Apple’s iPod nano “is a beautiful piece of hardware — and a beautiful piece of hardware that also function[s] really well,” Andrew Kantor reports for USA Today. “The iPod’s quality is about form, not just features. For starters, it is better looking than its competition. I wouldn’t call it ‘art,’ but it is certainly something you could spend time admiring as you use it. The competition has caught up, and there are some just-as-slick players out there. But they came after the iPod had become synonymous with good looks, and they now have a steep hill to climb to catch up to Apple.”
“Get a Creative Labs MuVo or Zen, or a Sony Network Walkman and you can do the same things — download, play, pause, shuffle, etc. Some even include FM tuners and voice recorders,” Kantor writes. “And yet Apple has that huge market share. Some of it may be due to good marketing, but much of it is due to the quality of the iPod… The iPod has Play and Pause buttons; so does every player. But — at least until recently — the iPod’s controls felt better that [sic] the competition’s. There was a quality behind them that other players lacked… If I had an iPod nano, I would probably stop now and then to admire it.”
Full article here.
Advertisement: Apple iPod nano. 1,000 songs. Impossibly small. From $199. Free shipping.
“At least until recently — the iPod’s controls felt better than the competition’s? Okay, so which competitor’s controls feel/work as well as Apple’s iPod? Kantor doesn’t say. “The competition has caught up?” With whom, each other in bankruptcy court? Certainly, they haven’t caught up with Apple. Kantor fails to note how iPods connect seamlessly with Apple’s iTunes music jukebox and iTunes Music Store. It’s the seamless iPod+iTunes+iTunes Music Store triumvirate that puts Apple head and shoulders above the also-rans, not just the player’s hardware; it’s the combination of all three that makes Apple’s system so much better.
This is the same Andrew Kantor who wrote for USA Today last December 3rd, “I just don’t get the overwhelming appeal of the iPod, Apple’s MP3 player. It’s a beautiful device to be sure, but it does exactly what many, many other similar players do: It plays MP3s. Other brands are better, less expensive, have more capacity, are easier to use, and so on. But the iPod has something more than 85% market share. That’s incredible — that’s like finding that 85% of people in the country drive Toyota Camrys. It just doesn’t make sense… I didn’t go for an iPod when I bought an MP3 player. I wanted something smaller, so I got one that uses flash memory instead of a hard drive — a Creative MuVo TX.”
More than nine months later, Kantor still doesn’t get it. Here’s an original idea: Kantor should download iTunes, get an iPod, actually use them, and then write about his experiences.
You can contact Mr. Kantor here: andrew@kantor.com
(He loves email from Mac users, as you can see from the following examples, but he tends to cherrypick the flames, so level-headed expressions pointing out issues would be best, unless you want to be published on kantor.com: example 1, example 2, and example 3)
[UPDATE: 5:43pm ET: USA Today columnist calls Mac users and Apple fans a ‘cult of blind little lemmings’]
Related articles:
Music lovers make Apple’s iTunes Music Store AAC format the de facto standard for online music – August 28, 2005
Apple’s ‘pure genius’ will soon make iTunes’ portal the ‘number one destination on the Internet’ – July 26, 2005
Apple’s understanding of what really counts makes iPod+iTunes impossible to beat – June 22, 2005
BofA: Apple’s iTunes Music Store and iPods have symbiotic ‘stickiness, protective effect’ – May 12, 2005
USA Today columnist blasts Mac users and MacDailyNews in blog – December 06, 2004
USA Today writer unhappy with MacDailyNews and some Mac users’ emails – October 18, 2004
USA Today writer attempts to downplay Apple’s role in Virginia Tech supercomputer – September 03, 2004
Kantor says Apple’s total market share in the DAP market is “over 30%.”
“Apple has over 30% of the MP3 player market when you look at hard-drive-based players and flash-memory-based players. (If you look at just the hard-drive players, Apple’s share is in the 80% range.)” — Andrew Kantor, USA Today
CNET, in the article above says Apple’s total combined market share is 74%.
I’ve heard people say Apple’s total market share, flash and HD combines to be as low as 65%, but I’ve never hear the #0% number Mr. Kantor is using…
Also, Kantor compares the competition saying “you can do the same things — download, play, pause, shuffle, etc. Some even include FM tuners and voice recorders.”
Can you get on a single website, BUY (not rent) your songs, browse through and seamlessly subscribe to your choice of thousands of podcasts, and instantly update them every time you plug in with your competing DAP, Mr. Kantor?
Something tells me Mr. Kantor, the “expert,” hasn’t touched the podcast option yet.
Mr. Kantor is a bit of a masochist if he loves to egg on the Mac users and then post their replies. Or is he perhaps trying to prove a point that we’re a bunch of mindless idiots who don’t have a stitch of proper vocabulary and argumentative skills that match his?
C’mon people! Quit being crass and show him that Mac users have higher IQs than most other PC users! Sheesh!
Hehe. I read through those Kantor email threads. He’s a baiter and a child. I especially love the way he attacks the iPod, then says his column was about portable storage? Huh?
Imagine if I wrote:
“I just don’t get the overwhelming appeal of Andrew Kantor, USA Today’s technology writer. He gets the words down to be sure, but he writes exactly what many, many other tech journalists write about: Technology. Other writers are better, less expensive, have more knowledge, are easier to work with, and so on.”
What kind of response could I expect?
Another coupe for McPaper.
Bozos couldn’t find their arses with both hands and a GPS navigation system.
