Some of Apple's customer service certainly leaves a lot to be desired, but there's a reason the iPod been so successful. Because it is essentially, a well designed and executed product.

Compared to comparable players on the market the price premium is not significant, especially in terms of the overall outlay if you are buying a hard disk iPod.

The 'halo effect' that Apple laptop and desktop sales are experiencing because of the iPod shows that the iPod has drawn customers to a company that they might not have considered otherwise, not pushing them away.

Funny how they almost head the
Aussie consumer list of Xmas bewares... again.
The eternal extension, "yes Sir, buy two thumping speakers, and put your delicate circuitry whack bang between 'em. Then pop back and upgrade...".
iTunes delivers tinny transistor - nay; crystal radio sound that begs to be played on Real player and revolts against the superior iRiver.
There's even a model of Ford our poor US cousins may drive between church, conspiracy rallies and the gun shop, with... yep, an iPod jack in the glove "compartment", there Hank, "compartment".
As Swoopy pointed out on Skepticality - Enough!!
Bring on the end of the AAC - and hurry.

I think being the market leader always makes you an easy target for criticism. The main ones so far seem to have been:

1. AAC Fairplay is a closed format.

So is every other DRM standard, it's just the one Apple chose to use. The Zune will use its own DRM standard. In an amazing rebuff to 3rd parties, the DRM standard used by Zune is even incompatiable with Microsofts previous "Plays for Sure" standard. They're shooting their own partners in the back!

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004910.php

2. Poor quality

MP3 hard disk players are probably the most complex piece of portable technology yet created. Especially fitting all the moving parts of a hard disk and the way people treat small devices (bumping, dropping, knocking, etc) is always going to be problematic. I'm willing to bet the Zune will end up with exactly as many issues as the iPod, if not more because it's being built by a 3rd party that Microsoft doesn't have immediate control over. And what happens if one does break down? There's no Microsoft stores anywhere that you can take them to for service.

3. Over priced

I'm not really sure where people get this from. Compared to no-name Chinese brands, then yes, the iPod can appear overpriced. But then the quality of most of the no-name Chinese brands REALLY leaves something to be desired.

Let looks at the other major HD players (US prices).

iPod 30G - US $249
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wo/0.RSLID?mco=2A9354F3&nclm=iPod

Zune 30G - US $249
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/28/zune-price-and-date-tk-tkth/

Creative Zen Vison M - US $249
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=&product=14331

All very similar products.

Clearly the iPod is not brilliantly better than any competitor, but it has something that has made people more interested in buying it. Is it the nice minimalist, smooth edged case with no sharp edges? Is it the way it just works seamlessly with iTunes to organise and sync your music? Is it the ability to buy songs from an online store? Is it self built market momentum? Something else? All of the above?

Anyway, I think the Zune will be the strongest competitor it's had in ages, so it will be very interesting to see how it goes.

I may be wrong about this, but it would be interesting to compare what comes with each package. I can remember when you got a dock, a charger, a headset volume control, Firewire cable etc with the iPod. Now everything seems to be an add-on.

All jokes and eye pokes aside, I reckon Rob has pointed to the real issues. Yes, Gates realised his vision of PC's everywhere [even the invading aliens in Independence Day, had Windows?] and Jobs radically changed the manner we consume in the leisure environ and the work arena. Music yes, but who expected this wonderful access to information from every sphere of interest, and lateral use in universities, lecture rooms, athletic training sessions, addiction rehab', file storage...
In fact iTunes is the software I use for podcast - only podcast - d'load/library. A tad excessive 'twas a habit I found suited dial-up v. well.
Without the iPod, there'd be no Zune, iRiver, Zen and other, 1/2 thumb size players.
And I'd probably have time to fill... or a cleaner kitchen.

Apple can be extremely indifferent to user's problems. They never acknowledge problems with their products. It takes battery explosions to get them to act.

On the other side of the argument, their products are a dream to use, and so far, ignored by malicious virus's etc.

Haven't posted here before, but this made me speak up:

>> (a) they're over-priced

Compared to what? A box of matches? Sure! But compared to products with the same feature-set, they're not "over-priced" at all. This is just nonsense pretending to be commentary.

>> (b) an extraordinary number if iPod users have had the things die on them

Got any numbers on that? No, didn't think so, just more nonsense.

And that's not to mention the fact that the "survey" you listed has been conclusively debunked on slashdot and elsewhere.

People with an iPod, with, presumably, all their tunes in AAC (or whatever the acronym is) are foaming at the mouth to rush out and buy a product that will play _nothing_ that they own???

Braaaaamp. Sorry. Thanks for playing.