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SanDisk Takes on iPod With 'iDon't' Web Site

Monday, May 22nd, 2006 at 5:30 PM - by

SanDisk this past weekend launched a Web site, iDon't.com, that takes on the iPod by declaring: "The time has come to rise up against the iTatorship ... Now is the time to break free from restrictive formats and a single source for music."

On a news page designed to resemble a blog, a SanDisk employee named Eric, who calls himself "Da Sheep Herder," refers to iPod owners as "iSheep swarming through our cities." He adds: "We're rallying anyone who's ready to go against the grain and asking them to consider one really worthy alternative media player." That alternative, of course, is SanDisk's Sansa e200 MP3 player.

iDon't's "Propaganda" page features links to AnythingButiPod.com, the Neistat brothers' protest video that drew attention to iPod battery life back in September 2003, and even the satirical news publication The Onion, among other sites. Visitors can also buy t-shirts, stickers and posters as well as click links to read reviews of the Sansa e200 MP3 player.

While iDon't.com might at first glance seem simply like a Web site set up by a fan of SanDisk's products (or, at the least, someone who doesn't like the iPod), the submissions policy page clearly states: "All comments, feedback, suggestions, ideas, and submissions disclosed, submitted or offered to SanDisk on or by this Site or otherwise disclosed, submitted or offered in connection with your use of this Site (collectively, 'Comments') shall be and remain SanDisk's property."


The iDon't Web site

26 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon May 22, 2006 5:51 pm

Cute. Ripping on Apple's 2004 ad.

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stuartea said:

member since 08 Aug 2005 with 327 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 5:55 pm

*yawn*

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1002 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 5:56 pm

SanDisk has this all wrong. They need to market to the lefty crowd, you know, the people who hate George Bush and SUVs. Add iPods to the mix. It'll be perfectly consistent with their hate first, figure out who you're hating later philosophy. Then Apple can release it's long anticipated "Piss ants can't compete with iPod" campaign.

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davebarnes said:

member since 12 Jan 2005 with 130 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 6:04 pm

So, what is wrong with www.idont.com ?

1. It is a corporate site designed to appear to be a blog. Talk about LYING to your audience. How to lose credibility in one easy lesson.

2. The site is 100% Flash. Those of us using Firefox with AdBlock installed "don't" [pun intended] see much of the site.

3. White text on a black background is difficult to read. I suppose that consumers under the age of 25 will think it is cool, but anyone over the age of 35 will be turned off.

,dave

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon May 22, 2006 6:12 pm

iDon't -- get it

Let's see, taken directly from their respective web pages:

SanDisk Sansa c150 (2GB)

Audio formats supported - 4

MP3, Audible, WMA, WMA DRM (assuming although doesn't specify)

Operating systems supported - 1

(you know which one)

iPod Nano (2GB)

Audio formats supported - 7

AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, Audible, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF

Operating systems supported - 2

Which one looks more restrictive to you?

I thought so ...

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1960 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 6:15 pm

I'm confused. If this is the player for people who reject conformity, why does it ONLY work with Windows?

Certainly the types of people who want to rise up be different would be using some form of Linux. Maybe a Mac, but certainly not Windows.

Why advertise to people who use an OS your product won't run on?

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Engine Joe said:

member since 29 Jun 2004 with 413 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 6:16 pm

I saw a ton of posters for this site in NYC over the weekend, plastered (probably illegally) over iPod ad posters and on Post No Bills walls. I thought it seemed feeble then, but now that I know a corporation's behind it, it really comes off as weak now.

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Small White Car said:

member since 02 Jul 2004 with 1960 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 6:17 pm

Anonymous wrote:

Which one looks more restrictive to you?

I thought so ...

Hey, why not give the iPod a "3" for OSes supported. It works on XP and 2000.

Sandisk only works with XP.

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vasic said:

member since 09 Aug 2005 with 279 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 6:39 pm

Just realised that my employee's proxy doesn't even allow access to www.idont.com. The official policy is: no gambling, no porn, no warez, no downloads, no questionable content. I guess, idont.com falls into the last category, therefore, I can't even see it from my office Mac. Just as well...

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon May 22, 2006 6:46 pm

Bosco wrote:
They need to market to the lefty crowd, you know, the people who hate George Bush and SUVs. Add iPods to the mix. It'll be perfectly consistent with their hate first, figure out who you're hating later philosophy.

Thanks, Karl Rove, but what does your dislike of 'lefties' have to do with SanDisk vs Apple?

Oh, and considering Bush's approval rating is down around 34%, I'd think that its far more than 'lefties' who are disliking our incompetent, bumbling, wrong-on-almost-every-issue President these days, eh?

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon May 22, 2006 7:01 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing much?

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bryson said:

member since 05 Mar 2002 with 79 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 7:36 pm

Nice way to insult the very people you are trying to woo. Implying that iPod users are all sheep.

They must be taking marketing cues from Rob "Krispy Kreme" Glaser.

And Bosco, lay off the stupid liberal bashing remarks. Makes you look like a mindless tool.

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algr said:

member since 07 Aug 2003 with 296 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 7:55 pm

Quote:
Nice way to insult the very people you are trying to woo. Implying that iPod users are all sheep.

True. Apple made this mistake with the lemmings ad in the 1980s, but learned their lesson.

Quote:
hate first, figure out who you're hating later philosophy.

And which side is trying to turn an iPod article into divisive politics?

