This guide is primarily about the Southern Chinese MP4 Players, and secondly, how you can choose the player that is right for you. By knowing some of the background within which these players are made, you can get a better understanding of how to choose between the seemingly similar players.

How Apple Shaped the Southern Chinese Industry
Long before Apple launched its iPod range of players, the Southern Chinese Electronics Industry was already buzzing with activity in building personal instruments that could play CDs, could records from FM Radio Stations and replay as many times as you want music from that source, and in building for Western Countries small players that could house a range of .mp3 format tunes. It was in 1998 that Eiger Labs in Europe created the first "non-mechanical" .mp3 player that could continue playing regardless of the external shock caused to the player. Interestingly, Apple Computer's iPod range started not from this "non-mechanical" concept but rather from the concept of housing a mini-disk drive.

It was the popularity of the non-mechnical machines that began a stream of new products from around the world made by Eiger Labs, HanGo Electronics (Southern China), EmpegCar, and many others. Just about every manufacturer of consumer electronics had a version. Then came Apple iPod that from 2001 and onward manufactured a number of versions of its popular player all with its signature round sensor keypad.  The important thing to note here is that while Apple is a worldwide company with its base strongly in the USA, Apple subcontracted the manufacture of its iPod range to a number of manufacturers all of whom were based or who had their primary base in Southern China.

Basically because of the large numbers of iPods Apple was now selling, Apple controlled the price of "flash memory" the solid state memory used in the most popular iPods, and also now the most popular non-iPod machines that were made by a number of manufacturers to meet Apple on the non-mechanical turf. Apple also controlled a large portion of the Southern Chinese manufacturers due to the Apple Accessories it was producing and having produced by manufacturers under license.

Hundreds of manufacturers in Southern China wanted to have a slice of the "Apple-pie" and were preparing themselves to compete for licenses in producing Apple iPods or Accessories. Most manufacturers were not accepted for one reason or another. Having gained skills in manufacture to build iPod type machines, it was these manufacturers who began flooding the worldwide marketplace with a range of iPod look alikes, as well as many other designs of .mp3 players.

The MP4 Advantage
The bulk of manufacturers in Southern China having lost out in making iPods for Apple turned their expertise elsewhere -- making Apple iPod look alikes. Chinese people have a very different view on art, the expression of art, and the way in which items are made, authored, or invented. If a very talented person painted the Mona Lisa, then it is the duty of an artist who comes after that famour painting and painter to perfect that art, or to change that piece of art with a new rendition. So it was with the arrival of the iPod. If there was an iPod there should be a way for me, as a manufacturer, to build a better iPod, an iPod with a different screen that would be useful to some other types of people using iPods.

However, a number of manufacturers saw that they could build a competitive advantage over an iPod. Apple iPod's at the time in 2001, only played MP3 music format. The Southern Chinese factories saw a competitive advantage that they could bring to the marketplace - manufacture an MP4 Player -- which in their interpretation of file formats is the populist format for video and video-like format that encases the details necessary to reproduce a video picture along with music.

There are about 350 factories, assemly plants and marketing offices housed in the sprawling metropolis of Shenzehn. Some of them have good research and development facilities whilst others have purely a marketing interface to the world or have an assembly plant. Typically since 1998, any new producers/sellers of "iPod" look alikes, and MP4 players, buy a wholesale pack of gear necessary to build a "common mould" product; that is, a mould that is also sold to many other manufacturers. A new producer takes this common mould product and which is basically an inventory of parts needed to assemble a product that looks like any other producer's product. However, to be true to the Chinese manufacturing ethos, the new producer needs to do something quite different to the common mould product that improves the look, operation or whatever of the product. Therefore we have in the marketplace today, hundreds of MP4 machines that look very much the same, but have some distinctive change technically or otherwise.

The Apple iPod Sensor Key
The distinctive marking of an Apple iPod is its circular sensor key that created a new interface attractive to many. The Southern Chinese typically took on the rounded key aproach to the iPod look alikes, but had to change it so that Apple did not close them down, but also so that it was distinctly a different machine.

The Apple Sensor Key is quite something different to the rounded key you will find on many of the Southern Chinese machines. Typically the Chinese version is simply four switch es housed under a rounded circular key. The Apple sensor key is touch sensitive right the way round and provides a different genre of interfaces.

