Big iPod Apple event today. So far Wall St. didn't like it, sending the stock down about 4%. Not sure what they are smoking down there in the financial district. To my mind Apple couldn't be executing better.
They updated every version of the iPod. The nano gets smaller and fatter with the addition of a QVGA screen for video playback and photo browsing. And while it doesn't seem like it goes all the way with the iPhone version of OS X, it does add CoverFlow for browsing through albums in a visual manner (still uses the click wheel which is a good thing in my opinion.) Prices go to $149 for the 4GB and $199 for the 8GB. The 4 is getting pretty close to impulse buying territory. I think these will be huge for the holidays.
The big iPod gets renamed to iPod Classic. Okay, sort of stupid, but who cares? It gets the same software facelift as the nano. The 80GB gets thinner (how?!?!) and drops $100 to $249. And they introduced a larger version, slightly thicker, that has 160GB for $349. Very nice, but nothing earth shattering.
But that takes us to the new product - the one people have been hoping for: iPod Touch. It's basically the iPhone without the phone and the camera. Same software, exact same multi-touch screen, Wi-Fi (yay!), Safari, YouTube - the whole thing. To me this is so freaking cool. 8GB version for $299 and 16GB for $399. Damn, $299 is very cheap. I think I hear the Nokia N800 crying.
Also, they are finally going to do a wireless iTunes Music Store. This is a new button on the home screen of the iPod Touch. Click to browse the store, click to download songs, same cost same deal, and when you get back home your new purchases sync back to your iTunes library on your computer. Nice. And this feature will be rolled out to the iPhone in a free software update later this month.
And speaking of the iPhone, Apple plans to announce their 1 millionth sale later this month. But I think those numbers are going to jump fast because as of today the 8GB is dropping from $599 to $399. I knew this would happen, but I figured they go $50 or $100 at a time. This is insane. (It's unclear what is happening to the 4GB, but I'm guessing it is being discontinued.) The Nokia N95 is $750! The iPhone is almost half that price. Sure, you can get a Treo 750 for $125 right now on Amazon - after rebates, with a new contract - but still, who wants a WM Treo?
The iPhone was already the best selling smartphone in July and at this new price it is going to dominate the market. I have a feeling that Apple has gotten themselves into an almost unbeatable position through their leverage in the flash market. Nobody else can get the prices they can (that's my speculation) so nobody else can get their sales up to the point where they can demand those prices from suppliers. I sure wouldn't like to be Creative, or Nokia, or Palm, or work in the Microsoft Zune division at this point. I just don't think anybody can catch up.
Oh yeah, there was also a big deal with Starbucks which will let your iPhone or iPod Touch buy songs over any Starbucks' WiFi (no sign on - but you can't do other things, only buy songs.) I think you can even buy whatever is currently playing inside the Starbucks you are in with the press of a button. I don't know. They made a big deal out of it but I'm skeptical this will amount to anything. (They should have thrown in 30 minutes of free internet access for every purchased song - that would have been the killer move although I doubt TMobile (Starbucks WiFi partner) would have been very happy about that.) So I'm underwhelmed on one point at least.
I still stand by my initial prediction that the iPhone (and it's decendents like the iPod Touch - or any other future devices with the multi-touch screen and the iPhone version of OS X) will eventually be the best selling consumer electronics product of all time. In fact, it's going much faster than I thought.
PPS, they are also selling ringtones (for the iPhone) through the iTunes Music Store. They cost $.99 each in addition to the cost of the song! That is completely ridiculous. But of course savvy iPhone owners can already use any mp3 they want as a ringtone (this isn't supported, but it's possible through some hacks, and I believe RogueAmoeba is going to release a program to make it all super easy,) so while this does seem incredibly greedy on Apple's part it's not like it's a big problem or anything. But yeah, Apple does some stupid crap from time to time and this is one of those times. Still, I bet they make a fair amount of money from it for whatever that is worth.
Last update for now. The 4GB iPhone has been discontinued, but you can get it for $299 while supplies last! This is exactly the same phone as the other models (same processor, same software, same RAM, but just with a smaller amount of permanent storage.) I'm guessing supplies will not last for long.
(Incredibly, you can't deep link to the Apple Store website, but if you're interested just go to store.apple.com and click on Clearance under Special Deals in the left hand column.)
Just ordered the classic 160 GB. More bigger is more better.
