesore.
3. Usability: From a one-button mouse, to OS X, to the iPod’s scrolling clickwheel. I have faith.
4. Content: Music, videos, text. If it’s not coming from Disney, NBC, Fox or Dreamworks, it’ll be coming from some of the most creative independent minds around: Other Apple people.
5. Friendly Features: The lifeblood of Apple.
6. 80% market share is incredible. Apple killed the iPod Mini in favor of the Nano, proving that when it’s time, all good things can get better. For example, while everybody else is talking about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs, Apple is talking about skipping the disc altogether. Forget how good the current system is. Let’s talk about how we make a new better system.
7. And finally, I’m a Machead. Sue me.