[threpwood]

I think IPOD is preferred because of the coolness factor (should win good design award). I mean you can have it in smooth shining black or white, touchlike panel, thin, engraved, and have that 'high quality' porcelain look (although I'm sure 90% of the parts are made somewhere deep in China, Mexico etc etc where manufacturing method is questionable). Other brands do work but I found most of them are plain ugly (big knobs, strange button location etc etc).

As far as IPOD functionality, it is definitely not reliable and whoever program the software should be shot. I have the 60GB one and it has been rebooted 10 times (once on the first day of ownership!).

The company almost went bankrupt (in 1995?) but lives the day thanks to its innovative design (transparent) and OS X. I think the lesson that Apple learnt is that appearance is number 1 when it comes to gadgets. Other stuff can wait.