I have seen the bestseller list of Mp3 players for several big online retailers; the iPods were crushing the competition. The biggest Mp3 players sales were for Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3G), Apple iPod classic 80 GB 6G (Black), Apple iPod nano 8 GB Black (3rd Generation), Apple 80 GB iPod classic Silver (6G) and Apple iPod touch 8 GB with Software Upgrade .

Apple's iPod has dominated the portable audio market completely over the past few years. Giants like Sony and Microsoft where insignificant players in the mp3 players market.

But what makes iPods so special? Why are people crazy about them?

First let us see the current iPod product line-up (in 2008). The line-up includes the hard drive-based iPod classic, the touchscreen iPod touch, the video-capable iPod nano and the screenless iPod shuffle.

Design

"The product was elegantly designed in classic Apple fashion," says David Carey, president of Portelligent.

Apple did product design from the outside in and that was one of the key factors for their success. This outside-in perspective helped determine a number of the components - battery, hard drive and circuit board - to be layered, one atop the next. That idea made the player look cooler and thinner.

Apple has successfully secured a design patent for its iPod digital music player. The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday issued Apple Computer a patent for the ornamental design of its third-generation (3G) iPod media player.

Functions

The new iPod includes an alarm clock function and the alarm sounds even if the iPod isn't hooked to a stereo or headphones.

On-The-Go function allows you to listen to a particular group of songs on the iPod without connecting it to a computer.

Equalizer function. iPod software allow you to control the equalization or "EQ" of a song, you can assign that song one of 22 equalizer presets. Once you assign a preset to a song, iTunes will use it each time you play the song. When you copy the song from your computer to iPod, the equalizer preset you chose in iTunes is also copied, and iPod will play the song with the same preset.

Smart format function. If the iPod is formatted on a Mac OS X computer it uses the HFS+ file system format, which means you can use it as a boot disk for a Mac computer. If it is formatted on Windows, the FAT32 format is used.

Sound quality

iPod has one of highest sound quality for a Mp3/4 player. If you want to get better sound quality it is a smart idea to purchase optional headphones, which can deliver even more accurate sound than the recognizable white earbuds that come with an iPod.

Controls

The controls are backlit and touch sensitive. There is no longer a spinning wheel that collects dirt.

HDD

The HDDs for the iPods are huge: Apple iPod classic has an 80GB HDD; the new Apple iPod nano has an 8GB HDD and Apple iPod Video has a 30GB hard drive. The king for now is the new Apple iPod classic with 160GB (holds up to 40,000 songs).

Of course you will find iPods with smaller hard disks like iPod nano (4GB, 2GB) and iPod shuffle with just 1GB.

Battery life

The iPod uses the latest lithium ion battery technology from the leading battery manufacturers, such as Sony and Sanyo. When new and fully charged, the battery provides up to 8 or 12 hours of battery life, depending on your model.

Marketing

Apple marketing team was smart and used the iPod brand well. Apple Ipod had a successful advertising campaign comprising of magazine and television advertisements focusing on the target market (teenagers and young adults). Promotions. Apple iPod used a direct method to induce customers to purchase their product by offering any iPod accessory per customer for half the value price with every purchase of a new Apple iPod. This method allowed the business to directly measure the success of the campaign by observing the sales rate of the promotional tool.

The correct marketing approach made people fell in love with the iPod and offered a fantastic experience. Apple didn't build just a brand, they have built a lovemark.

Conclusion

All iPods look great and use the latest technologies; they are very smart and trendy gadgets so almost everyone wants to have one.

Apple created a great product and used the correct marketing approach making iPod a lovemark.

So why are iPods so popular? The Apple Ceo, Steve Jobs has the answer: "With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go," the Apple CEO said when he introduced the product in October 2001. "With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again."