A Mini iPod Mini?

[MacRumors]

A Mercury News article reports on Apple's new 'iPod Mini'. According to this article:

Phil Schiller, Apple vice president of worldwide product marketing, also said Apple had not ruled out making an iPod at capacities smaller than 4GB.

With the Mini iPod rumors over the past few weeks being at least partially accurate... it's not unreasonable to conclude that even smaller capacity iPods are, in fact, being prototyped at Apple. Whether Apple can reach a significantly lower price point, remains unclear... but the introduction of the 2.0GB Cornice Drive is likely not coincidence alone.

[Awimoway]

I believe ThinkSecret stands by the notion that a 2 Gb mini is in the works.

[desdomg]

Well, on current form Apple would most likely produce a 2gig mini mini, that is just slightly smaller than the current model and costs $20 less.....

[yoman]

A mini mini!
That sounds ridiculous. How small will it be ( size of a chiclet gum piece)

[centauratlas]

I still think a lower price iPod is a good idea. I might steal some sales from the bigger ones, but I still believe that it would get more from people who wouldn't buy a large size/high priced one anyway. The increase in sales, coming from others, would more than make up for lost sales from big ones.

They have to know that at some point in the next few years, you'll be able to get a 8GB flash memory card cheaply and someone will use it for an MP3 player.

[iChan]

i was kinda hoping for a 2 GB miniPod.

does anyone know if the ipod mini will look correct with the Belkin tunedok???

anyone knw??

[sparks9]

I don't think the minimini iPod would be smaller physically, it would probably use the same case but just have less HD space.

[david_r_p]

I feel that this might be wishful thinking. Personally, I was hoping for a sub-$200 device yesterday. Not because I want one (I have a 30 gig ipod now), but because I want Apple to be dominant in this market. I'm sure they market tested the pricing, but my gut tells me $249 is too high for the "high end flash market" SJ wants to compete in.

I think it's only natural for we Mac-faithful to speculate on the "next" great device that Apple will release when what they actually release is less than hoped for.

p.s. I hope I'm wrong and Apple sells millions of these things.

[arn]

Originally posted by david_r_p
I feel that this might be wishful thinking.

It's not though.

Do you think the Mini iPod rumors were just the product of someone's imagination... and oh look, Apple happened to make a mini iPod at the exact same time?

It's clear the Mini iPod rumor sources were real. As a result, it's not unreasonable to conclude that the rest of the information is true and not just speculation.

The flipside to this example is something like the iBox... which NO ASPECT of came true. You can discard the entire rumor.

arn

[Mord]

do you have any idea how badly mini ipod's suck in the uk they cost £200 ($364)!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VicMacs]

Originally posted by Hector
do you have any idea how badly mini ipod's suck in the uk they cost £200 ($364)!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cant you order one in the US applestore and have it fedexed to you?

you wont pay 100 dollars for that

[pjkelnhofer]

If they could find a way to put a 2 Gb drive into the current mini, I would believe it. But I find it hard to believe that Apple will make a third form factor for the iPod anytime soon.

I think our best hope for a sub $200 iPod is a price drop on the 4Gb in about six months (I would not be suprised to see an 8Gb for $249 and the low end iPod become the 20 Gb model at the same time).

[Mr.Hey]

Originally posted by desdomg
Well, on current form Apple would most likely produce a 2gig mini mini, that is just slightly smaller than the current model and costs $20 less.....

Current form factor; anything smaller and it runs into the same problems as the competition that SJ mentioned --- 1.5Gigs 2Gigs 3Gigs(?) and maybe 5Gigs by the next revision.

[MongoTheGeek]

I doubt the 2gig iPod would ever happen. I figure the size of the mini-Pod was determined roughly the same way the size of the CD was.

[apocryphal history lesson]
The president of sony decided on the size of the CD so that it would be big enough to hold all of Beethoven's 9th Symphony which runs a bit over 70 minutes, The size of a CD.
[/apocryphal history lesson]

Steve looked at the size of his favorites file and said 4gigs...

give it 6 months and prices will drop to 150.

[Mord]

Originally posted by VicMacs
cant you order one in the US applestore and have it fedexed to you?

you wont pay 100 dollars for that

If you could do that the uk apple store would be redundent thanks nyway

It's just the cost of liveing in country with a fairly elected leader and a national health service (we would have free uni if the lib dems were in power

17.5% VAT

[g30ffr3y]

*The flipside to this example is something like the iBox... which NO ASPECT of came true. You can discard the entire rumor.*

didnt that phillips streamium thing sort of fill in the blanks on the ibox rumors???

