iPod mini. We Want Yout Thoughts....

[Kevsteelio]

I was really jazzed about all the new software and updated hardware that apple released. That is, except for the iPod Mini. If I were to use Job's thought of it's only "50 bucks more" (than the Rio) then I would spend an additional 50 bucks to get a 15GB iPod. I would get 3.75 times the amount of space at 15GB and 3,750 songs in my pocket. Is Apple hoping that we'll just look past this fact. This would be a great product if it was the same price as the Rio, but even then that's a matter of opinion. I think the iPod mini is a great product but at the current pricing it's a a rip off...

but I want to know what you think.

[Craig R. Arko]

First; moving to 'News and Reviews.'

Second; is it a bad thing for Apple if, instead of buying a $250 mini, they buy a $300 15 gig instead? And of course, it will be pretty easy to offer 'sale' prices on the mini as needed for promotional purposes.

I can see Fred Anderson smiling all the way to the bank on this one.

[yellow]

Yeah, they really blew it on the price of the mini.

[rusto]

They better produce a preponderance of the silver ones.

:)

[Phil St. Romain]

I think the mini is a good idea. Most of us can get by just fine with 1,000 songs! :rolleyes:

But the price is way too high, especially in comparison to the larger version. Something along the lines of $195 would be better.

[pgr]

I know for $50 more I'd go for the 15 gig model.

[jhillestad]

I liked the mini for one main reason. Its size.

I have a 10g ipod and never fill it.. I could but just never do.... the mini is the right size even though the ipod is small its not small and light enough which is why I have flash players too, buy now with the mini you get the size... and think about it a 4gb compactflash card would cost far more than $250.
So, you get all the advantage of flash at a smaller price... Call me crazy but mine is already on order.
I agree though, the price point sweetspot was not acheived. It should be $199 or $179 but I looked at the price as a payment for the size verse flash...

[Kevsteelio]

Even though I don't think it's worth it, I do like the points you've made and if the item fits your needs, then go for it.

[mclbruce]

I visited a client today and talked to several of the employees about the new iPod. They were impressed. The physical size was very attractive, and the capacity seemed like plenty for most people. One guy who had been considering the old iPod and just bought a RIO was kicking himself.

As far as price goes, I completely understand Apple's positon. They have been selling iPods as fast as they can make them. The new iPod is better in many ways than the old one. So it makes sense to keeep the price up. It seems almost certain to me that they will sell the new iPods just as fast as they can make them. If sales aren't strong they can always lower the price later, but why deny themselves the profit now?

Once in a while people ask why Apple doesn't make some sort of low end computer, headless iMac, or whatever. That's not Apple's strength, they do not want to be a Dell or compete with Dell in the computer world. I think Apple is taking the same position in the MP3 player world. They don't want to move boxes, but sell quality products for a quality price.

[Craig R. Arko]

This (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/08hp.html) is an interesting new wrinkle; HP is signing on to OEM iPods and bundle iTunes.

[miklb]

Originally posted by Craig R. Arko
This (http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/08hp.html) is an interesting new wrinkle; HP is signing on to OEM iPods and bundle iTunes. I read that a few days ago as well. HP’s digital music player is expected to become available this summer and be competitively priced to other digital music players currently available.

Sounds to me that they will be offering the low-end priced ipod.

Not sure if I still wouldn't pay the extra $50 for the mini, or $100 for the 15 GB, and simply deal with Apple directly.

[Mikey-San]

I think Apple's logic is:

For $200, you can get this MP3 player over here, and it has X amount of storage. For fifty bucks more, you can get our MP3 player. It has Y times more storage. And for fifty bucks more than /that,/ there's our MP3 player with Z times more than our smaller one.

Problem is, consumers aren't gonna see it that way. I like the mini, and while I don't think it's outrageously expensive, I agree with the rest here when I say that it's fifty bucks too high to hit the sweetspot price point.

[mclbruce]

Here's my perspective:

1. The mini iPod is replacing the (giant) iPod. This will become more clear when Apple adds capacity to the mini iPod, which is inevitable. When will this happen? That depends on sales and availability of new storage. It could be as soon as 8 months, and will definitely happen within 18 months. The giant iPods may stick around longer than 18 months, but not a lot longer.

2. The mini iPod will be replaced, but not by Apple. It will be replaced by the cell phone. As soon as someone puts a few GB of storage in a cell phone the iPod or any mp3 player is doomed.

Currently the cell phone is poised to replace the inexpensive camera, digital or analog. As cell phone cameras get better and better, people just won't bother buying inexpensive cameras.

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0305/cameracorner.html

The same thing will happen with music players, but I think it's a little farther away in time, maybe 3 or 4 years.

3. Because of item 1, don't expect Apple to put much time or money into improving the giant iPods. That means no wireless streaming video, no Infiniband for clustering, etc. for the giant iPods. Maybe a larger capacity HD, but that's about all.

4. Because of item 2, there may never be a third generation of iPod. Right now may be "The Golden Age of iPods" but in a couple of years Apple will probably move on to something else.

[Golightly]

I'm a sucker. It's pink. I could've gotten a regular iPod, but I bought a pink freaking iPod mini.

