I like my iPod. Not because of the advertising - I don’t watch a lot of TV, and I usually tune out the ads and billboards around me - they’re everywhere. If I saw the display the OP is describing, I’d have to give props to the effort put into it. However, I would if it were for* any* product. It wouldn’t force me to walk into the store, zombie-like, and buy an iPod.
I like my iPod because I can carry it around practically unseen and undetected. I had a portable CD player before, and when I go out for my walks, well, I’m lugging that thing around. It’s clunkier than it looks, but perhaps it’s just me; I like to travel as light as possible. I can slip my iPod into my pocket and no one is often the wiser. Also, it holds several days worth of songs - an above poster mentioned that it’s like having your own personal radio station. It’s fantastic. I’m the DJ. I get to choose. I’m a music lover, so this works for me. YMMV.
As for those who buy it for a “fashion statement” or to listen to a handful of songs, I’m not sure why it’s so irksome. You can’t hear it, and they’re getting enjoyment from the product they paid for. Everyone wins. Everyone makes a fashion statement with something or other, it will pass, and it’s certainly not harmful. Is it? Some people wear expensive sunglasses.
iPod is a decent product. Advertisers must advertise to sell their product. It’s the world we live in.
I’ve got to say that I’ve tried several other players, and they aren’t as intuitive and easy to use as an ipod. I’m hardly what you’d call trendy either.
If you’d been at Powell station about a year or so ago, you could have seen the whole place filled with ads for “The Purple Pill”… Whatever the hell that is…
There was nothing explaining what it was for, except to “Ask Your Doctor for it”…
I did, and he told me to get an iPod instead of taking pills… 
And at McGill station here.
They keep doing this, and it’s pretty annoying. The only one I didn’t mind were those Mickey D’s ads at Berri metro last year, with the gigantic picture of Alexandre Despatie in his Speedo…
Having actively dissuaded at least one person out of an ipod purchase into another player and counselled the mother of another ipod desirer, both on the point of the ipod’s coolness, I will agree with Mikahw that there are SOME (all emphasis coding clearly intended) that do consider the ipod above all others because of the trendiness. There are things that I feel ipod does right; in fact, better than most anything else out there. But then there are the useless features and “hip factor” that allow them to consistently charge about a hundred bucks more than the competition because, despite being not-all-that-different, they are the “it” hard drive player.
Congratulations to 11811 (though you’d have to show me how the ipod’s 40 gig model is any different than another manufacturer’s 40 gig model for your Capacity criteria), Anastasaeon (who chose it for the size factor, though that’s something that can certainly be comparison shopped in the market, as seen below), and mike1dog (who is probably right about intuitive UI over most other players, though only if he can say he tried sampling the UI of a number of competitors). You all chose for your own reasons, but that does not discount Mikahw’s claim that there are some who chose purely for coolness’ sake. The person I talked out of one ended up buying a 30GB Zen for a hundred bucks less than the 20GB ipod, and after a bit of a learning curve on the UI, she loved it. Only Mostly Missus’ little sister wants an ipod, but it’s clear that she wants the coopted cool of the ipod more than actual music playing functionality.
FTR, I have a 20GB Zen, which I love and found no problems learning the interface within a use or two, to the point where a number of basic functions could be performed quite easily by touch alone. My next player, however, will probably be an iRiver H320. Despite the slightly-higher-than-I’d-like cost, the features can’t be beat. A 20GB full color screen player that allows image viewing, multiple formats including OGG, and an FM tuner for the same cost as the vanilla 20GB ipod. And as far as size goes (in inches) 4.1 x 2.4 x .6 for the ipod vs 4.0 x 2.4 x 1 for the H320. I think one could manage the hulking extra .4 inches thickness.
Number one: work on your spelling.
Number two: are you pressing enter at the end of every line or something? Don’t do that.
Number three: of course the iPod wouldn’t be so popular if it wasn’t pretty. What’s your damn point? People like pretty things, and Apple generally makes pretty pieces of hardware.
Number four: you don’t think the iPod is just a little more convenient and useful than a Walkman?
BART doesn’t go all the way to Alaska. Note the capitalization of BART (it’s an acronym) and Alaska (proper noun) and the apostrophe in “doesn’t” (contraction.)
Dear me. Is Alaska really that free of advertising that it’s upsetting to set foot in the lower forty-eight? You know, I’m not a fan of cold weather but I definitely think I could stand to live in a place like that.
The scary thing is that this demonstrates the effectiveness of advertisements.
That’s one of the main methods of advertising - make something appear trendy so that people feel the urge to jump on the bandwagon. And the iPod has another benefit - it’s a very nice little machine. I don’t own one, and I don’t want to carry around another electronic gizmo, but it’d be nice if my Palm Pilot held as much music as an iPod does.
