SanDisk Insults iPod Users With iDon’t Site.

Flash chip maker SanDisk is on the offensive and attacking iPod users in some ill advised attempt to gain market share against Apple.

I’m an iPod user. I like the Sansa portable players. I don’t like Sansa’s idiot campaign which insults iPod owners.

It’s one thing to build a better mouse trap. It’s something else again to call the mouse names and expect it to eat your cheese. I, as one iPod owner, won’t bite.

SanDisk launched a new web site called iDont.com which hurls insult after insult toward iPod users in a vain attempt to get them to switch from Apple’s music player to the Sansa player.

Will their tactics work? Will you abandon the iPod for the SanDisk player? What do you think of such tactics?

SanDisk makes flash chips, similar to those used in Apple’s iPod nano. SanDisk also makes a portable music player which competes with the iPod. It’s called the Sansa and comes in a variety of models.

To be fair, some of the models are attractive and priced right. However, the feature list, lack of ease-of-use, and lack of compatibility haven’t made the Sansa models sell much better than models from beleaguered Creative Technologies.

So, what does SanDisk do? Lower prices? No. Add more features? No. Make their players Mac compatible? No. Make it all work with iTunes, Mac or Windows. Nope.

Instead, SanDisk does what you would expect of a company desperate for sales and market share.

Insult the leader, right? No, they’re busy insulting the leader’s customers.

The iDon’t.com web site declares, “The time has come to rise up against the iTatorship… break free from restrictive formats and a single source for music.”

Isn’t that really just market speak, the language of sales, brochures, and online ads? Yes, if it was part of an advertising campaign.

In this case, all the insults hurled at iPod users over Apple’s domination of the online music scene and portable players, come from what purports to be a SanDisk employee’s blog.

iDont.com features a news page which looks like a blog, talks like a blog, is opinionated as blogs can be, even points to blog owner and SanDisk employee named Eric, “Da Sheep Herder.”

Cute, no? No. Eric the SanDisk employee says iPod owners are “iSheep” and swarm through our cities. Is Eric an employee on a mission? Does Eric really exist?

Eric goes on to say, “We’re rallying anyone who’s ready to go against the grain and asking them to consider one really worthy alternative media player.” That alternative isn’t a Creative. It’s a SanDisk Sansa.

Who’s Eric? Better yet, who owns the web site, iDont.com? Eric? Nah, it’s SanDisk. A WHOIS lookup reveals idont.com was registered a few weeks ago by SanDisk.

The whole web site appears to be a fraud, a veiled attempt to fool site readers to think that Eric is a cool guy who found a better MP3 player than an iPod.

Don’t believe it. SanDisk calls iPod users iSheep but doesn’t mind pulling the wool over your eyes and the eyes of anyone else who ventures to idont.com.

A little investigative reporting shows the domain belongs to SanDisk. Digging deeper shows the submissions policy page in which anything you disclose to the site becomes the property of SanDisk.

Gone are the feature-by-feature comparisons I made of the iPod vs. Sansa and submitted to idont.com.

The site’s privacy policy? Well, that’s SanDisk’s policy, too.

In short SanDisk is so desperate for sales that they’re busily attacking the market leader, right? Nope. These are not the friendly Apple-to-Microsoft jabs evident of a David and Goliath relationship.

SanDisk is insulting the portable music player Goliath’s customers, not the giant (Apple) itself.

The site shows sheep with the familiar white ear plugs of the iPod and encourages “free thinkers” and “malcontents” to break free from restrictive formats and a single source for music.

Now isn’t that interesting? I’m an iPod user and can’t figure out what they mean. For example, I can buy CDs and they run on my iPod, I can buy music from any online store that sells MP3s and they run fine on iTunes and my iPod.

What “alternative” wool underwear is SanDisk trying to pull over my eyes? Could it be, oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s LIES? SanDisk lies? If they’re willing to deceive potential customers, how poorly will SanDisk treat you once you buy one of their players?

This is nothing more than a very poorly executed attempt to con people into buying a SanDisk player. Since they can’t compete well against the iPod on price or features or cool factor, SanDisk decided to compete by making their competitors customers feel bad about owning an iPod.

Let’s see how this tactic turns out. It’s been tried before. Remember Rob Glaser of Real Networks? He insulted iPod owners and look how well they’ve done since.

How about the folks at Napster? They insulted iPod customers and they’re making money hand over fist, right? Not. Even Microsoft insulted iPod owners and called them thieves. How’s Microsoft doing these days.

I could throw an insult or two back to SanDisk, but I like some of their products and I know this ill advised, utterly stupid advertising ploy will fail miserably.

SanDisk, give me a better mouse trap, and I’ll eat your cheese (I couldn’t resist mixing a few metaphors). Otherwise, check your lunch bag. It’s being eaten by Apple’s iPod customers.