Do people still buy MP3 Players?

[BigRed]

My daughter has started taking an interest in music so I was looking for an MP3 player for her. I started looking at the cheaper end of the market and found the offerings distinctly lacking in basic features. Playlists aren't a dealbreaker but I would have expected most to support them, navigating by artist/album and playing the songs in the correct order is essential however. I can't believe some of these players sort all the tracks alphabetically and don't have any navigation system.

The ones that do have decent features are approaching the cost of a cheap smartphone, which have several free players available so I'm wondering if I should just get a phone for her, or do I go for a 7" tablet? it's a very confusing market sector at the moment.

[suityou01]

One of my mp3 players insists on playing tracks in the reverse order, which sort of screws up stuff like DSOTM.

It also has some sort of memory fault.

POS bought in Argos several yonks ago.

Ho hum.

[Ticktock]

I recently bought a Cowon X9. I prefer to have a standalone MP3 instead of using my phone to save my battery life, and I don't want to use a tablet or similar as I want something small enough to fit in my pocket easily.

I'm not sure whether I'd recommend it or not. I didn't want to pay loads, and you're right - prices quickly escalate.
Sound quality is great, battery life is very good, but it can be a little bit quirky (or downright awkward) to use sometimes.

[Hiram King Of Tyre]

I still use an i-river iHP-140. Everybody laughs at it

[DirtyDog]

One of my mp3 players insists on playing tracks in the reverse order, which sort of screws up stuff like DSOTM.

Try playing an audio book on it.

One of mine doesn't account for disk number - so you get all the track 1s, then all the track 2s etc.

Makes books an interesting listen (or indeed a musical)

[d000hg]

The iPod nano is very nice. I still find using a phone for music a bit awkward.

I never found a nice-looking MP3 player with decent features that wasn't Apple, sadly. The iPod Touch is silly but the nano is super-slick... if only it would let you dump files onto it without using iTunes or similar.

[jmo21]

I have no stats at all to back this up, but I am guessing mp3 player sales have plummeted with the explosion in smart phones and the age kids get these at gets younger and younger.

I appreciate what someone above says about separate devices for battery power, but that type of opinion is probably fading away as more and more people just charge their phone every night

so yeah, must be true!

[Ticktock]

Try playing an audio book on it.

One of mine doesn't account for disk number - so you get all the track 1s, then all the track 2s etc.

Makes books an interesting listen (or indeed a musical)

Did you buy or download the books? One of the big annoyances I've found is that a lot of the time audio books are labelled in the titles (track1, track 2, etc), but the id3 tags haven't been completed, have been completed incorrectly, or in some really annoying circumstances, different tracks have the tags completed in different ways with different fields filled in.

[d000hg]

I have no stats at all to back this up, but I am guessing mp3 player sales have plummeted with the explosion in smart phones and the age kids get these at gets younger and younger.

I appreciate what someone above says about separate devices for battery power, but that type of opinion is probably fading away as more and more people just charge their phone every night

so yeah, must be true!

The same can be said for cameras - but just because it's a smaller market doesn't mean it's no market.

[kevpuk]

I still *prefer* a dedicated mp3 player - my trusty Cowon J3 has lasted for years and has truly excellent sound quality. Coupled with a decent pair of IEMs - my latest set are Shure SE315s - it offers great audio experience.
That said, smartphones have come on leaps and bounds - I use an HTC One and it does not do a bad job at playback, to be fair.
For me, if I envisage a decent amount of time plugged in, I will always use the Cowon; on the other hand, plugging decent 'phones into the phone is by no means a horrible experience either.