Are you looking to purchase an mp3 player to store all of the songs you have downloaded off of Napster or Winamp? If you are willing to spend a lot of money to get a highend MP3 player with all of the bells and whistles, you may want to consider purchasing an ipod; if, conversely, you are willing to sacrifice bells and whistles for prices, you may want to purchase something by SanDisc or Philips.

If you decide to purchase an ipod, you still have a number of options in terms of prices and features. For instance, you could purchase an ipod nano (the newest type of ipod, which is small and thin) which can hold 250 songs for around $200 or one which can hold 500 songs for around $260. You could also choose between several different colors.

You can also purchase even larger ipods which contain more songs or have different features. For instance, you could purchase a 60 gigabyte ipod designed to hold thousands of songs. Or, if you are more interested in features, you could purchase an ipod photo that will allow you to take thousands of picture and store them as thumbnail photos. You could even purchase the special edition (SE) ipod, which is featured in commercials with rock star, Bono. This ipod is black and red and has several interesting features other ipods do not offer.

In addition to the plethora of features you will receive when you buy an ipod, purchasing an ipod will also allow you to purchase more accessories than you would be able to find for other, less popular mp3 players. Not only can you purchase skins and covers for ipods, but you can also purchase attachments designed to hook up your ipod to your car radio. If you spend some time to search on comparative retailer sites, you will find you can purchase several different types of ipod skins alone.

For instance, on Amazon or BizRate alone, you will find plastic ipod covers that come in pastel, tropical, fluorescent, and primary colors; hard covers that are made out of steel or wood, but are filled with padding to provide the best protection against scratching and breaking; textured cases, which look like wood grains; waterproof cases, which will allow you to bring your ipod into the pool; and even cases with clocks or other interesting gadgets on them that make your ipod even more appealing.

If you decide to purchase almost any mp3 player other than an ipod, you are guaranteed to save several hundred dollars. Both Philips and SanDisc mp3 players usually cost between $30 and $60 and allow you to save several hundred or thousand songs in their memory banks. They might not look as snazzy, but they are very functional and comparatively inexpensive.

In addition to being cheaper, Philips and SanDisc mp3 players also allow you to collect songs from more than one source. If you purchase an ipod, you are restricted to downloading music from itunes; however, if you purchase almost any other mp3 player, you can simply download music from other sources, such as Napster, which do not have a flat rate per song, but instead charge a low monthly fee.

This is clearly a big advantage, as itunes only allows you to purchase on a pay-per-song basis. If you wanted to purchase, say, 700 songs, you would have to pay $700 through itunes. But if you were to purchase them through a different service, you might be able to do it for a flat rate of $10 or $15 per month for an unlimited amount of songs.

There are other mp3 player models that have more features than even an ipod. One popular alternative mp3 player line is Creative, which produces a number of high end players which rival ipod in both features and storage space, even though the prices are still lower on average for models with comparable features.

Ultimately, deciding between an ipod and a different mp3 player will come down to the amount you want to spend, the features you want, and whether or not you want to join the fast growing club of ipod powers, which is actually the reason why many people purchase them.