Disclaimer: Everything I say below is in regards to the iPod Nano (4GB), not the iPod.
I can't say the iPod is the best because I really haven't looked into a Zune or any of the Creative players and their features, and drumthrasher; altough the iPod does have those features (and world time, games, calculator, calendar, etc. are not homebrew; they are in the official firmware) and it is a great MP3 player, my favorite personally; but that's because the only two I've tried are the iPod 4GB Blue Nano and Audiovox MP3-128MB player...
The iPod (Nano) is small and cool looking, I prefer the blue one; looks great. The click wheel is a good feature, but something new from Apple would be nice.
I remember them saying "The new iPod Nano, completely remastered" or something like that. The only thing they changed was aluminum, more space, a better battery and avaialble in different colors... and with the 2GB you can only get it in silver, 4GB has all the colors besides black, and 8GB has just black. What if I want the blue one, but want more space? Why can't Apple make the colors available for all of them, or just 4GB and 8GB at least?
Audio quality seems to be fairly good on my iPod, that's because I don't listen to it extremely loud and anything is enough to satisify me anyway.
RANT: The most annoying thing about the iPod is being limited to doing everything in iTunes and having to use its interface for everything, syncing music and all that. Another annoying thing: If we spend $300 on something (Canadian Funds, w/ tax, shipping and case), they might as well put a power adapter and a CD with iTunes on it in the little box instead of having to download the software (35MB on dialup isn't pretty, altough I did it on my wireless broadband), and you have to use the USB cable to charge it via the computer instead of through the power outlet on the wall. That is the most annoying thing i've ever saw.
The screen on the iPod is nice... with the backlight on that is. I've noticed Microsoft has been coming out with more innovative designs lately with the whole ribbon thing in Microsoft Office 2007 and the changes in Media Player and Vista, that makes me expect a nice menu interface in the Zune, and from what I've seen its pretty good. The iPod menu interface is kind of blank, you see music, photos, extras, settings, shuffle songs, and if you are currently playing a song you see now playing too.
The games that are on the iPod are horrible to play with the click wheel... altough I like the music quiz thing where it plays a song and, of out five, you have to choose which one you think it is. That gets boring though, after a while, and somewhat easy if you know your songs.
Rant 2: iTunes keeps crashing on me... well sometimes it works okay but other times it crashes on the time. Not responding, the program needs to close; Windows error messages and stuff like that.
All this from a used-to-be Apple fanboy. The iPod is a huge craze, everyone wants them, they are "so cool", well I guess they are somewhat cool, but they are just a I-Want-It-Because-My-Friend-Has-It-And-I-Want-To-Show-Off-My-iPod-Too item.
Altough I would recommend them to a friend... from California in the states to Newfoundland & Labrador in Canada in 8 days (not all business days) isn't bad through FedEx. No customs problems or anything. By the way, the box they put it in is so tiny and horrible... mine broke when I opened it.