iPod Remains the Easiest Player to Use.

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Author: Unknown

AUDIO PLAYERS

FOR THE SECOND year running, readers gave Apple's popular iPod MP3 player kudos for being the easiest to use in the market. Ease of use was a big problem in last year's survey, and several manufacturers seem to have improved this key aspect of their players' design. Sony slipped the most overall: This year, fewer owners of Sony players were satisfied with the products' reliability than they were last year.

Legend for Chart:

A - COMPANY
B - RELIABILITY MEASURES Any problems
C - RELIABILITY MEASURES Problems on arrival
D - RELIABILITY MEASURES Dead MP3 player
E - RELIABILITY MEASURES Product's ease of use
F - RELIABILITY MEASURES Satisfaction with reliability
G - RELIABILITY MEASURES Overall reliability(1)

   A         B      C      D      E      F      G

Apple       (b)    (b)    (b)    (a)    (a)    (b)
Creative    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)
Dell        (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)
iRiver      (a)    (b)    (b)    (c)    (b)    (b)
Samsung     (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)
Sony        (b)    (b)    (b)    (b)    (c)    (b)
RCA         (b)    (b)    (b)    (c)    (c)    (b)

(a) = Better than average
(b) = Average
(c) = Worse than average

FOOTNOTE: (1) The overall reliability score is a weighted
calculation of the other five reliability measures.