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1018 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 8:56 pm

In the meantime, Macy's has decided to start selling iPods out of vending machines in their stores. More automakers are putting in iPod connectors into their cars. Consumers are continuing to buy iPods in record numbers (heck, I have 3) because they're easy to use, a good value for the money and they meet my needs.

San who????????????????????????

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon May 22, 2006 9:18 pm

Obviously a cheap-arse ploy by Sandisk, trying to get a bigger slice of the ‘Apple’ pie. I wonder if the roles were reversed and Sandisk was the player of choice; whether they would advocate a revolt against the San-tanic Sandisk empire... Me thinks not!!

Sandisk, this is really quite a desperate course of action. Instead of addressing the issues of why the Ipod is so successful (such as the fact that it simply just works; because of such things as it’s 'end to end' management) and proving that you have a better product, you just try and play the ‘it’s cool to be different’ card. How lame!!

To all those stupid enough to fall for this ploy, by all means go ahead and ‘be different’ to a product that works and embrace a product that will expose you the headaches that come from modular/component based products and incompatibility issues.

For me I’ll stick with my Ipod thanks!!!

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Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 3149 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 10:04 pm

I suspect this will backfire on them.

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akcarver said:

member since 23 Oct 2001 with 144 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 10:24 pm

Guest wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing much?

I've updated the Wikipedia page with info on this latest attempt at Astroturfing.

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1002 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon May 22, 2006 11:05 pm

bryson wrote:
And Bosco, lay off the stupid liberal bashing remarks. Makes you look like a mindless tool.

Hey, you're the one who used the phrase "stupid liberal", not me. For the record, some (ah crap, most, and it sucks being their token Republican, especially when I tend to vote Libertarian if the candidate isn't a dope smoking nutcase) of my best friends are liberals, just not stupid ones who are into hating everything.

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A guest said: (hide)

Mon May 22, 2006 11:13 pm

Say, didn't Apple try the same tactic with their "Lemmings" ad from 1985? And didn't that fail miserably?

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Mav said:

member since 17 Oct 2003 with 1320 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 23, 2006 2:34 am

One "word" --

ROFL!

OK, two more:

B-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-d campaign.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 23, 2006 5:31 am

The page states: "RESIST CONFORMITY"

Browsing without Flash, cookies, Java and whatever, it then adds: "Get with the program, dude--right here."

So, which one is it? Resist or get with the program. I might surf different, but I _am_ confused over this. One more site interested more about looks and less about actual content. Leaves doubts that the player does not include support for Ogg Vorbis.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 23, 2006 6:58 am

Bosco wrote:
bryson wrote:
And Bosco, lay off the stupid liberal bashing remarks. Makes you look like a mindless tool.

Hey, you're the one who used the phrase "stupid liberal", not me. For the record, some (ah crap, most, and it sucks being their token Republican, especially when I tend to vote Libertarian if the candidate isn't a dope smoking nutcase) of my best friends are liberals, just not stupid ones who are into hating everything.
Wow that's pretty sad. I believe he used the term "liberal". Basic reading comprehension allows us to determine that the adjective "stupid" was in fact in reference to your remarks. Libertarian, eh? That'll show em. Also way to bring politics into this at all. Nothing intelligent to add to the actual topic? Nah, didn't think so.

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Dreadnought said:

member since 01 Jan 2005 with 162 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 23, 2006 8:14 am

Last week, my 18 month old 60 gb iPod photo began acting weird - the battery life dropped off precipitously (from 15 hours to 5 hours) and would pause playing without reason (it was sitting on the desk, and nothing touched the bottom of the click wheel). I took it into the local Apple Store, the Genius checked that I had a valid Applecare agreement in place, and handed me a new iPod. The whole transaction took less than 10 minutes.

Sandisk - can I do that with your players? No, wait - I can't. You don't have any stores, do you? What about warranty information for your digital audio players - it isn't on your website, is it - you've only got warranty info for your memory products up there. What if I need to get it repaired? I've got to get an RMA first? WTF? I've got to pay inbound and outbound shipping? WTF????

You know why I like the iPod - it just works, and when it doesn't, you get a new one! (Okay, so long as you've paid the $59 for the extended warranty)

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1002 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue May 23, 2006 10:10 am

Biff wrote:
Wow that's pretty sad. I believe he used the term "liberal". Basic reading comprehension allows us to determine....

Wow Biff, you are really humor impaired, huh? Note to readers... For those unfamiliar with the term, to "Biff" someone is to point out what a humorless gas bag someone is by derisively mocking them.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 23, 2006 11:26 am

Bosco seems to not even know what's going on here... who cares about american politics? All the hicks in the red states, it seems... It doesn't matter one bit. This is about sandisk running a smear campaign against the iPod because the iPod is less featured and 'locks you in'... both statements are untrue since the iPod clearly has lots more features (not to even mention the peripherals available for it from many third parties.. hmmm sounds like you're locked in to me... wait.. no it doesn't) and you dont even have to buy music from iTunes, you can use iTunes, any non-drm webservice, bittorrent or any record store on the planet to get music... So... Yea, the iPod has been winning this battle for a reason and sandisk (like someone else said above I believe) is just trying to cash in and has to take a different approach than creative because sandisk has no useful patents or ANY legal ground to stand on at all. Also, Bosco's a tool.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue May 23, 2006 12:20 pm

The best part about this is that "iDon't.com" won't take you anywhere -- apostrophes cannot be used in URLs.

Morons.

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