I'm sorry, what is the hardware difference between the ipod and the zune? As far as I know, they are extremely similar in hardware make-up, but I may be wrong. Please be more specific.
And yes, formats have quite a bit to do w/ sound quality. Mp3s are generally not of the best sound quality, although they take up less space than other formats. This is crucial to the sound debate of the ipod, although to me, the difference is again, minimal. The headphones are not very good, thats for sure.
But give me some links please. Make me a convert.
I said "when compared to others" IE, if you get 2 players that BOTH do MP3 and try them out you'll see the difference in sound quality.
Of course going from MP3, to say, FLAC, you will see a sound quality difference (unless the encoder is a retard).
And yes, it is pretty similar, except for lack of WiFi, but the iPod is NOT more sophisticated than 99% of MP3 Players on the market, even the OS, which Apple think is the dog's bollocks, I think has been done better on every other player.
If the iPod was sold at a price in line with everyone else it would stop being this, fashion icon that all the celebs (god knows we brits love our celebs:shadedshu) have, so we must have, and people would start to make an informed choice about their purchases.
I get so many people come in to my work looking for iPods, and when asked why they always respond with either "Well it's cool isn't it?" "My friend has one" or "Well everyone else has one don't they so they must be good".
Premium pricing is a lovely marketing strategy that unfortunately, works too well -_-
