WSJ: $200 iPods? No...

All will be revealed in a few hours.
I guess I'd better set my alarm for 4am Australian time.

$200 is definitely not as attention-getting as earlier rumors. I hope the price point is not this high.

Is it just me, or is Sony suprisingly quiet in the digi player market? How long are they gonna wait on the sidelines? Not much longer i'd say.

They just released Atrac technology to compress a bunch of songs onto a CD, but it's stilll a CD player, and that means it's still as big as a CD player.

Thoughts?

(and remember, Apple has beaten back it's recently announced competition largely due to the fact that they are pretty ugly. But Sony may be able to match the "sexiness" of the iPod)

2GB ipods in Apple Stores tonight according to someone I talked to, give it a 9 out of 10 in reliability. No idea on price.

Are you all Apple newbies? I will eat my dirty underwear if they release a $100 iPod. Those little drives are 70... then add the rest of the parts and R&D etc, and you end up with, what, a $3 profit?

I can see $149 MAYBE, but I would guess $199 for a 2GB and $249 for a 4GB if I were betting.

Originally posted by snahabed
Are you all Apple newbies? I will eat my dirty underwear if they release a $100 iPod. Those little drives are 70... then add the rest of the parts and R&D etc, and you end up with, what, a $3 profit?

I can see $149 MAYBE, but I would guess $199 for a 2GB and $249 for a 4GB if I were betting.

Click to expand...

Uhm, the 10GB is $299 now, buddy, 4GB would NOT be $249.

And when the original iPod shipped, the hard drive it was based on (Toshiba 5GB) cost $399... the same price as the iPod

I say $129.95-$149.95 2GB, $149.95-$179.95 4GB (if there is one, I'm guessing it will be 2GB only.)

Originally posted by AlbinoPigeon
Is it just me, or is Sony suprisingly quiet in the digi player market? How long are they gonna wait on the sidelines? Not much longer i'd say.

Click to expand...

Sony are hampered by being a company that both produces music and hardware to play music, meaning that there is great infighting over what the company can produce.

They just released Atrac technology to compress a bunch of songs onto a CD, but it's stilll a CD player, and that means it's still as big as a CD player.

Click to expand...

Just released? ATRAC is the technology that's been behind compressing music onto MiniDiscs for the past 10 years. The format can also be used on Sony's Network Walkmans (and of course the CD players you mentioned).

I would hate to see the $199 price. I think for a 2GB, although they might use the old 5GB as well, it would just cost too much per GB.

From another thread...

Originally posted by Ling
My guess is...
2GB (Cornice Drive) $149
20GB $299
40GB $399
60GB $499

Click to expand...

I don't think there's going to be a 4GB drive. There's hasn't been a lot of talk about them nor does there appear to be a cheap source for the hard drive.

Also, it makes sense that Apple would continue to increase the capacity of the regular iPods, which will probably keep the 3G form. I had original posted those specs, but now I'm thinking 2/10/30/60.

:shrug: We'll see! Good night all!

mysteries...

yes, there has been surprising little info on any 4gb storage medium...but....

didn't apple corner the market on the original toshiba 5gb drives? if there's a 4gb drive, cornice may not be announcing it since the announcement they made was for a product they are selling. If apple is cornering the market, the 4gb wouldn't be for sale and _may not_ be announced.

i'm not saying a 4gb exists. I'm just saying that IF it exists, it may very well have been excluded from yesterday's announcement.


As for prices...

there's no way a 4gb machine would sell for $200. When the 15 replaces the 10, the surplus & refurbs will be sold for 230-250

Why buy a 4gb for 200 when a 10gb is only $40 more? that's the silliest idea i've heard in a long time.

for this to work, the new ipods have gotta be less than $170 which is what you can get a used 5gb ipod for right now... unless maybe the new 4gb is about the same price ($170) but better features/bling.

good features/bling still couldn't get them all the way up to $200 though because of the used, surplus, & refurbed 10gb ones.

$200 sounds right

I have been reading rumors for years and hearing rumors of Apple offering something at a much lower price almost always end up being false. I am not getting my hopes up that Apple would offer a $99 iPod that is worth buying. Whatever it is it will be overpriced at first and marked down gradually over the years.

Having said that, I will still think about getting one or opting for the higher priced ones when the new ones are announced. Especially if they don't introduce some new ibox device.

Originally posted by wankle
Uhm, the 10GB is $299 now, buddy, 4GB would NOT be $249.

And when the original iPod shipped, the hard drive it was based on (Toshiba 5GB) cost $399... the same price as the iPod

I say $129.95-$149.95 2GB, $149.95-$179.95 4GB (if there is one, I'm guessing it will be 2GB only.)

Click to expand...

The Toshiba $399 price was RETAIL. The Cornice $70 price was for quantities of $100,000. Two totally different things.

There is just way too little margin at $99 or $129 even if they sell direct. There are a lot of other components they need to create a fully functioning product and they would be lucky if it came in at $30. There's also packaging, warranties, and marketing. If they sell it through retail channels which they will, then it needs to be $199. Both the distributors and retail stores won't work for free.

Here is my prediction.

