It definitely was NOT the worst of the breed. I had a couple of different pre-ipod mp3 players, including the original 32MB Rio, and the iPod was excellent. The major thing was the cool design, simple use, and their huge storage capability at the time. The thing that sucked was always iTunes, and the price. Everything else about it was fantastic, including the sound quality.

Yes, their marketing was brilliant, but it won't cause people to buy things they don't want in perpetuity. Eventually, even the most brilliantly marketed product will fail if customers don't want it.