There are five key reasons the ipod is a success: coolness, overall esthetics, software/interface, specs & itunes.

So far, everyone has aimed at one thing on the ipod - the hardware - they keep thinking the ipod is a portable HDD so to these companies, they're all about the HDD space, the price or the battery - when you trump anything (not just the ipod) with only 1 out of 5 key buying reasons - you fail. That explains why the combined 100+ devices have less than 8% market share and in many ways, it's beneficial to Apple that all these yahoos (including Yahoo believe it or not has a CE line) out there with machines popping up everywhere - it just serve to confuse matters and make them appear flakey (do I want a Safeway Mp3 player?) and transitory - should I choose some random fly-by-night player or the ipod? ... If they had at least 3 categories that matched or topped the ipod, they might do it but when you lose on 4 out of 5, 25% gets you 8% of the marketplace so people get confused - what weird brand do I buy, my old player won't play WMA 10 files, what about WMA 11? Will that change again or should I buy the ipod with 5 out of 5 world-class reasons. Consumers are confused but we're not idiots.

There are five key reasons the ipod is a success: coolness, overall esthetics, software/interface, specs & itunes.

So far, everyone has aimed at one thing on the ipod - the hardware - they keep thinking the ipod is a portable HDD so to these companies, they're all about the HDD space, the price or the battery - when you trump anything (not just the ipod) with only 1 out of 5 key buying reasons - you fail. That explains why the combined 100+ devices have less than 8% market share and in many ways, it's beneficial to Apple that all these yahoos (including Yahoo believe it or not has a CE line) out there with machines popping up everywhere - it just serve to confuse matters and make them appear flakey (do I want a Safeway Mp3 player?) and transitory - should I choose some random fly-by-night player or the ipod? ... If they had at least 3 categories that matched or topped the ipod, they might do it but when you lose on 4 out of 5, 25% gets you 8% of the marketplace so people get confused - what weird brand do I buy, my old player won't play WMA 10 files, what about WMA 11? Will that change again or should I buy the ipod with 5 out of 5 world-class reasons. Consumers are confused but we're not idiots.

The other missing feature is the ability to work with iTMS. I think it's the iPod/iTMS combo that is helping sell so many iPods. There is no other service that matches the selection ans ease-of-use of iTMS.

While the iTMS certainly helps, but what about countries that don't have the iTMS yet? In many of those the iPod is still dominating it's market.

I don't want to sound like Ballmer and clearly he tried to attack the iPod with only one side of the story but... Most iPods sold, even in the US don't have much if any iTMS tunes, most people have their iPod filled with their own CD collection ripped to MP3 or AAC, or like Monkey Ballmer said: "stolen music" from p2p networks.

The iPod was a success from the start, even when there were no iTMS (and Windows version).

There is something more to the iPod story than just features, even though it has some great unique features like the clickwheel and the best interface (with the iTunes jukebox), my take is that buying an iPod is a "political" decision in a way.

Many people "vote" against Microsoft and for Apple by buying an iPod. They are tired of the complex Wintel clones world, feel Apple was ripped off by MS and deserves more, they know/heard that Apple makes great products, but can't afford to switch and/or to lose compatibility. The iPod is a smaller investment and compatible with MP3s and that's much different, and that's why these people are buying them by the millions.