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Why won't Nokia N91 kill iPodAn opinion |
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28th of April 2005, 14:27 GMT
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Nokia announced yesterday a phone that will incorporate a 4 GB hard-disk, and with each passing hour, there are more and more voices feeling sorry for iPod. They say this model will be the beginning of the end for iPod and from now on, music will be the exclusive domain of cell phones.
The first problem is that Nokia hasn't announced a price for this model. Such a smartphone, fitted with hard disk, 2 megapixel digital camera and other multimedia functions, will be available to end-user willing to pay at
least 500 dollars, while the cheapest iPod, with the same capacity, has a price tag of 200 dollars and by the end of the year, the price will decrease even more.
Nokia N91 supporters will probably say the price is fair for a phone with so many features. That's true, but experience has taught us that when you try to cram so many functions into a single equipment, some of them might not work correctly. So until we see how well the Nokia N91 works, it's difficult to tell if it's better than iPod.
And one of iPod's main secrets is keeping things as simple as possible. Apple's player knows to play music, eventually images, but that's all.
On the other hand, Nokia has declared that it won't offer an online music store and although Nokia N91 is able to play AAC files, it's not compatible with iTunes's protection system and who's the leader of the music download market? iTunes.
OK, you can build a device which is better than iPod, and capable of doing more, but the combination iPod plus iTunes is hard, if not impossible to defeat.
Aside from these facts, Apple's sale figures point out that consumers are still craving for more iPod. Moreover, iPod is no longer a device, but as Ben Wood, a Gartner analyst, said "an iconic design".
Anyway, Nokia N91 will be launched somewhere towards the end of the year, and that's enough time for iTunes to release new services and for Apple, to launch new iPods.
So, in our opinion, iPod will remain king of the market.
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