“Screw the nano”
“Screw the Nano. What the hell does the Nano do? Who listens to 1,000 songs?”
-Ed Zander, Motorola CEO
Ed probably has a point. I’m am sure there are a jillion studies that show the average person listens to much less than a thousand different songs. But Mr. Zander misses the larger point: it isn’t a question of how many songs people actually listen to, it is a question of how many songs people think they actually listen to. If people think they need several days worth of audio on their music player they, because they are the one buying the product, need several GBs of storage. A great example of a company trying to force customers to conform to what the company thinks is best for them. Oh, one more thing, next time you want to add iTunes hotness to a product try adding a little “something something” of your own.
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Comments
The idea of 1000 songs is pretty rediculous for many users. I don’t care about amount of songs, I care about amount of SPACE.
I hate 128kbps AAC. I use LAME --alt-preset extreme. I’ll fit far less than 1000 songs on that Nano.
It’s also about STORAGE. Sure I won’t listen to 1000 songs NOW, but I store them for when I do want them. If I have a last minute business trip, I don’t want to spend time grabbing CDs from the shelves, ripping and encoding (LAME taking longer than 128k).
It’s the convenience of having it at your fingertips when you want it. It has nothing to do with listening to it all at once.
Are you going to read your 2.5 GB of Gmail all at once?
I have almost 16 GB of music, lasting 8 days, 21 hours. While I never listen to it all, I have it split up into playlists. My Yanni playlist is almost eight hours long, my Celtic playlist is 17 hours, my Classical playlist is just over a day, and my Rock Mix playlist is over two days long. In total, those three playlists are 1,577 songs and about four days worth of music. THAT I listen to, frequently.
How can I listen to so much music? I’m at college. I listen to music when going to/from class, doing homework, reading, going to the bathroom, etc. I listen to music whenever I’m not sleeping or actually in class and the professor or TA is talking. I probably listen to those four days of music in five days of real time, not to mention the other half of my collection (various soundracks from movies and musicals, the Capitol Steps, several Prairie Home Companion shows, and much more) that I listen to periodically (or seasonally, when you count my 21 hours of Christmas-themed music).
I store it all on my 40GB iPod that I take to class and plug into my speakers when I’m in my room.
So my point is that I listen to over 1500 songs on a regular basis, and even more irregularly. I would never get an iPod nano: my music would never fit.
And, just for the record, I rip my songs as 192 kbit/s AAC.
You have to remember than Zander was taking the piss at the time at a journo who had repeatedly asked him throughout his talk “what do you think of the nano compared to the ROKR”, and answering in a joke is a good come back hehe. After all who wouldn’t try and defend thier own product.
As for 1000 songs...I don’t personally see the point really. A 512MB device is good enough for me to take when falling off some mountainside. But what matters to me in such a situation is how small it is, how easy to use, how good it sounds, how much of a battering it will take, and when needed can I use it to carry small files back and forth to work. My personal solution was a Yepp. When I need something bigger I use a Seagate Pocketdrive.
Having the capacity to hold 1000 songs is all well and good. Same goes with the 10-20-60GB players. All good for some people. Everyone has different needs from a device, and as such the device should fit the needs to that band of people its aiming for. The Nano? well its the more mobile, teeny/student type fashion victim market. Don’t get me wrong, its a nice bit of kit, but it does lead itself to the fashion victim and not someone of a free mind.
The comment was taken out of context. He said it sacrastically after being constantly asked about the nano when he was trying to discuss his product.
The reason I think that the 100 song limitation is a bit too limiting is that I don’t know which songs I may want to listen to. I don’t want to start each and every day sitting in front of my computer trying to decide which 100 songs I may want to listen to later that day. My iPod gives me the freedom to change my mind on the go since I carry all the music I care to listen to. That will almost never equal 100 songs in a single day but I never have to worry about weather or not I have the 100 that I want with me at that time.
My Yanni playlist is almost eight hours long
That’s about the length of time before I’d start screaming, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just please God make it stop!!!”
; )