Thank you Sansa for making a great priced, great product

As a Graduate student studying business and marketing I have come to appreciate well positioned products, priced at the right point, and targeted to proper segments.  Sansa filled the fuze with all the features I wished the Ipod had, and did it for about $100 less.  It’s a great product.  My wife has the 4gb clip and I have the 4gb fuze.  Since purchasing my Fuze I have convinced friends and family to purchase 1 clip and 4 other fuzes (Christmas presents).  The minor hurdles associated with using the Fuze are well outweighed by the plethora of well designed features and capabilities.

Nice job, keep up the innovation.

Dan

University of Notre Dame

MBA

I love my Sansa Fuze too.

It is truely amazing by observing how marketing can change the fate of a product. Apple’s IPOD, for example, having less features and more than double the price of Fuze, still demands much much more market share than Fuze.

Apple’s marketing is just unbelievable, works perfect for majority of people, but not me :slight_smile:

i’d say that without guys like you and me, Sandisk has to quit its mp3 player business :slight_smile:

@kevin02454 wrote:

 

I love my Sansa Fuze too.

 

It is truely amazing by observing how marketing can change the fate of a product. Apple’s IPOD, for example, having less features and more than double the price of Fuze, still demands much much more market share than Fuze.

 

Apple’s marketing is just unbelievable, works perfect for majority of people, but not me :slight_smile:

 

i’d say that without guys like you and me, Sandisk has to quit its mp3 player business :slight_smile:

I even read somewhere that with Apple’s marketers, George W. Bush would be one of the more popular Presidents in our lifetimes! :wink:

I am a graphic design student who has an associates in sales and marketing and I find it hillarious that I carry a PC laptop, and 2 Sansa players, while everyone around me has macbooks and ipods and iphones. All costing double or triple what I payed for my stuff and mine works better most of the time. I also laugh everytime somebody comes in with the new and latest iCrap… with out even realizing it is inferrior to the cheeper and better sansa brand. Finally you really wanna know how much apple out markets everybody else… There are 2 framed 4 feet wide by 6.5 feet tall iPod posters in the back of the class room, they are provided and updated by Apple… at no cost to the school… thats sad… LONG LIVE SANSA…

@conversionbox wrote:
I am a graphic design student who has an associates in sales and marketing and I find it hillarious that I carry a PC laptop, and 2 Sansa players, while everyone around me has macbooks and ipods and iphones. All costing double or triple what I payed for my stuff and mine works better most of the time. I also laugh everytime somebody comes in with the new and latest iCrap… with out even realizing it is inferrior to the cheeper and better sansa brand. Finally you really wanna know how much apple out markets everybody else… There are 2 framed 4 feet wide by 6.5 feet tall iPod posters in the back of the class room, they are provided and updated by Apple… at no cost to the school… thats sad… LONG LIVE SANSA…

When I bought my first ever MP3 player…I had no bias towards any brand or player…I just knew I wanted to spend between $50 and $85. My sister has an iPoo…I did my research, for my budget, Fuze 4GB vs. 2GB Shuffle was no contest!!! After, I expanded to having a Clip, and I’m SO glad I researched first. Down with the iFascists, and Viva la Sansa:wink:

Viva la Sansa!  That has a nice ring, doesn’t it?

Bob  :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m a recent Fuze owner after owning many, many other portable audio players and I can safely say, that the fuze is the best player I have ever had.

I’m getting anxious for Christmas because my SO (significant other) is getting me a second fuze; plus a few micro SD cards!  In short, it’s been a wonderful product for me.

Why do you need a second Fuze? Just curios. For the price, the Fuze is a great value. I wish Sandisk would come out with a new player that has more of the feauture I want though, especially folder navigation and a user replaceable battery(AA or AAA battery preferred). How about a premium Slotmusic player with a display and sound quality at least as good as the Fuze?

I know a lot of people with ipods that would struggle with a Sansa.

it took me a couple of hours to figure my Fuze out and I had to download MM and figure out how to get podcasts, set-up my audiobooks, read through the manual, etc., etc.

ipod/itunes is one-stop and pretty much ■■■■■-proof.

I LOVE my Fuze, now.

my to do list:

  1. start converting videos

  2. figure out how to get ipod video podcasts converted

Sansa is niche, why bother with all this when you can go ipod and not worry about any of this?

I’ve had my Sansa since Saturday and there is no point in ever going back to ipod/zune.

@jk98 wrote:
Why do you need a second Fuze? Just curios. For the price, the Fuze is a great value. I wish Sandisk would come out with a new player that has more of the feauture I want though, especially folder navigation and a user replaceable battery(AA or AAA battery preferred). How about a premium Slotmusic player with a display and sound quality at least as good as the Fuze?

I thought of getting a second Sandisk player (not sure which one though) because I have some CD’s that I use to listen to to fall asleep to and this way I can keep that player by my bed and just listen to them and not have to swap out cards (I do that a lot all ready).  But I would like to choose which one to listen to and not sure if the Slotmusic player allows that… Although I considered using a card in my current one so I wouldn’t have to buy another one… but… I don’t know yet.

And wouldn’t a “premium slot player with display and good sound quality” be another name for fuze :wink:

I also love my Fuze.  I was looking at players and didn’t want to pay an extra $50 (at the time) for an ipod.  Plus I didn’t really want to buy into all the marketing.  It can’t be that much better can it?  Nope.  The name “SanDisk” actually sold it for me, as I had bought their flash sticks and they worked good and knew that there wouldn’t be much if any software to run it.  And with seeing the ipods of my coworkers, there is no contest.  Fuze is it.

"And wouldn’t a “premium slot player with display and good sound quality” be another name for fuze "

No. First of all, the slotmusic player uses a AAA battery. The Slotmusic player has no USB connection, and no radio. I don’t know how the Slotmusic player navigates.

