<p>gh0st-the iPod is nowhere near invincible, but it's not going to be sony that tops it. Sony held off on a hard drive mp3 player for a long time (because of Sony Music's concerns about piracy). When they finally did come out with one, it only worked with ATRAC encoded songs, which meant loading MP3s was incredibly painful. Now, I think they finally have a player that does MP3s, but the interface is crappy.</p>
<p>An "iPod killer" is going to be more than evolutionarily better than the iPod, it's going to need to be revolutionary (and I don't think playing videos will do it). The power of the iPod name + cachet is pretty crazy right now.</p>
<p>i don't have an iPod and i don't care. music is music. sounds the same whether u listen 2 it on the radio or CD player. (or iPod) iPod's are kinda cool though, i mean, i wouldn't mind having one...but i don't--doesn't even matter</p>
<p>oh hell no. i got a mp3 player from nomad 3 years ago, back when a 128MB cost me somewhere around 200$, and it came with a wonderful 90 day warranty. 4 months later, after having to exchange it once, the NiMH batteries broke while recharging, and melted part of my mp3 player. the warranty had ended, and i was stuck with a 200$ piece of crap. its gonna be a while before i feel like ever buying ANY mp3 player. the ipod battery thing ****es me off too. why can't mp3 players have normal, non-crappy batteries?</p>
<p>I received an Ipod Mini for christmas. I wasnt opting for one. But, my father was convinced it was cheaper (lol) than what I wanted which was either the Rio Karma 20GB or the new Sony where you have to convert all files to Atrac3 format.</p>