Don't get me wrong, I think the price should've been lower, I have to wait over a month now for the stupid thing to ship, but I'm holding out for it. I nearly called and had my order switched to a regular 15GB, but I didn't because I'd eventually just want the pink one.

I'm the kind of jerk the iPod mini is catering to, because I continue to hold out for it!!

[nkuvu]

iPod? Giant? er.... I disagree. (and that's all I really have to say on that :) )

And I don't have a cell phone and have no need for one. Nor do I need a PDA. But I do have an iPod.

I can't see any reason to get an all in one does everything poorly device. If I did ever buy a cell phone, I'd want it to just do the phone thing. Not work as a PDA and a digital camera and surf the web and floss my teeth. Maybe I'm the only one who sees that as desirable.

And last time I checked, you can still buy portable cassette players. Even though the music industry has moved to CDs just about exclusively. So while there will always be something new and different around the corner, I don't believe that any one media player will be replaced by a hot new gadget.

[Mikey-San]

1. F#ck cell phones. At the very least, into the toilet with worthlessly designed all-in-one devices. Right tool for the right job, I say.

2. You can't put a big lens on a cell phone camera.

3. No one's interested in clustering iPods, anyway.

[dhayton]

1. cell phone--got one. it makes phone calls and that's it. no camera, no internet (i think it might play a game or two, but i wouldn't know). gsm, dual band phone so it works well in the us and in europe. i bought it to make phone calls, not capture kodak moments.

2. digital camera--got one. nikon. takes good pictures and nothing else. no phone attached, no pda attached.

3. pda--i'll never have one.

4. ipod--thinking about the new mini-ipod. more than enough storage and i like the compact size. if i can get over my aversion to personal stereos. never had one and never wanted one. not sure i want one now.

i suspect that digital cameras/cell phones will continue to improve. nonetheless, digital cameras will still be made and will sell and will be better at taking pictures than phones. cell phones will still be made and be sold for the luddites in the world, like me (just as land lines are still sold). pda's are certainly here to stay, just not in my house. ipods, probably a near permanent fixture of the digital world, just as portable cassette players, portable cd players, and portable radios are part of the furniture of the world.

my 2¢.

best,
darin

[mclbruce]

Originally posted by Mikey-San
1. At the very least, into the toilet with worthlessly designed all-in-one devices. Right tool for the right job, I say.

2. You can't put a big lens on a cell phone camera.

3. No one's interested in clustering iPods, anyway. 1. How often are you carrying around the right tool? I have my cell phone with me all the time. I do not have my camera with me all the time. If I'm on vacation, sure I'll bring a nice camera, but for around town I'd rather have a decent cell camera. I can't be bothered to keep even my small camera with me every day.
http://www.aiptek.com/products/digital/mini.htm
(by the way this does work in OS X)

2. You can't put a big lens on most cameras anyway.

3. No one in their right mind is interested in clustering iPods :-)

re: nkuvu's comments
- Yes, you can still buy portable cassette players, at the local drugstore in fact, for very little money. iPod type music players will continue to exist, but Apple will be squeezed out of the market as they are commoditized.
- Again, all-in-one means you have it with you more often. And isn't the iMac an all-in-one device :-)

Thanks to both of you for very interesting replies.

[nkuvu]

My point was that before cell phones are anywhere near the capabilities of the iPod Apple will have gone through a number of generations on the iPod. And, of course, that the only-an-MP3-player will be around for a long time.

The iMac as an all in one device? No, not really. I mean, it does a lot. But it doesn't take pictures, and its cell phone reception is really terrible. ;) No seriously, my iMac does what I want, but there are a lot of things that could be considered to be missing (scanner, anyone?). But even if it were it's not a portable device.

And as already stated, I think that all-in-one devices tend to do each job less adequately than a dedicated device. The idea of having an all-in-one device may be great for you, keep in mind that I'd love to see these things on the market (If only to show how far technology is coming along) but I'll never want one. Unless I change my mind later on, of course. But that's unlikely. :D

One of the professors at my university mentioned that "pretty soon now everyone will have a cell phone. Everyone." Of course I disagreed. His point was that it would get so cheap that it wouldn't make sense to not have one. But I'm still not impressed by the cell phone quality I've heard.

If I was really looking for a cheap device, I would have bought a PC instead of a Mac. Which is really my whole point. There are plenty of us, it seems, that choose quality. So I have doubts that the iPod will be replaced by anything other than another Apple product for a long time coming.

All IMHO, of course. Well the quote from my professor wasn't IMHO. Because it's a quote. And, uh, I'll stop now.

[mrpresident47]

...to those who wait.

Everyone who's owned an Apple product knows this thing will drop 50, 80, or a 100 bucks over the next 8 to 12 months. And they'll prolly even add more storage with the lower price.

They always over price up front and let the rich folks and the people with Appleitis (term I've coined to describe someone with an unhealthy dependency on Apple products--I have a B.S. in Psych so it's a professional diagnosis) bump the stock price up a bit. Then they drop it.

mike

[voyageur]

Originally posted by Golightly
I'm a sucker. It's pink. I could've gotten a regular iPod, but I bought a pink freaking iPod mini.
Don't be too hard on yourself--people buy cars for reasons like this all the time, and they cost a lot more!
Anyway, my teenage daughter LOVES the pink iPod mini, even though she already owns a 10GB iPod.