Sunday, November 16, 2008
LAS VEGAS -Watch out, Apple, the iPod finally has some serious competition.
Just stroll around the exhibit halls at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, and you'll find attractive alternatives to the blockbuster music device from nimble players such as SanDisk (nasdaq: SNDK -news - people ), Creative Technology(nasdaq: CREAF - news - people ) and Samsung that boast snazzy designs and more bang for the buck. Gone are the clunky user interfaces of a few years ago, back when the gap between the iPod and everyone else was painfully obvious. Competing device makers have clearly learned from Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news- people ) that they can't hook consumers with a strong set of features unless they also pay attention to the aesthetics of their players.