Roundup of Apple Shuffle Stuff

Needless to say, there's been a deluge of information on the new iPod Shuffle since its introduction, so we thought we'd lump some of the more interesting bits together in one place.

First is the ever-dependable Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal:

[T]his is a good product that will enlarge the iPod's appeal, especially with kids, people on low budgets, or people who work out. I imagine some existing iPod owners will also buy Shuffles as sort of add-on players. And the iPod juggernaut will roll on.

The iPod community forum iPodLounge continues its tradition of doing 2 reviews of any new Apple music players with their New User and Power User reviews. Did we mention that iPodLounge really likes the iPod?

We think that Apple knew exactly what it was doing when it picked the iPod shuffle's features and price point. It is looking to utterly slay the competition for new portable digital music consumers by blending the iPod brand name with a fair amount of capacity and an ultra-low price point, yet keep its profits strong regardless of the iPod someone buys. Barring the unforeseeable, we think that Apple will succeed in dramatically expanding the iPod's market share with the iPod shuffle, moving at least four or five million units in 2005, perhaps more.

In fairness, though they did rate it a 'B':

The Good: Apple's smallest, lightest, and cheapest iPod yet, with an industry-leading price point and enough music playback features to satisfy some users.

The Bad: Major compromises on features (especially the absence of a screen) will suit new iPod users more than experienced ones, and force old users to adapt to the shuffle's limited ways of organizing and playing back music. By no means a must-have product for current iPod owners; not an innovative product in any way except bottom line price, size, and aesthetic style, which are of less interest to savvy iPod and competing product owners than new and mainstream buyers.

Here's a review from Russell Beattie that compares the Shuffle with his older Creative flash player:

Soooo... anyone want to take a slightly used Creative MuVo Sport 100 off my hands? :-)

Finally, i4u has video of the actual introduction and demo of the iPod Shuffle from the MacWorld show.

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