mp3 player is dead, where to next?

[dejannk]

Rockbox project was awesome. I used Rockbox on my Sansa mp3 player, so much better than the OS I got from SanDisc.

But the mp3 player is going the same way as the Walkman. Days of iPod and other dedicated mp3 players are numbered. Perhaps it is time to look for a new project?

I suggest home media players. These devices are virgin territory. They can display photos, play divx and other format videos, mp3s, sometimes even have internet connectivity, torrent, NAS  functionality... They do all this very, very badly! mp3 playback does not include such basic features as shuffle! often device won't play some opular codecs. NAS requires special software. See for example Apacer AL460, WD HD Media Player, AC Ryan Playon, Mvix, etc...

This to me seems like a great opportunity to have open source OS specialized for these devices!

[LambdaCalculus]

We're already on the ball with an Android port, which will allow you to use Rockbox on Android-based devices: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/AndroidPort

[dejannk]

The problem is that Android and most smart phones, having full blown operating systems, already have pretty good mp3 playback functionality. Also, they do release patches and upgrades and stuff so the device is not a "sitting duck" as was the case with dedicated mp3 players of old. To me these where the key reasons for switching to rockbox: Better functionality and new releases/functionality which SanDisc wasn't providing. These are simply not going to be an issue with Win7/Android/Apple smart devices.

As a result, there is probably not going to be as much interest for rockbox on these devices. Perhaps rockbox could become an mp3 player app on android, but do you want to go down that route?

On the other hand you have these media player devices being sold in their millions with custom software which sucks. These are small computers with half baked OS made by the consumer electronics companies. This could be the next opportunity to have something very relevant for millions of people instead of being increasingly marginalized on obsolete devices.

You could even make money licensing the software to the likes of Apacer and Western Digital. It could still be open source, Red Hat and those people ae making money of it (I'm poor so making money is always high on my agenda  )

[saratoga]

Perhaps rockbox could become an mp3 player app on android, but do you want to go down that route?

We already did.  Click that link in the post above yours.

[Dec]

But the mp3 player is going the same way as the Walkman. Days of iPod and other dedicated mp3 players are numbered.

How are portable music players endangered?

SanDisk are moving forward with the Clip+ and Fuze+ (after the prices on the original Clip and Fuze models got severely lowered), and anything with a microSD slot is going to equal more cards sold (SanDisk sells a LOT of SC and CF cards). They are also one of the few hardware manufacturers to release firmware updates, and to listen to their customers on a support forum.
They may not have added as many features as some people wanted, but they set out clear targets for what the next release was going to include, and let us all know about them early on.

A more logical next step for RockBox would be as an app on one or more of the major mobile phone platforms.
Android is obviously first choice, but Symbian isn't going away any time soon, and is a slower-moving target than Android to develop for.

Not all home media devices suck: The EM7080 from Eminent (NL) has an excellent OS, with lots of audio and video formats, containers, and codecs very well supported.

[dejannk]

I believe mp3 player is deal because of smart phones. why carry an mp3 player when you can stick an sd card into your phone which you carry with you anyway?
Apple seems to be giving up on iPods. They are much more keen to sell you an iPhone or an iPad.

I mean it makes sense. Instead of having to carry a digital camer, mp3 player and a phone, why not have it in all one?

On the media players, they may not all suck, but compared to linux and windows they do. Also, these companies tend to release a new model every year and then stop releasing updates, so when the next version of divx is released you won't be able to play it on your 3 year old device. This is where a project like rockbox would come in nicely.

[gevaerts]

I mean it makes sense. Instead of having to carry a digital camer, mp3 player and a phone, why not have it in all one?

Because it's better to have three devices that each do one thing well than one device that does three things badly?

[LambdaCalculus]

Does this thread really have anything to do with Rockbox at all?

[Llorean]

I mean it makes sense. Instead of having to carry a digital camer, mp3 player and a phone, why not have it in all one?

Because it's better to have three devices that each do one thing well than one device that does three things badly?

It's also better to have three batteries that only go down when you do each of one thing, than one battery that goes down when you do any of them (and consequently isn't available when you need to make an emergency phone call). At least that's my opinion, and why I'll always keep a separate MP3 player - as long as it's separate I don't have to concern myself with remaining battery at all. I use it when I want to until it's empty.

[soap]

As much as I like to wax philosophical on topics such as this one, I'm not sure it is really on-topic for these forums.

Y'all are welcome to take this discussion to the #rockbox-community iRC channel.