1. No replacement service available from apple.
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=MA518LL/A
2. More expensive and less full-featured than the alternatives. (Case in point creative, who began the MP3 player industry)
I bought my 4th generation Ipod to play music, not games, photos, radio, movies, etc etc. I take my Ipod to a jobsite everyday, It's outlasted alot of other players. In regards to price, Creative and Sandisk are more expensive than an Ipod. You pay more for less memory. I don't know where you are, but here in Canada, Ipods are cheaper than Creative.
3. iTunes. iStore. on the iNternet. 'Nuff said about that proprietary nonsense.
Not sure what you mean by this, I don't use Istore for anything other than album art, and in regards to Itunes, a couple of patches and changes later and it runs amazing, does what I want it too do. I even have it synch'd with my winamp.
4. Apple. It's apple. If you're for their products, chances are you'll turn into an Apple-apologist. "I'm sorry but I like my iMac!" or "But we have this feature!" and so forth. Apple doesnt even have the advantage in raw speed since they started sleeping with Intel for their processors.
Who these days buys an over the counter computer? And I don't give a f*ck what name is on my toys, if it does what I want it too do then I am happy. I have no real loyalty to brand names, I research the products that I purchase. I picked my 20gb Ipod and my Itrip for less that $200, when I looked at Creative and Sandisk, there was no way I could get the same memory for the same price.
5. Pop culture has no place in the tech field. You will be ridiculed by the geeks and nerds if you buy the overrepresented, market-saturated products... as previously said: Cheap Dell solutions and iPods.
