Reply to: Do people still buy MP3 Players?

[edison]

My daughter has started taking an interest in music so I was looking for an MP3 player for her. I started looking at the cheaper end of the market and found the offerings distinctly lacking in basic features. Playlists aren't a dealbreaker but I would have expected most to support them, navigating by artist/album and playing the songs in the correct order is essential however. I can't believe some of these players sort all the tracks alphabetically and don't have any navigation system.

The ones that do have decent features are approaching the cost of a cheap smartphone, which have several free players available so I'm wondering if I should just get a phone for her, or do I go for a 7" tablet? it's a very confusing market sector at the moment.

I had a similar problem for my daughter. How old is your daughter - I'm guessing somewhere between 6 and 9? Two years ago I bought my 7 year a 3rd generation iPod touch on ebay for about 70. Although it was 2 generations behind the then current model, it was good enough for her to play music and also use apps. We already had several tablets/laptops in the house and I guessed she wouldn't get her first phone till around 11 so this solution seemed to work well.

[d000hg]

I don't think it's supposed to challenge proper DSLR cameras, it's supposed to be a phone which is finally as good or better than your typical consumer digi-cam, rendering useless a separate camera.

[minestrone]

I don't think the 1020 comes even close to the cheapest DSLR in quality from what I have read.

I have an 820 and a 520 backup, they are good phones and the upgrade to 8.1 I think will be a big one. I don't use them for music though, I still have a few 30g zunes and I just swap in a bigger HD. Pick them up for buttons on ebay.

[BigRed]

Irrelevant. It doesn't matter if you offer a better product, only whether people want to buy it! People used to take cameras with them all the time - concerts, clubs, etc. Now they are happy with a phone even if it's not as good.

The Nokia 1020 may bridge the gap, They are at least a substitute for the Olympus (Mu? ) that David Bailey used to advertise. That was a cracking pocket camera. I'm old school on cameras, DSLRs are all about the optics, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, but anyone who uses their camera on auto all the time and the zoom as an alternative to stepping closer may well find the 1020 will be ideal.

[BigRed]

So it seems to have confirmed my feelings. The Cowon is around £120 and still doesn't have a great interface. I can get a cheap smartphone for that, Nokia Lumia 620 is around £120 sim free and has Wifi, bluetooth, nice screen. This is for an 8 year old so sound quality loses out to looking cool. Only other option would be a 7" tablet like the new Tesco one but that might be too big. Trouble with all these gadgets is it's really difficult to work out what they are capable of, shop assistants haven't got a clue.

BTW, if Windows RT has any future I think a 7" tablet is it, otherwise cut their losses and use Windows Phone on one.

[d000hg]

Not quite - I've not seen a camera phone which is anywhere near as good as a reasonable camera. AndroidPit had some comparisons a year or so back, which were interesting.

Irrelevant. It doesn't matter if you offer a better product, only whether people want to buy it! People used to take cameras with them all the time - concerts, clubs, etc. Now they are happy with a phone even if it's not as good.

[DirtyDog]

The same can be said for cameras - but just because it's a smaller market doesn't mean it's no market.

Not quite - I've not seen a camera phone which is anywhere near as good as a reasonable camera. AndroidPit had some comparisons a year or so back, which were interesting.

[DirtyDog]

Did you buy or download the books? One of the big annoyances I've found is that a lot of the time audio books are labelled in the titles (track1, track 2, etc), but the id3 tags haven't been completed, have been completed incorrectly, or in some really annoying circumstances, different tracks have the tags completed in different ways with different fields filled in.

Most were ripped from the original CD and then I added the tags. Maybe the tags are wrong, I'm not sure.

My ripped Alan Partridge is even worse - I get track 10,11,1,12,2,3.... In the end, I had to save a playlist with those on in the right order, and have separate albums for Book 1 CD1, Book 1 CD2 etc.

[jmo21]

The same can be said for cameras - but just because it's a smaller market doesn't mean it's no market.

Indeed true.

Smaller markets will get less investment.

There is an image meme going round recently, somwething like 15 years ago you needed all these (shows computer, camera, video camera, walkman etc) now you only need this (picture of smart phone).

I always wonder what kind of gadgets my kids (3.5yrs, 22 months) will have when they go to school, when they are in their 20's etc.

[kevpuk]

I still *prefer* a dedicated mp3 player - my trusty Cowon J3 has lasted for years and has truly excellent sound quality. Coupled with a decent pair of IEMs - my latest set are Shure SE315s - it offers great audio experience.
That said, smartphones have come on leaps and bounds - I use an HTC One and it does not do a bad job at playback, to be fair.
For me, if I envisage a decent amount of time plugged in, I will always use the Cowon; on the other hand, plugging decent 'phones into the phone is by no means a horrible experience either.

[d000hg]

I have no stats at all to back this up, but I am guessing mp3 player sales have plummeted with the explosion in smart phones and the age kids get these at gets younger and younger.

I appreciate what someone above says about separate devices for battery power, but that type of opinion is probably fading away as more and more people just charge their phone every night

so yeah, must be true!

The same can be said for cameras - but just because it's a smaller market doesn't mean it's no market.

[Ticktock]

Try playing an audio book on it.

One of mine doesn't account for disk number - so you get all the track 1s, then all the track 2s etc.

Makes books an interesting listen (or indeed a musical)

Did you buy or download the books? One of the big annoyances I've found is that a lot of the time audio books are labelled in the titles (track1, track 2, etc), but the id3 tags haven't been completed, have been completed incorrectly, or in some really annoying circumstances, different tracks have the tags completed in different ways with different fields filled in.

[jmo21]

I have no stats at all to back this up, but I am guessing mp3 player sales have plummeted with the explosion in smart phones and the age kids get these at gets younger and younger.

I appreciate what someone above says about separate devices for battery power, but that type of opinion is probably fading away as more and more people just charge their phone every night

so yeah, must be true!

[d000hg]

The iPod nano is very nice. I still find using a phone for music a bit awkward.

I never found a nice-looking MP3 player with decent features that wasn't Apple, sadly. The iPod Touch is silly but the nano is super-slick... if only it would let you dump files onto it without using iTunes or similar.

[DirtyDog]

One of my mp3 players insists on playing tracks in the reverse order, which sort of screws up stuff like DSOTM.

Try playing an audio book on it.

One of mine doesn't account for disk number - so you get all the track 1s, then all the track 2s etc.

Makes books an interesting listen (or indeed a musical)