iPod

I was having a conversation with my coworker TJ the other day about consumer electronics. We both agreed that, for the most part, we like to have our phone, a camera, and an MP3 player separate instead of a 3-in-1 device. We agreed this was probably the case because we’re afraid of losing all of our music, photos, and contacts all in one incident, should something happen to our multi-gadget. Today, a market research firm claims that my colleague and I may be in the minority.

MultiMedia Intelligence reported that over 500 million music phones were sold in 2007, “outnumbering shipments of personal media players like the iPod by almost 300 million units.” MultiMedia Intelligence projects that by 2011 more than half of all the mobile phones sold will be considered a music phone.

Maybe I jumped to conclusions too quickly, though. MultiMedia Intelligence actually labels any phone a “music phone,” if it has both music-codec functionality and a memory slot. So, technically, that means most of the latest smart phones also fall into this category, too. Something tells me all those businesspeople that are issued BlackBerrys for work aren’t listening to the latest Gnarls Barkley album at the gym. That’s what personal media players are for, right?

It was 2005. Having just moved to Boston to complete a summer internship before my senior year of college, I soon found that the locals all seemed to possess two mobile staples: backpacks and iPods. It wasn’t long before I purchased my first Apple product—a 4GB iPod mini—and soon I was blissfully meandering down cobblestone streets, lip-syncing and jamming out to my favorite tunes just like the rest of the population.

The iPod mini, as most should remember, was a much clunkier version of today’s nano, and I couldn’t play videos or view pictures on it. But at around $200, it was still by far my best investment of the summer. My addiction to mobile music hasn’t changed in the last three years, but the choices for MP3 players has, and I’ve since upgraded my mini to the way sleeker 5G with video (which is still a step or two behind today’s classic and not as cool as the touch, but I’m at peace with that for now).

Diehard iPod fan that I am, I still like to consider myself open minded, which is why for a week I’m going to give up my 5G iPod for the new flash-based SanDisk Sansa Fuze. At first glance it could easily be mistaken for the iPod nano, but this 4GB player differentiates itself with cool features like an FM radio, voice recorder, and microSD Card slot.

When I’m outside my New York City apartment, my iPod is like my baby blanket; it goes wherever I go. I don’t think most babies trade their blankets in for smaller, sleeker versions to keep themselves pacified, but I’m willing to give it a shot for a little while. So kudos to me, right?

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I’ll be up front about this right from the start: Besides the intrinsic nature of the Internet and cell phone services, I hate—no, loathe—paying for any form of technology that I cannot own. This is why I refuse to pay for cable; I’ll take Hulu over it any day. It’s why I don’t use Netflix. I buy DVDs (if the movie happens to blow, I pass them on to friends or eBay them).

This is why I don’t do subscription music services; the idea of giving up $14.99 per month (and a little bit of my dignity) to rent music from a service like Rhapsody To Go is something that would only happen if the proverbial gun was placed to my head. That’s $179 per year completely wasted should I decide to cancel, as the music files would be rendered unplayable. Sorry, folks, I just can’t do it.

So when The New York Times reported that Apple may be entering a partnership with Universal Music that would allow a person to buy a premium-priced iPod to receive all-you-can-eat access to iTunes, all I could do is stare up at the heavens and pray to the technological gods for this abomination to the musical landscape to be struck down before it’s made manifest.

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