Jupiter: Best Portable Media Player – 2005

After selecting his top cell phone for 2005, Michael Gartenberg sets his sights on the best portable media player of the year at the Jupiter Analyst Weblogs. In the end it was a two Apple race with Gartenberg giving the iPod Nano the nod over the video iPod. On the plus side, he states:

Both models are very thin (the 30gb especially so) and the added video capability and the new video content on the iTunes music store, both in terms of commercial and podcast formats give users something to fill them up with. The nano continues to amaze everyone who sees it and almost everyone who sees it and holds it wants one. Few products manage to evoke the notion of caressability like the nano does. It's also a spectacular music player and battery life is excellent too. Since it's 4gb, it fits well within the size of the average consumer music collection. In short, we said this one was going to be a hit and we were right.

Gartenberg also points out some minuses, such as he surfaces easily scratch and the "lack of support for more video and audio formats and the proprietary nature of music purchased online from Apple." However, he does point out that consumers are voting with their wallets and concludes:

On the other hand more than 75% of consumers don't seem to care and Apple remains the company to beat in this space. Could it be done better? Possibly, but at the moment, no one is even close.