Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Get the Right Memory / Ram for your Mac. Top Quality, Competitive Prices, Lifetime Warranty. Expert Support and Video Installation Guidies too! 4.0GB Matched Sets from $87.99, Options up to 32GB. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

iPod: More than an MP3 Player

Tim Nash - 2001.11.05

My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your submission to Dan Knight .

With the launch of the iPod, commentators have concentrated on whether the high cost of the MP3 player is justified by the feature set

But should the iPod have been presented to the Press as a state of the art MP3 player?

Lets look at some alternatives, as iPod is a state of the art FireWire backup device. How many of us would like to leave behind the Zip disks for regular backups of important files and taking files to friends and customers?

How many camcorder users would like to be able to download an hours footage to a device the size of a pack of cards and keep filming? What is the professional market in CNN and the networks for such a device?

Digital still cameras with FireWire are still concentrated at the professional end of the market where a $399 device that saves time will be snapped up. iPod could even create a virtuous circle here as more professionals buy the cameras because of the ease and speed of downloading.

In the next couple of years FireWire cameras should move to consumer pricing. At that stage many others will come on board. For example, if I go on more than a days hike, I need to pack a traditional 35mm camera so that I can take enough photos. Similarly, any time I want to shoot more than a reel of reasonable quality then its back to film with no editing in the camera and shooting at least 4 to 1.

So professional and amateur camera users have good reason to use iPod. But how much media coverage would iPod receive if it was a camera users backup device? If it made the national papers, it would be buried in the hobbyist section of the weekend issue. Apple would be condemned again as only serving the graphics community, reinforcing its position as an irrelevant niche player, etc. However it won't be too long before we see iPod with new programs being lauded by the camera magazines.

And is Apple really missing out on the Windows market? Only a small proportion of Windows computers have true FireWire ports, and the Wintel world has just about managed to include USB on every computer after many years of ignoring Intel's standard because of the extra cost. If in the future Dell and the other battered survivors of the PC price wars are prepared to add to their costs with a new port, downloading to the iPod will be crippled by Microsoft's XP Digital Rights Management software.

With the costs of porting a cut down version of iTunes and the support issues, it would be difficult to make a profit. Instead why not offer a voucher scheme where Windows users could come into the Apple store where they bought iPod and rip their disks for say 20 minutes for free? By getting them to use Macs and iTunes, it would show them easy the Mac world is to enter and how great it can be.

In addition, the target market for MP3 players is mainly teenagers and young adults. With Apple's long-standing success in education, many of those who otherwise use Windows will have access to a Mac. So it shouldn't be too long before the notices go up about unauthorised use! In these age groups peer popularity is important. Think how popular teenage Mac users could become! Think how many would ask their parents for a Mac (after having forced them to buy an iPod)! This could really help Apple in the college market.

For Apple the most important market outside of the USA is Japan. Lately - along with nearly everyone else - Apple has been hurting. If iPod starts to take off there, as the iMac and iBook did, it will really revive their fortunes and start to pull back the front-runner, Sony, whose powerless version of FireWire will be a handicap.

And remember, if Mac users only evaluated on price, the world would be 100% Windows. Obviously we want value for money, and given that the PC card with this drive is $399, clearly this is. It still needs a belt buckle so that everyone can see that Apple designer logo, and, yes, I would like 10 GB, but Christmas is coming, and my wife wants one too.

There will always be failures, but with so many potential uses I don't see iPod in that category. It strongly promotes FireWire, it will help Apple's professional users while potentially grabbing a new audience, and if Apple can sell enough to rapidly cut prices and make iPod the 21st Century Walkman, Apple will again be a major player.

Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.

Recent My Turn articles

Using Low End Macs for Internet Radio, 08.18. When the local public radio station moved classical music to HD radio, it was time to find another way to listen. An old iMac with iTunes solved the problem.
'That's Not a Computer', 07.30. Salvaging a broken PowerBook by turning it into a desktop computer.
Upgrading a Digital Audio G4 to work better in Leopard, 06.02. In its original configuration, the dual 533 MHz Power Mac G4 was slow with Mac OS X 10.5, but add the right upgrades, and it runs Leopard quite nicely.
My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28. The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
More in the My Turn index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.