Finally, the wait is over for the new ‘flash’ iPod. Many an internet blog site was crammed with speculative new ideas, some running competitions to see who could design the next iPod incarnation, most reiterating the ‘insiders’’ points of views of 1GB and 2GB flash modules, sliding screens, circular devices and shrunken click-wheels. Most were way off target. Apple decided to fly in the face of those who branded ‘not being able to see which song is playing’ a major setback in the world of digital music. After all, aren’t we more advanced than when we used to listen to our Sony Walkman sans display and revel in the fact that we had music with us at all, that we didn’t have to stay at home and listen to the wireless?

The iPod shuffle has launched under such slogans as ‘Give Chance a Chance’ and ‘Random is the New Order’. It is claiming to enhance your life with the statement that every music listening experience is different, due to the random selection of the songs and the inability to see what is coming next. Much like life itself…

So how does it fit into the ever expanding iPod family? The older iPods were like an advanced alien breed landing on the planet of the hard disk player, and their evolution has led to the continuation and advancement of successful features from previous models, while the shuffle is more like a rogue strain of flash memory stick/mp3 player set to cannibalise both markets. It is the mutation rather than continuation of the portable music player trend, and hence will make up a different consumer segment than the iPod.

Coverage of the hard disk music player market by Apple is already over 87%, but when the flash based players are included in the statistics Apple’s share of the digital music player market dips to just 59% (source: MacObserver). The attempt to cover every base is seen by some as a portable music player monopoly attempt by Apple… I can just hear the law suits rolling in…

First impressions

The iPod shuffle comes in a small lime green box, very austere, very Apple. It comes with the requisite manuals and iTunes software, is accessorised with a USB cap and Apple’s standard issue headphones, but in the style of iPods of late, does not have a dock. And in addition, just in case someone may not notice that you have a NEW iPod shuffle, the supplied neck strap displays it clearly on your chest for all to see.

Size-wise the iPod shuffle is available in 2 capacities: 512MB and 1GB, at a cost of £69 and £99.01 respectively. It weighs 22 grams and is 8.4cm long, 0.83cm thick and 2.5cm wide. In real terms, that is the size of a packet of chewing gum.

Appearance-wise, the iPod shuffle is something else. It inspires size-related squeals of delight from girls and admiring ‘look-at-that’ comments from the boys. It is simplicity and style in one striking contraption. It will undoubtedly create the mega hype and under-fulfilled demand so notorious with past iPods. But this little device is a bit different from the others.

Holding it in your hand is a bit surreal: here is this piece of equipment that has so much power, yet gives nothing away. It weighs next to nothing, has no fiddly buttons, no LCD screen, none of the silver components so regularly associated with flash MP3 players. But in reality it does everything it aims to do.

It has done away with the screen and menu system that has been the basis of previous iPod success. The volume and track controls are all in a ring and reminiscent of the 1st generation iPods – raised like a donut with the play button in the centre. On the back of the iPod the thumb switch has options to shuffle, play in order and switch off. In addition, there is a tiny battery status button which shows different coloured LEDs for different power levels.

The headphones are just Apple standard issue white earbuds. In our experience these earbuds are far superior to many other expensive in-ear headphones or ones supplied with portable music players. They have good bass response (though emphasis is more on the treble) and fit comfortably, and with the inclusion of a couple of sets of sponge covers can be customised to fit different ear types. The music produced is really high volume and we experienced no discernable difference between the shuffle’s sound and that of the regular-sized iPods.

Undoubtedly the iPod shuffle has the aesthetically demanding contingent covered. But clearly there is no point in having a useless (but beautiful) piece of white plastic hanging round your neck. The real testament to the shuffle’s success will be its musical usability.

Operation time

Firstly, a problem that was encountered when trying the shuffle on a couple of different computers was that of the USB port accessibility. Clever marketing (as usual) by Apple means that those with restricted USB ports, e.g. on desktop towers, would need to invest in the dock to connect shuffle and computer. Luckily the £19 price tag is not prohibitive and also a nice accessory to have.

Once all the iTunes software was installed (which only took 10 minutes), the 512MB shuffle was filled to its maximum capacity. 113 songs of average file size were transferred and over USB1.1 this took approximately 20 minutes. We thought that although the transfer speed was pretty slow (undoubtedly faster over USB2.0), the storage was impressive considering most of the time companies are over-enthusiastic about how many songs you can fit on their players. It equated to an approximately 7.5 hour long playlist. You should be able to achieve 12 hours of skip-free music – although we haven’t run it for its full length, we achieved 8 hours of play through a normal office day and the tube ride home just fine.

The shuffle has an ‘autofill’ function, which renders you totally at the mercy of your computers’ musical choice, as it randomly chooses songs from your selected playlist. When tested it did give a decent random selection from the iTunes library – though annoyingly included iTrip stations and fragments of audio books. This could be avoided by simply deselecting the unwanted songs in the playlist, and after that a good musical mixture was achieved.

A downside to the iPod shuffle (and considering its nature and marketing this is quite a substantial failing) is that the song shuffle function is really not great. This is consistent with other older iPods and with iTunes that also don’t give a decent random selection and tend to get stuck between 2 or 3 artists.

When in normal play mode, the beginning of the playlist can be found by clicking the play/pause button 3 times. The real benefit of this function seems a bit elusive, unless your favourite song is right at the beginning of the playlist it is a little bit of a redundant feature.

In a more practical and even regressive sense, the iPod shuffle’s hard drive can be partitioned to allow for non-music file storage. You can select how much space you want to allocate for files and how much for music. This was a great feature, even for just limiting the amount of songs loaded on by the autofill function, as it meant we didn’t have to waste time creating specific size playlists.

The shuffle was ideal when doing any kind of physical activity, even just walking to the bus stop. Any of the other iPods, including the iPod mini, are a little bit too bulky to use on a run or in the gym. The shuffle’s tiny size made it convenient to fit in any pocket, even a tiny watch pocket.

Summary

Overall thoughts were that the iPod shuffle was excellent – and especially for Apple it was amazing value for money. Comparable devices in the market have less capacity but are more expensive, such as the Packard Bell AudioKey for £69 with 256Mb of storage, Tangent’s 128Mb player for £39.99, or the Napa 256Mb player for £99. Admittedly these players have LCD displays, and some have voice recording capabilities, but at the end of the day they are not made by Apple and hence are infinitely less cool(!). Even USB flash memory sticks (which in essence is all that the iPod shuffle is) are hardly cheaper and in some cases more expensive, so the less musically inclined could use the shuffle solely as a backup drive for files.

We believe that the smaller capacity one will be more successful, as shuffling blindly through 240 songs may prove too much to handle for most people, unless they have Rainman-esque memory powers. But given that there is only the ability to put a fraction of the music you own onto it, the songs can be hand picked so that you never have to skip over one you don’t like. Ultimately, playlist organisation is the key to a happy shuffle.

In success terms, the iPod shuffle will capture a market that Apple are yet to appeal to - the lower cost and less functionally demanding consumers. It will definitely be interesting to see where Apple go from here.