@dpvdpv wrote:

I know a lot of people with ipods that would struggle with a Sansa.

 

it took me a couple of hours to figure my Fuze out and I had to download MM and figure out how to get podcasts, set-up my audiobooks, read through the manual, etc., etc.

 

ipod/itunes is one-stop and pretty much ■■■■■-proof.

 

I LOVE my Fuze, now.

 

my to do list:

 

  1. start converting videos
  1. figure out how to get ipod video podcasts converted

 

Sansa is niche, why bother with all this when you can go ipod and not worry about any of this?

 

I’ve had my Sansa since Saturday and there is no point in ever going back to ipod/zune.

 

 

I agree.  I was an Ipod user, and still have my old 20 gig ipod.  I really miss the seemless software from itunes to ipod…it truley is a no brainer.  IMO, that is the ONLY thing Ipod has over most other players.  If someone could figure out how to make an MP3 player software as nice and compatible as Itunes is to Ipods…that would truly be an ipod killer.  MM is nice but I feel like I am writing software code just to get my Fuze to sync with podcasts, and lets not even talk about WM11, windows explorer is better than WM11.  So, yeah, I miss Itunes, but I like my fuze better than I like my ipod.

 

Why do you like non-rechargable battery (AAA) player ? It is so easy for Fuze to be charged through USB.

 

@jk98 wrote:
Why do you need a second Fuze? Just curios. For the price, the Fuze is a great value. I wish Sandisk would come out with a new player that has more of the feauture I want though, especially folder navigation and a user replaceable battery(AA or AAA battery preferred). How about a premium Slotmusic player with a display and sound quality at least as good as the Fuze?

"Why do you like non-rechargable battery (AAA) player ? "

Huh? One can use rechargeable AAA batteries if they want to, or have the option to use alkaline batteries.

“It is so easy for Fuze to be charged through USB.”

You assume that people have easy access to a pc, have the time to charge a player through a USB port, and remember to do so when their battery is low. Some people like to use a player in spurts, perhaps not using it for many days or weeks, then using it for many hours in a row. When someone suddenly wants to use the player for many hours in a row the player might not have enough charge and the person might not have enough time while at home with his pc to charge it. Having replaceable standard batteries adds greatly to the flexibility of use, and doesn’t require someone to plan in advance for anticipated use, or to keep track of battery life remaining. They just need to grab a few spare batteries and they are ready.

Theres a product with a AAA battery you can get,  called M200 series. 

If you design a player around a AAA battery it will be much thicker.

If you can grab a few spare batteries for your trip,  why not grab a DC charger with a USB port and connect up your cable to that?  No need for the computer.

Disposable batteries are bad for the environment.

LiPolymer batteries used in the newer Sansa Product last for hundreds and hundreds of cycles,  just think how many batteries would end up in landfills.

Think Green.

@sansafix wrote:

Theres a product with a AAA battery you can get,  called M200 series. 

 

If you design a player around a AAA battery it will be much thicker.

 

If you can grab a few spare batteries for your trip,  why not grab a DC charger with a USB port and connect up your cable to that?  No need for the computer.

 

Disposable batteries are bad for the environment.

 

LiPolymer batteries used in the newer Sansa Product last for hundreds and hundreds of cycles,  just think how many batteries would end up in landfills.

 

Think Green.

Completely agreed.  And to be even greener, wouldn’t it be nice to have an easy user-replaceable LiPolymer Battery, so we wouldn’t have to throw our Sansas away and buy new when (if) the battery dies…:wink:

 

If everybody does in this way, how can Sandisk make money from existed customer base ? Sandisk has to exit its MP3 player business pretty soon.

 

IPOD is even worse; not only is its battery non-replaceable, but also its memory is non-expandable. 

 

@fuze_owner_gb wrote:

Completely agreed.  And to be even greener, wouldn’t it be nice to have an easy user-replaceable LiPolymer Battery, so we wouldn’t have to throw our Sansas away and buy new when (if) the battery dies…:wink:

By the time your LiPolymer battery is unusable,  You will be using a completely different style of Player with much much higher capacity.

Much is made of the non removabilty of the battery.  You can buy an e200 or c200 series player if you want a removable LiOn battery.

 To make the battery removable adds thickness and adds cost to the player.  It also introduces another connector which can fail.

Todays LiPolymer batteries are so much more durable than they used to be.  Its really not worth the costs to make the battery removable anymore.

@sansafix wrote:

By the time your LiPolymer battery is unusable,  You will be using a completely different style of Player with much much higher capacity.

 

Much is made of the non removabilty of the battery.  You can buy an e200 or c200 series player if you want a removable LiOn battery.

 

 To make the battery removable adds thickness and adds cost to the player.  It also introduces another connector which can fail.

 

Todays LiPolymer batteries are so much more durable than they used to be.  Its really not worth the costs to make the battery removable anymore.

Of course you are right… but I’m an old fogey and I was taught as a child not to discard what still can be used.  Up until a few years ago, I rarely disposed of any of my audio gear.  Almost all of it is in still in perfect working condition.  And I’ve found a few people that eagerly purchased some of my vintage gear; as it’s fast becoming a popular hobby.

I’m still not used to this “throw-away” society; where we just dispose of things when they are no longer current or cannot to be made to work easily.

Even with the less robust built-in batteries of the past, I rarely had one fail before I was ready for a new player…so I think all of this concern over non-replaceable batteries is a bit unfounded.

But… It still pains me to throw out a device just needs a battery…:cry:

Message Edited by fuze_owner-GB on 12-16-2008 12:43 PM

It’s time to get used to the “When the battery dies, throw away the whole thing” paradigm.  Apple seems to love this as well.