Giving Shuffle A Chance

“Give Chance A Chance.” That’s the tagline for the new iPod Shuffle. After going twice back to the Apple Store here in downtown San Francisco yesterday, I bought one to try out. See, at the conclusion of the Keynote Address yesterday, Steve Jobs casually mentioned, there might be some of these hanging around the SF store. This announcement, in turn, resulted in the running of the bulls from the Moscone Center to the Apple Store 3 blocks away. So by the time I arrived 2 hours later, they were all sold out. But after some persistence and some blatant loitering, I was there when the afternoon shipment arrived.

Give Chance A Chance. I admit, when Steve Jobs started his buildup of Apple’s increasing marketshare in the portable music category, my mouth started to water and goosebumps formed up and down my arms. But when he explained building the new iPod off of the concept of “Shuffle”, I became skeptical.

Why “Shuffle”? First off, positioning this new iPod around the concept of Shuffle is a point of differentiation amongst it’s new peers. But simply offering an iPod from Apple, at that price point, would be differentiating enough.

My first thought was the decision to use “Shuffle” was an excuse for not solving the issue of a small, inexpensive, interface screen. I can hear it now, “Well, we know other iPods give you tons of information for every song, but we can’t make one small enough and still make our $99 entry price point so why don’t we come up with something that will silence the critics?” By coming right out the gate with a new “bigger idea” around a “simpler product” allows Apple to hide behind the engineering inadequacies of the Shuffle.

“Enjoy Uncertainty”. “Lose Control”. “Add musical spontaneity”. Or my personal favorite, “Daily gridlock feels less mundane when you don�t know what song will play next.” These are all lines served up for the launch of this product. Who knows? Maybe this is what the public wants. I think the fact that I am used to getting the exact song from a huge library at the precise moment I want it, is why this “Uncertainty” is hard for me to “Enjoy”. I am glad that the Autofill function (added to iTunes) is optional. I think I would be very upset when I’m in the mood for McClusky and Norah Jones pops up.

I bought one:
Partly because when crunching the numbers, it is the same price as buying a USB memory stick only it has the simple elegance from Apple. And mostly because I was curious to see how it would stack up next to my 20GB iPod.

The sound is just as good. The transfer of songs is slower (USB 2.0 vs. Firewire). But mostly it’s a different way of utilizing your music. I am viewing the Shuffle as a personal radio station. It’s all the songs you like. You’re just at the mercy of someone else’s order.

The Shuffles were flying off the shelves here in San Francisco yesterday. But the people buying them were attendees of MacWorld. Not a good barometer for mainstream success. The real proof in the pudding will be from those who already have the flash-based sub $149 MP3 players. Will they spend another $149 and buy a Shuffle? Or will they just continue to use their existing players still saving for the big iPod? I’m pretty sure, those who are entering the market will buy a Shuffle over it’s competitors. Place a Shuffle next to the others and once again, you will see, Apple has made it impossible to resist.

The jury is still out for me. For now I will give the Shuffle a chance. It will never replace my other iPod but you never know, it just might change the way I enjoy my music. At the very least, I got a cool portable storage device that i can wear around my neck.