longbough

Well I'm an iPod convert.
Sure, you can plop songs on your Sandisk or whatever as you need them, but with an iPod you don't need to swap files in advance or decide what songs you want to carry around.
1.) When I got my iPod the first thing I did was to dump every CD I had onto it. With firewire (instead of USB) each complete CD was transferred in only a couple of minutes.
2.) The software found the label data online and entered the Song Names, Album and Artist for me. I didn't have to even type. My friend had Japanese and Mandarin pop albums and his iPod even found track info for them! On the iPod screen (It's screen has a bright blue backlight) the info was in Japanese and Mandarin!
3.) I could dump MP3s and other formats as well. In fact I don't even need to play my CDs anymore. There is a line output so I can plug the iPod into any home stereo system. My car player has a line input so I can play it in my car, too.
4.) Since all the music is with me all the time I just leave the house with my iPod. When I think of an old song I haven't heard in years I just play it right then and there! I don't have to go home and decide which ones to transfer.
5.) I taped hours worth of lecture notes and transferred them to my iPod - and could listen to them wherever and whenever I wanted. With 40gigs of space I didn't need to swap space with any music - I just dumped them on as well!
6.) The charge lasts a heck of a long time!
7.) I can use my iPod to store data files as well - and I have 40 gigs of storage space for it all.
8.) Oh and the data buffer is huge (something like 30min) - so if you go jogging you don't need to worry about skipping at all.

So you can't really compare other MP3 players to an iPod. They're totally different.