ibiza Rhapsody vs Competitors

[EnzoTen]

The ibiza has a very unique feature set and i think the closest competitor it has is the Zune that matches podcast downloads and other wireless features.

Here is the match up for the hard drive ibiza

ibiza Rhapsody vs Zune 30 & Zune 80


Here is the flash match up with the Zune 8/4 but i also added the Sansa Connect since it does have the ability to direct download.

ibiza Rhapsody vs Zune 4/8 vs SanDisk Sansa Connect

[DJ Shred]

The Ibiza looks like a great player spec-wise, its just the price thats killin' me.

[iamtheworld]

yeah i agree. the price is more than a bit much for me.
i think they also should make the 4 and 8gb versions smaller.... ive never such a big flash player.

[Andreas]

Closest competitors are the PSP and ipod touch...

[EnzoTen]

Originally Posted by iamtheworld

yeah i agree. the price is more than a bit much for me.
i think they also should make the 4 and 8gb versions smaller.... ive never such a big flash player.

or put larger batteries in the flash players at lease.

Originally Posted by Cptnodegard

Closest competitors are the PSP and ipod touch...

Neither of these have unlimited subscription downloads, built in at that. This is really what the ibiza is all about. So i cannot see either of these being competitors.

[John566]

Without Rhapsody support this wouldn't be very compelling to me. With it I think it will be awesome. I will have one tomorrow so I'll soon know if it lives up to it's potential.

[PromisedPlanet]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

The ibiza has a very unique feature set and i think the closest competitor it has is the Zune that matches podcast downloads and other wireless features.

Here is the match up for the hard drive ibiza

ibiza Rhapsody vs Zune 30 & Zune 80


Here is the flash match up with the Zune 8/4 but i also added the Sansa Connect since it does have the ability to direct download.

ibiza Rhapsody vs Zune 4/8 vs SanDisk Sansa Connect

And now there's the Slacker Player ...

http://www.slacker.com/products/portables/

[EnzoTen]

the slacker is more like Sirus or XM. failure imo

[PromisedPlanet]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

the slacker is more like Sirus or XM. failure imo

I'm not sure I really consider Sirius to be a failure. Their latest portable model is actually pretty cool ... nice interface, good sound, and it's great to be able to hear a variety of music without being tethered to a PC or WiFi (or FM radio ). A bit more memory for MP3 storage, and a lower price, and I think the thing would really take off.

[EnzoTen]

oh... i was talking about the slacker being a failure... Granted im not speaking from experience but looking at past devices like it that have failed. MusicGremlin, Connect, ibiza Rhapsody... all great devices in their niche, but the market dosent want what they have to offer. That type of device just doent work, the market has shown it...

I will be pickin up a Slacker soon to give it a proper hands on eval =)

[PromisedPlanet]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

oh... i was talking about the slacker being a failure... Granted im not speaking from experience but looking at past devices like it that have failed. MusicGremlin, Connect, ibiza Rhapsody... all great devices in their niche, but the market dosent want what they have to offer. That type of device just doent work, the market has shown it...

Enzo, you probably keep track of this info more than I do, but ... why do you consider the Connect to be a failure? Sales, or .. ? The only problem is that Yahoo is dropping its Music To Go service, but that's not a fault of the player.

I think as WiFi becomes more prevalent in people's homes, you'll see more and more demand for players that can stream music. I've never heard anyone who has WiFi say "I'm not interested in streaming music to my player", and the people who have players like the Connect love it.

[EnzoTen]

I base it on sales and general buzz for these products. When i gave away 3 Connects people were not as excited as wen i gave away a t400. The problem and the reason these player have been a failure is mainly because they have sold at a premium. While i totally agree that people want wi-fi and streaming, they are not willing to pay the premium. That said, i think wi-fi cannot be the players best feature or touted as their best feature. wi-fi needs to be an ancillary feature and it needs to preform well first with the core functionality. Wi-fi has been too overpowering in the above mentioned players. When wi-fi is a secondary feature, then i think you will start to see some success.

The Zune is on the right track, still have baked and still no where near, but i see it doing similar things to the Connect and ibiza in the future. I would also keep my eye on Creative, they should be releasing a wi-fi player in the next few months.

[dfkt]

FWIW, I don't give a flying frigg about Wifi or Bluetooth on an audio/video player.

Wireless is way too slow to sync/transfer files onto a player, and I'm not interested in radio functionality or "social" file-sharing on the go. Not to mention pseudo-PDA features like web-browsing, which certainly don't work well on a device that's purpose is to play back audio/video files. It just drains the battery and drives the price of the player up.

This is just my opinion, others might find it cool having Wifi for some reason or other...

[PromisedPlanet]

Enzo, definitely agree about the cost (for the same reason, I agree about the iBiza Rhapsody).

The thing is that there is a buzz going on now about music-related websites like Rhapsody and Last.FM. I could see a relatively inexpensive player that has some sort of tie-in with Last.FM as being huge. And I think people get a ... I don't know ... kind of ego gratification out of doing something on their player (such as rating songs) and having it being fed back to a public system. Especially if also improves the song selection being fed back to their player.

Re sync speed over WiFi ... this is going to keep improving. Got 802.11n ?

But, 'nuf said, to each his/her own. I guess I'm just a Sansa Connect fanboy. I love listening to music anywhere around my home, never knowing what's coming up next, discovering new music, and improving the music stream through my ratings. That and having my own personal music collection on the player ... nice.

[EnzoTen]

If you are a connect fanboy you will love the ibiza!

[PromisedPlanet]

Originally Posted by EnzoTen

If you are a connect fanboy you will love the ibiza!

Oh, I've definitely been eye-balling it. But given that a ibiza goes for about $230, and I'm not a subscription music fan (I don't use Yahoo Music To Go) ... er ... maybe not.