Thank GOD it wasn't a PDA....yet.

[NSCoder]

I'm under the assumption that everyone here is a fan of Apple and wants them to keep in business (actually their competitors need them to stay in business to...so they have someone to steal ideas from).

Anyway, here's how I see it...
1. Apple needs a $399 reason to get non-apple people into the stores this christmas and start building new loyalties. They will probably sell a few iMac and iBooks to people who first-timers along with those who want the whole package with iTunes syncronization etc. Even people just browsing in the store will get the real Apple story by visiting a store instead of the idiotic bait-and-switch at CompUSA.

2. Everybody loves music and there doesn't seem to be any real "love" for a brand of MP3 player....especially now when Apple just kicked everyone else's ass. The portable mp3 player market was really moving slow (innovation wise) and Apple siezed the opportunity.

3. Apple needs to own a category. Unfortunately, people have worked too hard at learning Grafitti to ditch their Palm Pilots for another PDA. While "we" would love an Apple PDA, the market isn't ready yet.

4. The iPod has lots of screen real estate and could double as a PDA or organizer evenutally. With a drive that big, it could do lots of things. What's the OS driving that thing? A device version of Darwin. Makes you say hmmmm?

[Newton-Man]

Hi

I think I am the only person who likes the iPod. Apple said it was the first "Digital Device" so therefore there should be more... possibly a PDA.

Also, If you look at it all they have to do is extend the screen a bit and get rid of the circle thingee and they would make a PDA.

COME ON APPLE, I LOVE THE IPOD< ALREADY HAVE ONE ORDERED BUT PLEASE GIVE US A PDA!!!

Thanks,
Guy Wickenden

[jefhatfield]

apple does need to expand their markets and this may be a good idea

it will take several products and steady sales to up the price of the apple stock but there was some movement in the stock before the announcement, possibly in anticipation of this product

it ipod flies, steve jobs will be called a genius again, if it fails, people will turn on him again...

being an apple user for two decades and knowing employees and stockholders, it is just more than one product which can make or break a company or ceo...but apple somehow needs to regain confidence in the people who own the company (shareholders), not only the mac faithful who often like to make excuses for shortcomings and overcompensate by attacking pcs and making statements of things they know nothing about

i used to do that all the time until i became a pc tech and realized that while apple is still the best, they are not that far ahead of the rest and mac users can no longer base their superiority on photoshop tests/benchmarks and colored plastic

thinking people with money need something to believe in again with apple and that has been absent for many many months...while the stock lingers at a real dollar level less than it did in its introduction...

so let's hope the person is right when they say apple is attempting to get sales with this $399 product