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They updated every version of the iPod. The nano gets smaller and fatter with the addition of a QVGA screen for video playback and photo browsing. And while it doesn't seem like it goes all the way with the iPhone version of OS X, it does add CoverFlow for browsing through albums in a visual manner (still uses the click wheel which is a good thing in my opinion.) Prices go to $149 for the 4GB and $199 for the 8GB. The 4 is getting pretty close to impulse buying territory. I think these will be huge for the holidays.
The big iPod gets renamed to iPod Classic. Okay, sort of stupid, but who cares? It gets the same software facelift as the nano. The 80GB gets thinner (how?!?!) and drops $100 to $249. And they introduced a larger version, slightly thicker, that has 160GB for $349. Very nice, but nothing earth shattering.
But that takes us to the new product - the one people have been hoping for: iPod Touch. It's basically the iPhone without the phone and the camera. Same software, exact same multi-touch screen, Wi-Fi (yay!), Safari, YouTube - the whole thing. To me this is so freaking cool. 8GB version for $299 and 16GB for $399. Damn, $299 is very cheap. I think I hear the Nokia N800 crying.
Also, they are finally going to do a wireless iTunes Music Store. This is a new button on the home screen of the iPod Touch. Click to browse the store, click to download songs, same cost same deal, and when you get back home your new purchases sync back to your iTunes library on your computer. Nice. And this feature will be rolled out to the iPhone in a free software update later this month.
And speaking of the iPhone, Apple plans to announce their 1 millionth sale later this month. But I think those numbers are going to jump fast because as of today the 8GB is dropping from $599 to $399. I knew this would happen, but I figured they go $50 or $100 at a time. This is insane. (It's unclear what is happening to the 4GB, but I'm guessing it is being discontinued.) The Nokia N95 is $750! The iPhone is almost half that price. Sure, you can get a Treo 750 for $125 right now on Amazon - after rebates, with a new contract - but still, who wants a WM Treo?
The iPhone was already the best selling smartphone in July and at this new price it is going to dominate the market. I have a feeling that Apple has gotten themselves into an almost unbeatable position through their leverage in the flash market. Nobody else can get the prices they can (that's my speculation) so nobody else can get their sales up to the point where they can demand those prices from suppliers. I sure wouldn't like to be Creative, or Nokia, or Palm, or work in the Microsoft Zune division at this point. I just don't think anybody can catch up.
- jim 9-06-2007 12:05 am
Oh yeah, there was also a big deal with Starbucks which will let your iPhone or iPod Touch buy songs over any Starbucks' WiFi (no sign on - but you can't do other things, only buy songs.) I think you can even buy whatever is currently playing inside the Starbucks you are in with the press of a button. I don't know. They made a big deal out of it but I'm skeptical this will amount to anything. (They should have thrown in 30 minutes of free internet access for every purchased song - that would have been the killer move although I doubt TMobile (Starbucks WiFi partner) would have been very happy about that.) So I'm underwhelmed on one point at least.
I still stand by my initial prediction that the iPhone (and it's decendents like the iPod Touch - or any other future devices with the multi-touch screen and the iPhone version of OS X) will eventually be the best selling consumer electronics product of all time. In fact, it's going much faster than I thought.
- jim 9-06-2007 12:13 am
PPS, they are also selling ringtones (for the iPhone) through the iTunes Music Store. They cost $.99 each in addition to the cost of the song! That is completely ridiculous. But of course savvy iPhone owners can already use any mp3 they want as a ringtone (this isn't supported, but it's possible through some hacks, and I believe RogueAmoeba is going to release a program to make it all super easy,) so while this does seem incredibly greedy on Apple's part it's not like it's a big problem or anything. But yeah, Apple does some stupid crap from time to time and this is one of those times. Still, I bet they make a fair amount of money from it for whatever that is worth.
- jim 9-06-2007 12:33 am
Last update for now. The 4GB iPhone has been discontinued, but you can get it for $299 while supplies last! This is exactly the same phone as the other models (same processor, same software, same RAM, but just with a smaller amount of permanent storage.) I'm guessing supplies will not last for long.
(Incredibly, you can't deep link to the Apple Store website, but if you're interested just go to store.apple.com and click on Clearance under Special Deals in the left hand column.)
- jim 9-06-2007 12:39 am
Just ordered the classic 160 GB. More bigger is more better.
- mark 10-01-2007 6:27 am