That “Createive MuVo TX” he loves is quite full featured – 128 adn 256MB versions. Huh..looks like he would not be in the same market iPods are appealing to – users who wish to carry a selection of music with them. How much listening can you do on 128MB? a couple CDs? Maybe?
Oh well, I’m glad he is allowed to have his opinion, one less person infront of me for a nano!
MDN word: meeting
Usually MDN’s takes are a little provocative… but this time you’ve nailed it, there’s nothing the USA Today article can defend!
Magic word: own, as in USA Today are digging their own grave
I left these comments for Kantor:
Kantor, you’ve got it all wrong. Mac users wouldn’t have a problem with you criticizing Apple’s products as long as you backed up your statements with factual evidence. But you do nothing of the sort. For instance, observe the following two examples.
Example 1:
You stated that “the competition has caught up, and there are some just-as-slick players out there.” Ok, what players are those exactly? You gave no examples. You need to give me the names of the players so I can look at them for myself and determine whether or not they are indeed as good looking as the iPod. That’s called supporting your commentary with evidence; you typically learn how to do that in middle school English class.
Example 2:
You said: “Until recently, nothing could compare to the iPod’s controls.” Ok, that implies that recently there have been players brought to market that match the iPod’s intuitive control scheme. Name one such player. Again, you failed to back up your opinion with any evidence whatsoever. How can I believe anything you write when you have no facts for support?
So it is not that we Mac users have a problem with you “not praising Apple enough.” We instead have a problem with your poor journalism. If you gave decent examples to back up your statements, then maybe you wouldn’t get so much hate mail. As it is, your readers need to hold you accountable when you produce unacceptable work.
And another thing, Kantor: maybe you shouldn’t litter your piece with so many contradictions. For example, you claim that the iPod is “it is better looking than its competition.” However, in the very next paragraph you state that “The competition has caught up, and there are some just-as-slick players out there.” So which is it? Is the iPod better looking than its competition, or have the competitors caught up? To make things even more confusing, the very next sentence says that the competitors “now have a steep hill to climb to catch up to Apple.” So in two paragraphs we have the following progression:
1) The competition is not as good looking as the iPod.
2) The competition is equally as good looking as the iPod.
3) The competition has not yet caught up to the iPod.
Obviously, the above three statements cannot logically coexist with each other. Either remove statement (2) or else remove statements (1) and (3). Please consider taking an elementary logic course before bashing Mac users for writing you nasty letters. I would expect nasty letters as well if I exhibited such poor literary skills while writing for a national publication.
Having read the links provided by MSN, it is clear that Kantor is
1) Windows fanatic
2) anti-apple fanatic
3) a complete tosser
4) a wanker
I’m sorry I even wasted by bandwidth by visiting his site…
I’ll have to go shower now…
Oops, that should’ve been MDN!!
Howz that for funny? hehehe
This from the comments section from the first link of examples of Kantor’s posting of Mac users comment’s:
“Ironic that MDN runs Linux, not Mac OS X.” (maybe that wasn’t precisely verbatim). These comments went on to mention that few of the major Mac news sites are running OS X.
IS THIS TRUE? Or is this another example of branding a Mac OS X site as FreeBSD?
©
MDN’s server issues have been covered in-depth already, by MDN:
From September 16, 2005:
More info about MacDailyNews’ site rewrite, hosting, and advertising
“The competition has caught up […] and they now have a steep hill to climb to catch up to Apple.”
Does that sound like a contradiction to anyone? Or is it just me?
Usually writers say negative things about Apple when they want free hardware. I think Kantor wants a free iPod and he feels like an idiot for not buying one before. I feel sorry for him but not that sorry. Let him continue to experience using Windows and a second class mp3 player. I hope he never uses a Mac. We don’t need him.
I can not believe this man has a job at usa t. He reviews without actually touching? Wow, the Grimm brothers were journalists too then huh, by this standard. THey made things up, wrapped it in a story and it sold. One would have to agree that there are some Mac users who are dumbfollowing Apple and would buy anything however stupid, but most people are realists who bought Apple and them became enthousiasts. I was wintel all the way, not because I loved it, it was the only thing around. Now I know beter and I have a choice. Do I want to be able to download “free” (stolen) software or do I need my computer to do 99 percent of the work without hassle? Sure I dislike not being able to configure a car online because they only allow you to do so with a pc, but the time I save not bothering with virusses etc I can actualy go out and visit a dealer and have time to spare.
Um, much as I am a fan of MDN, I think this report on Kantor’s article is presented out of context. He had nothing but good things to say about the iPod. AK’s article is about why some things are simply better than others, even though they all do the sdame thing. he compared the Ford Explorer with the Toyota Sequoia, noting that both are SUVs, but the Toyota just feels, sounds, performs better. He also discussed keyboard quality differentials. His in-context summary of the iPod is this:
>>And yet Apple has that huge market share.
Some of it may be due to good marketing, but much of it is due to the quality of the iPod.<<
I actually think Kantor does get the iPod, with the exception of the credibility he gives the wannabes.
Hey folks, ever heard of any publicity is good publicity. The guy is just provoking you all to get hits in exactly the same way that MDN provokes you all to get hits. Anyone notice all the ads on these pages? Fish, all of us.
WOW. You guys need to get outside a little bit, and I don’t mean that derogitorily, just in the way that you need to get away from your Mac and experience the rest of life. An iPod is just a piece of plastic, metal, and circuitry and Apple is just a company. I mean, I’m a fan of Apple too, but this is just getting rediculous. It’s like you have nothing in your life to love but Apple, so you cling onto it for dear life and rape people who have different opinions/wrong facts/etc. WHO CARES?
And someone speaks!
Sense shall set you free.
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