Yesterday I received an email from a friend asking for help with choosing an mp3 player. The message comes with this attachment. He even asked if I know anything cheaper.

What can I say? Price is not everything. And price does not always indicate ‘value’. I really hate making a purchase decision with price as the main factor. Especially when it come to electronic devices.

What made me chose the iPod? (in random order)
- High capacity in reasonably sized form factor
- Sound Quality
- Build quality and look
- Ease of use (The click wheel interface is king!)
- Software
- The ‘cool’ factor

When all those things come together in a great package like the iPod, I (almost) forget about price.

Those fake iPods look very similar to the real thing and offer some more features such as FM tuner and it even comes with a wall charger! But - considering the poor build quality, the poor interface design and the lack of click wheel and iTunes, it’s not the same thing.

Even if you look at the price, a 1GB fake nano costs around 4,000+ Baht. The 2GB one should cost around 7,xxx if it were available. The “real” 2GB iPod nano costs US$ 199 = approx. 8,000 Baht. (Apple Thailand should lower the nano’s price!)

So, what is expensive now?

Geek#1

UPDATE (08/02/2006)
Apple has announced 1GB nano, for $149. I consider this a smart move to attract price-conscious customers to the nano as the competition gets tougher. The $149 price point is in line with the whole iPod family but still higher than some competing players of the same capacity (including the fake nanos shown here). It’s interesting to see how the market respond.