No iPods at Bill's house

[worker201]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/40926

I really don't think primary school kids need iPods or iPhones, but a lot have them anyway.  But not Bill's kids.  Or his wife, who really likes iPhones.  Hilarious.  It's almost cute how he is so upset about Apple's great success.

[Lead Head]

I still personally do not like iPhones. Everyone seems crazy about iPhones and iPod touches at my high school. Paying $200+ 8 and 16GB devices. While my friend bought a 20GB creative 4 years ago for $190, and i bought it off him for $20. Seems like a lot of people just want it for the Apple logo on the back. I do find it odd though that he would completely ban iPods/iPhones. If his kids have a friend come over with an iPhone, do they tell the kid to leave? 

[SiMuLaCrUm]

I don't like iPods or iPhones much...the EQ on those things suck. I go for other brands like Samsung and Creative (the Zen is pretty amazing)

Kinda funny that Mrs. Gates really likes the iPhone though

[worker201]

I have 3 iPods.  When I was working offshore, it was kinda necessary to have my entire music collection available on an extremely portable device.  And thanks to the big paychecks and the mp3 trading with overseas friends, my music collection grew pretty rapidly.  I now use my old 20GB iPod as my alarm clock, and I'm giving my 60GB to my cousin because hers died.  Which just leaves my 160GB iPod, which is only half full.  No other device comes close to the size, design, or capacity of the iPod.  Having that Apple logo on the back is kinda nice, but it's not the only reason I love this product.

[Lead Head]

The 160GB is nice. Odly enough, many brands seem to be going towards lower capacity devices these days.

[worker201]

The 160GB is nice. Odly enough, many brands seem to be going towards lower capacity devices these days.

I think Apple is the cause of that.  The iPod was a sold well, but the really small iPods with lower price points sold incredibly well because the cost opened them up to a different group of consumers.  Getting into the low cost mass market is just plain easier for non-innovative companies.  The more you sell, the less markup you need to make the same return on investment, which allows companies to price their devices more competitively.  And any market that is strongly competitive will be entered by as many companies as possible.  So there are very few high capacity players, and tons of low-capacity players.  Of course, now that most all cell-phones are mp3 players, the market saturation is such that nobody's making any money.  Except Apple, who sells iPods as the perfect companion to their iTunes software and store.

[_ZeroBeta]

I've never really shown much regard for iPhones, and I don't plan on buying one any time soon. My Sony Ericsson phone does everything I need it to do, despite it dating back a few years. Kind of feel sorry for this guy's wife and children, especially if they are desparate to get hold of one themselves. First Microsoft regards Linux as an offensive word, even going so far as implementing this intolerance into their XBox console, and now Bill bans them from his household entirely. It makes me laugh thinking where it'll go next!