$119 2GB iPod

uses USB 2, doesn't have the remote or dock, and you cant even use the remote or dock with it. It is slightly smaller and has a smaller screen, and may have the older style buttons not the touch sensetive type.

Size matters....I don't think you can compare a 10 or 15 Gig in the current form factor with a 2 Gig the size of a credit card. I think people will pay $150 to $200 for less capacity and a smaller form factor.

Current -nomad- 1.5 gig player is priced at $229 on Amazon.

My guess

2 gig $199
15 gig $249
20 gig $349
40 gig $449

$200 is too expensive still... $150 max to make a decent impact.

Originally posted by Nebrie
There is just way too little margin at $99 or $129 even if they sell direct. There are a lot of other components they need to create a fully functioning product and they would be lucky if it came in at $30. There's also packaging, warranties, and marketing. If they sell it through retail channels which they will, then it needs to be $199. Both the distributors and retail stores won't work for free.

Click to expand...

Nebrie thanks for posting the above.

One other thing 2 Gigs for 200 bucks sounds like a lot but when the current 10 Gig model is 300 bucks and the 40 Gig is 500 bucks you already do not get a linear cost/storage rate ($12.5/gig for 40 Gig model and $30/gig for 10 Gig model). Now that everyone has been spoiled with huge hard drive space in a small package it seems so hard for people to understand that even at 200 bucks a 2 Gig iPod (even at current size) would sell very well. If you use Apple's math for # of songs an iPod can hold this one should see around 500 songs or about 50 CD's worth of music. Last time I checked 500 songs is a lot of songs. On top of that f*9king Dell can stop having that commercial that an iPod is so expensive you will need do extra work to buy one. Off topic I find it ironic that in that Dell commercial they have a prick undercutting kids out of their work (babysitting, selling cookies and cutting yards) by .5%.

One more thing i would be very disappointed to have a new iPod be the “big deal” at today's event. Since if I remember correctly the first iPod model to be released wasn’t released on a Macworld event.

Scott

I'm sure there will be sometihng $200 or less

For intro at CES:

The Smallest Micro Audio Jukebox

Philips new wearable hdd060, the smallest micro audio jukebox, offers consumers the ability to always take their music with them without compromising sound quality. Featuring a 1.5 GB(1) (375 MP3 tracks) storage capacity, the hdd060 is only 1.8 cm thick, weighs less than 95 grams and is the same length and width of a standard credit card. Users will be able to easily review track information on the device's 2-bit grey, 128 x 96 pixel LCD screen. Users also can store data files on the hdd060, making it a portable external drive as well.

For one-touch button playback, the hdd060 features SuperPlay(TM). This feature enables the user to start enjoying music quickly without first having to select playlists or individual tracks. By simply selecting the desired category -such as 'Albums' or 'Artist'- and by pressing the 'Play' button, the user can listen to all the music that is stored under these top-level music library categories.

Sporting a high-gloss magnesium casing, the hdd060 is small enough to fit perfectly in a consumer's pocket or a small purse and light enough to wear around the neck. Users easily can access their computer through USB 1.1 connectivity in order to transfer their favorite MP3 and WMA songs. Available in February, the hdd060 will have a suggested retail price of $199.99.

Take All Of Your Music With You

Is it possible someone at Apple might have suggested this price level to the WSJ to prevent disappointments? There are a hell of a lot of people going to be annoyed if Apple releases a $101 mini-iPod simply because of the rumours...

I'm starting to believe, after yesterday's announcement, that a $99 is just about possible, and given Jobs's previous comment about wanting Apple to do a $99 iPod, I can't see them producing a "budget iPod" that isn't below $99. Either the 2G model is going to be $99, or it's going to be marketed as a compact, not budget, iPod and sold at "full price", somewhere I guess in the $249 range.

I'm also going to guess that if they release a $99 iPod, they'll reprice or bump the higher end models. Maybe that'll mean 10G for $249, or maybe it'll mean 20G for $299. I suspect the former simply because it'd leave less holes.

Forget it.

The people (me included) who didn't want to pay $299 for a glorified Walkman aren't going to pay $199 for one that has 1/10th of the storage.

At $100-$129, 2 Gb iPods would fly. People who had $299 to $499 to spend on the full size units may even buy another smaller one just for the heck of it.

A $200 device is not going to open them up to new markets.

Originally posted by Stella
$200 is too expensive still... $150 max to make a decent impact.

Click to expand...

The new Rio 4GB model is $249, so it would not be unreasonable at all for Apple to charge the same for their model if it is also 4GB. I'm not sure why Apple is being held to this ridiculous $100-150 standard by some here when nobody else is capable or willing to price them at that low of a level either. I'm hoping for $199 myself, but we shall see here very soon now...

Originally posted by wankle
Uhm, the 10GB is $299 now, buddy, 4GB would NOT be $249.

And when the original iPod shipped, the hard drive it was based on (Toshiba 5GB) cost $399... the same price as the iPod

I say $129.95-$149.95 2GB, $149.95-$179.95 4GB (if there is one, I'm guessing it will be 2GB only.)

Click to expand...

Uhm, SUCK IT, "BUDDY"

Arrogance is comical when it is just so wrong!

I know Apple. The idea of a $179 4GB was laughable.

Like a lead zeppelin.