Usb drive mp3 player

Apple Inc. has ventured into the consumer electronic devices market by unveiling the iPod, an MP3 player which, according to one of the company's Canadian executives, can double as a storage device.

Ivan Reel, product manager at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company's Markham, Ont., subsidiary, told CDN the iPod's 5GB hard drive, which is about the size of a deck of cards, allows users to fit up to 1,000 CD quality songs into a 6.5-ounce device.

"You can even hook it up as your main startup disk on your Macintosh, which is amazing because if you have any fatal crashes ... you have an instant recovery with this drive as an MP3 player," said Reel.

"There's a lot more hidden functionality in the iPod, which is exactly why we didn't call it the music device. It's a lot more than a music device. It just happens to be the most visible feature for it in today's market for it."

The iPod is also the only MP3 player with a FireWire interface. And that, according to Reel, speeds up the downloading process for the music, when compared to a traditional MP3 player with a USB interface.

"I like to work out but I like to change my music set every now and then," Reel said. "It takes me half an hour to write a music set on my (USB-based) MP3 player before I can go work out. Whereas with the iPod, it's just going to be a matter of hooking it onto my Mac and less than 30 seconds later, I will have a complete song list that I can then go out and do whatever my gig is for that day with it."

Alexandre Lavoie, Apple specialist in corporate sales at B.Mac, an Apple reseller in Montreal, called the FireWire connection, 5GB hard drive, 10-hour lithium polymer battery and iTunes software "awesome" features that could help drive sales.

However, Lavoie wasn't so sure whether Apple users will pick up on the possibilities of using the iPod as a storage device.

"It can (double as a storage device) but on the other hand there's another product that has a 20GB hard drive and it's an MP3 player," he said, referring to Creative's Nomad Jukebox, which works on both Macs and PCs. "There's a little competition there and it's the same price and everything."

Although Reel maintained that the iPod is not overpriced, considering its added functionalities, Lavoie said MP3 player adoption in general is slow at the moment because the prices are still high -- most range between $199 and $399, while the iPod retails for about $599.

"(Prices) might drop after Christmas, but that's not for sure, of course," said Lavoie. "But every Macintosh product tends to drop in price as the time passes.

"When (the price) goes down, the popularity of the product is going to increase for sure."

In addition, people are still quite attached to their CD players, said Lavoie.

"There's a big competition with people with CDs because you can even buy an MP3/CD player for $200 and you can put 200 songs on that or so, and you've got yourself a portable MP3 player."

MP3/CD players also have more storage space than the average MP3 player, which has only about 64MB of RAM, he added.

Reel said Apple expects the established install base of Macintosh users to express interest in the iPod.

"A lot of our community in design and creative space ... deal with very very large files that they will bring back and forward from accounts and clients and home and then back to their office. We fully expect this to be a product for them that they'll use to do a lot of those functions, over and above the MP3 space that we hope the consumer will adopt the product in."

At press time Lavoie said he already had about 12 iPods reserved for clients, adding that he expected there to be a "big fuss" about the product in the coming weeks through promotions.

Reel said Apple is planning a large campaign to promote the iPod in Canada in the coming weeks. The campaign will include brochures, advertisements and billboard signage that will target consumers.

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