I thought that ipod had THE interface, but after using this and the ipod at bestbuy, i can confidently say that creative has done it as well if not better. I don't think that anyone can argue that the ipod has a drawaback in terms of reliability. Second thing is that this player is a bit smaller and has fm tuner. Last but not least, everyone and their mom has an ipod. I'm kind of sick of seeing them everywhere. At this point if got an ipod, the main reason would be because of Denison icelink.