[arn]

Originally posted by g30ffr3y
*The flipside to this example is something like the iBox... which NO ASPECT of came true. You can discard the entire rumor.*

didnt that phillips streamium thing sort of fill in the blanks on the ibox rumors???

not really... it'd be like pointing to the Rio mp3 player as proof of the mini iPod manufacturers.

arn

[sw1tcher]

Originally posted by david_r_p
I feel that this might be wishful thinking. Personally, I was hoping for a sub-$200 device yesterday. Not because I want one (I have a 30 gig ipod now), but because I want Apple to be dominant in this market. I'm sure they market tested the pricing, but my gut tells me $249 is too high for the "high end flash market" SJ wants to compete in.

I think it's only natural for we Mac-faithful to speculate on the "next" great device that Apple will release when what they actually release is less than hoped for.

p.s. I hope I'm wrong and Apple sells millions of these things.

Yeah. A good price would be something like $229 or $239.

To me, it's about the public's perception. $229/$239 is much closer to $199 than $249, even though it's only a $20/$10 difference (not much, i know). But IMO, people are more like to go "Oh, the iPod mini is only $30 more than this Rio, and it holds over 10x more songs, too! I'll just get the mini instead."

At the $229/$239 price, it also doesn't make people say "Well, the 15GB iPod is only $50 more than the mini. I'll get that one instead." Unless, that's what Apple is trying to get people to do?

Oh well, just doing some (not very good?) thinking.

[pjkelnhofer]

Originally posted by MongoTheGeek
[apocryphal history lesson]
The president of sony decided on the size of the CD so that it would be big enough to hold all of Beethoven's 9th Symphony which runs a bit over 70 minutes, The size of a CD.
[/apocryphal history lesson]

This is a great story. I had never heard it befored, but I even found it on Sony's website:

from the Sony website
But it was Ohga, a trained musician, who decisively presented Sony's argument for a 12 cm, seventy-five minute disc. He argued that, Just as a curtain is never lowered halfway through an opera, a disc should be large enough to hold all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

May or may not be true, but still great story. Oh, the things I have learned on these forums.

I suspect the iPod mini size is more based on what size drive was availible, affordable and made with Apple specs. Of course, you were probably being sarcastic.

[Powerbook G5]

For me, a 2-3 gig iPod would be pretty awesome. Considering I have about 950 megs of songs in iTunes, at 2-3 gigs, I could still triple my library and still have the space to fit it all in iTunes. I know I could get another player for cheaper and just convert my AAC to mp3 or something to play them on, but I would love an iPod, I just don't care to spend the money for 15 gigs when I don't ever see myself needing the space. I am not one for huge music collections, I just have a small CD collection and a collection of songs that I like and generally stick to at any given time, so I have no need to ever have 15-40 gigs worth of songs with me at any given point. Even with 2 gigs worth of music, that'd be more than enough to last for a couple of days worth of continuous music, and I don't see when I'd even listen to that much music.

[desdomg]

Originally posted by arn
I
The flipside to this example is something like the iBox... which NO ASPECT of came true. You can discard the entire rumor.

arn

Well, you certainly gave it lots of prominence on your site ARN - what were your sources again? You did move it from page 2 to page 1 after all ...

[pjkelnhofer]

Originally posted by arn
The flipside to this example is something like the iBox... which NO ASPECT of came true. You can discard the entire rumor.

arn

Does this mean I should uncross my fingers and put my old DVD player back on top of the TV?
Damn!

[sonofslim]

Originally posted by MongoTheGeek
I doubt the 2gig iPod would ever happen. I figure the size of the mini-Pod was determined roughly the same way the size of the CD was.

[apocryphal history lesson]
The president of sony decided on the size of the CD so that it would be big enough to hold all of Beethoven's 9th Symphony which runs a bit over 70 minutes, The size of a CD.
[/apocryphal history lesson]

Steve looked at the size of his favorites file and said 4gigs...

i've heard the CD thing too, although its veracity is uncertain. as for the iPod mini, seems more likely that 1,000 songs is a nice round number with just enough zeroes to impart a sense of value and technolust that fits with Apple's branding strategy.

[voodoofish]

Originally posted by Hector
If you could do that the uk apple store would be redundent thanks nyway

It's just the cost of liveing in country with a fairly elected leader and a national health service (we would have free uni if the lib dems were in power

17.5% VAT

Um no, if you add VAT to the US price (US prices don't include sales tax, which varies from about 6-8% state-to-state) it's $293, not $364. Even including the sales tax difference, the iPod mini is more expensive in the UK than the 15GB iPod in the states. I don't see what the NHS has to do with that (and note the US spends as more money as a % of GDP on state health care as we do (in 1997 6.5 vs our 5.8) ~and~ their GDP is higher than ours; I know where I'd rather live). I qualify for student discount and yet iLife costs more with a student discount in the UK than the full price in the US. I'm just gonna buy them both on a trip over there; the price difference is ludacris.

[1macker1]

Knowing apple they'll cost $229 bucks.