However, there was an advantage in keeping a circular key on the Chinese models as such a visual image is created to compare this machine with an iPod - particularly the iPod Nano. The Southern Chinese manufacturers consider that they have created an iPod, albeit their version of an iPod that plays videos and music. This is much the same thing as me sitting down and painting my rendition of the Mona Lisa and me saying "How do you like my Mona Lisa?" The place to start competing with Apple and all other manufacturers in the outside Shenzhen world was to start producing an iPod Nano look-alike but making it play videos as well as music -- hence the Black and White iPod Nano look-alikes we commonly see today.

An Overall Survey of Ipod "Nano-like" Players
The two MP4s that have just about taken over every eBay Search and Category of MP4s are the ageless black and white models seen as the "true rendition" of an iPod Nano in Southern China.

These have been produced as a common mould product and assmbled and sold by more than 200 factories/assembly plants/marketing organizations in Souther China. These players are sold from 200 or so marketing offices on a true commodity floating market. Prices of these Black and White players are quoted on a daily price. Most of my suppliers will only quote ahead 3 days at a maximum.

These black and white Mp4 players are sold with a wide range of in-built memory, starting at 256Mb, 512Mb, 1GB, 2GB, and recently we have the 4GB model. As prices in the commodity market have come down due to greater supply from an ever widening  manufacturing base, the larger memory models are taking over as the stock standard model. Generally do not buy anything much below a 512Mb model as anything lower is not seeing any new R&D and hence no new innovations. Buy something in the 512Mb and 1Gb for the best as these have seen some recent and new innovations. I would be very carefuly in buying anything above 1Gb at the present time as the newer 2GB and 4GB models still have some settlind down of recent innovations.

Broadly there are two moulds of player: you can tell the difference between these moulds very simply as to whether there is an "M" at the top of the round key, or whether there is a sign saying "MENU". The "M" mould is the older mould of the two and has some difficulties - better to buy the "Menu" mould.

Several manufacturers have bought out a series of "Nano Players" that are distinctly different from the older White and Black models. These are named in an ad hoc way by the Chinese Manufacturing Community as the "mini series".

These players are typically 20mm shorter than the White and Black Series, slightly thicker with about 5mm more in its depth and about the same size width wise. These have been brought out in brushed steel finishes rather than the highly scratch prone plastic finishes of the White and Black models. The mini series still sport the round switch key and come in a range of about three to four colours.

The Mini Series MP4 Players
The mini series players are actually a much sounder machine than the white and black models, although one needs to look carefully as to what you wish to use these machines for and the current development of all the features on a machine. Let's make one thing really clear here -- there is no such thing as a perfect Mp4 player. Every machine is lacking something, missing a promised capability, or in need of altering the way something works. 

On some models the customisation features do not work. For example, one model suggests that you can have your own picture serving as a destop wall paper under the song playing tool. Try as you might in following the instructions, you simply will not get your photos featured as wall paper.

The best thing to do is to tell your eBay seller what you are wanting to do with your new player and get him to recommend which player is best for your purpose; and as a seller talking to you the buying public, I would suggest that you get your seller to recommend which player for your purposes built on a money back guarantee. That is, if when you pull the wrapper off your new player and find that it does not go what the seller said it would do, you have the right to go back to the seller and get your money back with a return of the product to the seller.

Final Notes
An MP4 that is pictured to be like a "mini series", or "white and black" player is not necessarily the same as another one. Check for memory size, functions, functions that work, functions that work with minimal effort, and what sort of gear you might need to run the player successfully -- like what computer you need to drive the functions. Most players have half their capability accessed only on your Windows XP platform, or some of the better ones also include Macintosh and Linux platforms as well. Always ask you seller to guarantee the features you are wanting to use. If the seller does not know his product well enough, then go to a seller that does know his product, how it works and whether what you are wanting actually exists as functionality on the machine.

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About the author Dr Elwyn Jenkins: Dr Jenkins is a retired academic who has built a full-time business selling on eBay. Dr Jenkins business Speedy Electronics Australiasell Southern Chinese Players and can give you more than just a purchase of a machine. Speedy Electronics Australia provides you with a guarantee of performance, insurance on your machine as well as a One Year Warranty.