Chris Barton: Inside iPod world, no one can hear you scream

The 13-year-old and I are having a philosophical disagreement: "You mean there is no way I can have an iPod for my birthday?"

"Yes."

"That's so unfair," (shooting withering look of injustice). "Don't you realise I want one more than anything else - I'd even give up having a mobile to have one?"

"Yes, I know. But $350 is an insane amount of money to spend on a birthday present."

"No it's not, and you can get them for $320."

"I'm sorry, but that's still a ridiculous price. Just wait a while, the prices will come down."

"How long? you've been saying that for ever."

"Six months, maybe a year."

"A year! You're such a retard." (Storms off, door slams.)

She has a point. I have been saying prices will come down ever since the iPod was introduced in 2001. Since then, about 15 million have sold worldwide and while prices have dropped a bit, in reality they haven't fallen that much.

That's because iPod maker Apple has followed a masterful marketing strategy. First it created a winning product for a hot and hungry market where price doesn't seem to be a barrier. It was a spectacular success - capturing 30-per-cent market share in 2004 and harnessing the "Kleenex effect" - where consumers now see iPod as synonymous for portable digital music player.

Next Apple employed the versioning tactic - creating several different iterations of the product for different market segments. The result is that today one can buy iPods of various sizes and capabilities starting at about $175 and finishing at about $775.

My daughter sees all this as proof that prices have fallen, and she figures something around the $300 mark is quite acceptable. She's looking longingly at the four-gigabyte (GB) disk drive Mini.

We have discussed the lower-cost memory options. But these have less storage - just 512 kilobytes (KB) at the entry cost level - and less features. We both agree the 1GB Shuffle might be acceptable in storage terms, with about 16 hours of MP3 encoded songs, but at around $270 it's still to my mind horrendously expensive. And compared to about $320 for the Mini, the Shuffle doesn't add up.

Ditto for the competition, such as Creative's 1GB MuVo, which sports an FM tuner and LCD display - both lacking on the Shuffle - but it still costs around $300. I have to concur with Monika also that the Shuffle's aesthetics are way ahead of the rest of the field. The MuVo is butt ugly.

But price isn't my only concern. I'm worried too about hearing loss. A recent study estimates that as many as 5.2 million children in the United States between six and 19 have some hearing damage from amplified music and other sources.

It's only going to get worse as the iPod generation blasts its eardrums. I have tried to talk to Monika about this, explaining that my generation loved very loud music and many have suffered hearing loss. I tell her that she's already damaging her ears by the high volume she plays into headphones when she's on the computer or listening to her Discman.

And that with an iPod - the perfect portable tool for drowning out reality, anywhere, anytime - her hearing loss will get even worse. But what would I know? "Music isn't even worth listening to unless it's really loud," she declares.

There's a similar sneer when I try to talk about the ethics of downloading music for free via file-sharing programs such as Limewire and Grokster, something many iPod users do.

A recent US survey estimates just 25 per cent of iPod owners are buying any content from the iTunes Music Store (not available here yet).

To appease me, Monika says if she had an iPod she would convert files from her existing CD collection. I tell her under existing copyright law here, even that is illegal. This is further confirmation I'm a retard.

I fear there's no easy answer to this dilemma and that sooner or later an iPod will enter our household. I've always held the view that parents have to embrace new technology and educate their kids in sensible use. But I worry with the iPod that I may have met my match. I'm concerned that she'll zone out to loud music at every waking moment. And that we'll forever be pulling plugs from her ears to talk to to her.

Inside the insular world of the iPod no one can hear you scream.