[FlameGrilled]

That's ok, Ted, you see the situation for what it is.

In other words, there there aint no point in losing sleep or wasting time getting annoyed over 'sheep mentality' perceptions such as the 'Music player = iPod' conclusion.

As for the iRiver marketing strategy - that's simply to solve :-

They should take a leaf out the book of many small companies out there in the AP level of audio - it's a enthusiast market the AP kit manufacturer's serve, but so is iRiver's.

The difference is, the AP market manufacturer's stuck their quality and over-engineered priniciples (iRiver did at one time, aka the pre 550 series iMP's) and they survived. They had to, in many cases, submit to commercial realities and make some compromises to open up some mass-market products (mass-maket, relatively speaking), and it did them no harm at all - think who put in the money into the revamped Rio evolvement, that source was not exactly associated with 'sheep mentality' products by association either in their connection to Marantz as i recall.

Another good example of 'quality devotion' and also servingg the mass market with some mass-market examples of goods too, is the guitar producers. Some of the 'patterns' and licensed copies are damn good examples - sufficiently good enough to make backup instruments for many an muscian pro or amatuer. Again, the mass-market units are not the cutting edge of 'AP' excess that the guitar world 'AP' equiv demands, but it provides almost an every-man choice without sacrificing the bit about keeping the demanding customers happy too.

If they can do it, so can Reigncom through the iRiver brand.