the stupid law of supply and demand and the stupid frickin' price mechanism mean that as long as ipod has no rival, the price will stay the fuck the same. It's not like other companies haven't got the know how to make an alternative. The ipod has been out for a while now and nothing is coming close to it, meaning that i, a miserable student, cannot afford one. I got excited about creative labs' zen or whatever its called only to discover it holds a mere 5 gb. FIVE GIGABYTES! would it really be that hard for them to just say, quadruple the storage space and keep it cheaper than the ipod!? I mean COME ON! Apple has a monopoly of the 'luxury' mp3 player market, meaning that they can charge whatever the hell they want for their products. I'm so angry i'm going to go kick my chair as i vacate the computer room. Not too hard, or i might break it or hurt myself. But still hard enough to show my true anger. Argh.

Calm down. The 5GB Creative is just there answer to the mini I-Pod.

My Creative Zen Touch has a 20GB hard drive. You can pick them up to £50 ($80-90 dollars) cheaper than the equivalent I-Pod if you shop around.

Try Amazon for a start.

Yeah, there are a few different options you can get, the most popular being Creative Labs, but there are other types out there as well.

do some research before you demean the rest of the mp3 player making people out there.

HP literally released an iPod equivalent.