Yeah, I doubt that’s the case for most of them. I’m a student, and so I end up spending a lot of time walking to and from class, or riding the bus. I’ll usually end up listening to four or five albums during the course of a day, and that’s only because that’s all the music that my Palm Pilot, which I use as a personal stereo, holds.
In this case, you’re probably wrong about that. The iPod owes its tremendous popularity to its usefulness; obviously it’s not something that appeals to someone who doesn’t listen to music, but I can definitely see the attraction. It’s a very well-designed device, by all accounts.
I suspect that part of the reason that the iPod ads are everywhere is that it’s hard to advertise directly for the iTunes music store. It’s a whole lot easier to push the visible personal accessory that all the cool kids have. Then, once you’ve convinced 'em to buy the player, it’s that much easier to get them to buy music from you.
I believe that Apple is not making much, if any, money off iTMS. Where they really make the money is iPod sales, with iTunes as a handy way of interfacing the iPod with the computer and the iTMS as a way to get gravy sales.
Gravy, eh? Maybe that’s why my computer crashed and burned.
Also of note: “iPod.” Not Ipod, not IPOD, not ipod, not I-Pod, not i-pod, not i’pod, not i*pod. Really not that hard.
Well, as a counter to the awful iPod experience, I offer my experience getting off BART at Montgomery Street Station this morning. The entire advertising experience has been purchased by British Columbia tourism. How nice to get off a crowded train in a big rainy city, and see lush posters of B.C. scenery. I started seriously thinking about planning a vacation there. I hope they’ve bought the place for at least a month, because it really made me feel good. Sure beats the ridiculous Audi ads they had previously.
Because it’s damn near perfect. I get to carry all of my music, anywhere I go. I have near-instant access to any song I want to hear at any moment. I have 10 broadly-defined Smart Playlists, each containing several hundred songs which are related in some way. Set to shuffle, I’m all but guaranteed a consistent, enjoyable music experience.
Using a Walkman or Discman is an absolute pain in the ass compared to this bliss. Hell, I’d be hard pressed to use anything other than an iPod – the crappy controls on every single other music player I’ve ever encountered pale in comparison to the absolutely wonderful clickwheel.
I also have an iPod shuffle, for the gym and when cleaning or doing something where I don’t want the (slight) weight of the iPod. But even though it’s great, it’s no match for the real iPod.
Sometime this year I’ll be replacing my third-gen 15 Gig model with the low-end iPod photo. Color screen goodness.
I swore never to buy a Fruitopia after they were the first company I noticed who bought all the advertising space in one subway car (~1997 or so). I had a real problem with that kind of saturation and the lack of anything else to look at (“Torn Earlobe?” or maybe some subway poetry). Of course many companies started doing the same thing and I couldn’t boycott them all, but I’m still sticking to that whole Fruitopia thing.
[sub]pssst, he’s from Homer…that’s…well you know…sortof where old hippies go to die, and all manner of certain substances are grown and consumed[/sub]
Oh, and on topic. While I like the iPod TV ads (I like the music and the style of them), I don’t really like mp3 players all that much. I have one, but I use my CD player a lot more.
I don’t want to spend the kind of money necessary to have one wtih a large enough storage capacity to have all the music I want. CDs do that, with much less cash and effort.
I have both an iPod and an iPod shuffle. The iPod is a first generation 5 gig. Never seen the need to upgrade, it does a splendid job and when I use it I certainly listen to a lot more than 10 songs. I’m actually only tempted to upgrade because the newer iPods support on-the-fly creation of playlists which is really neat. At the moment though I’m in love with the shuffle. I have a massive playlist of music that it pulls from, and I update it every couple of days, so it really is like having a radio station that just plays things I want to be listening to. Also, the size profile of the shuffle is great for me - I carry so much crud around and tend to want to be able to do things like knit on public transport, and even having an iPod in my pocket is less convenient and more prone to tangles that having the shuffle around my neck. But I replaced the white headphones and sewed a sweet little dark blue cover for it so I’m not wandering around being free advertising for Apple. I love the design but shiny white plastic is not my accessory look of choice!
I would like to hereby nominate “teco bablee” as the next annoying SDMB cliche. Please find ways to sneak it into your posts in other threads all over the boards as often as possible. Thank you.
Well first, before we do that, we need to know what it is. 
If a good product becomes trendy, that doesn’t make it a bad product.
I had my iPod in my car the other day (I have an FM transmitter on it), and made a stop. I forgot that it was the iPod and not the radio, and didn’t turn it off. I got back in and continued on my way. The iPod was still playing through the radio. I thought, “Hey, this is one of my favorite songs!” The next song came on, and it was an old favorite I don’t hear very often. The next one was a song I really like. I was just thinking how much I loved this radio station when I remembered it was my iPod. I have 1,200 songs on it, and the list I was playing was called “Old Favorites,” which has about 150 songs.
That is why I love the iPod. The fact that I use the part of the hard drive not occupied by music as a backup for my computer is just gravy.
skeptical + empirical?