To make sure demand keeps up. The minute the buzz dies down, the drop in sales is precipitous. Seagate is the first true competitor to Hitachi, unlike Magicstor. Apple would stand to benefit from cutting prices ahead of a forecasted dip in sales.sabbath999 said:
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2.5 GB & 5 GB iPod Minis?
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Here's my take on 2.5 and 5GB hard drives. Apple won't be using the 2.5GB drives because it'll really cut into their margins (remember, the iPods are their money makers). Instead, Apple will use the 5GB models formatted as 4GB, as someone had already mentioned. In fact, it will behoove them to do so.
The rest of the computer industry already implements this practice anyways. AMD and Intel will downmarket a chip from, say, 2.8Ghz to 2.4Ghz if the market demands more 2.4Ghz chips. ATI will severe half of their rendering pipes (via software) just so there will be enough supply of the slower video card. Microsoft reformats 10GB hard drives to 8GB for their Xboxs.
So why can't Apple do the same? Certainly there's nothing in the iPod specifications that mention hard drive makers or rotation speeds. They can pop in a 5GB-turned-4GB hard drive and none would be the wiser (it's not like we're cracking open these things anyways). And having two hard drive suppliers are better than one. I know Hitachi said they are ramping up, but can you say "the IBM 3Ghz CPU Promise?"
An Apple iCamera? Probably won't happen either. The market is too crowded and the margins aren't that great unless they go 6MP or better. Hell, I can get a no-name 3MP digital camera for $80 these days. *The* market for Apple would be digital SLRs, but that would conflict with their "keep it simple, stupid" motto.
The rest of the computer industry already implements this practice anyways. AMD and Intel will downmarket a chip from, say, 2.8Ghz to 2.4Ghz if the market demands more 2.4Ghz chips. ATI will severe half of their rendering pipes (via software) just so there will be enough supply of the slower video card. Microsoft reformats 10GB hard drives to 8GB for their Xboxs.
So why can't Apple do the same? Certainly there's nothing in the iPod specifications that mention hard drive makers or rotation speeds. They can pop in a 5GB-turned-4GB hard drive and none would be the wiser (it's not like we're cracking open these things anyways). And having two hard drive suppliers are better than one. I know Hitachi said they are ramping up, but can you say "the IBM 3Ghz CPU Promise?"
An Apple iCamera? Probably won't happen either. The market is too crowded and the margins aren't that great unless they go 6MP or better. Hell, I can get a no-name 3MP digital camera for $80 these days. *The* market for Apple would be digital SLRs, but that would conflict with their "keep it simple, stupid" motto.
JFreak said:
They said the same thing when Sony released Playstation and when M$ jumped in with XBox. I know few people even questioned iPod's success when it first came out. No digital and electronics consumer market out there is profit making today, until you come out with the product which is as unique and cool as iPod. I think Apple understands the market trend of every product they release more than anyone. So if they decide to jump in digi-cam market, it'll be different than Nikkon or Olympus. After all, we all tend to think we have a perfect product, whether OS or iPod, until they release new features and then we wonder how we ever lived without it.
amols said:
Apart from the iPod which just goes from strength to strength. I'm sure that while those who bought and hold a 1G iPod look at the 3G's or mini's and think "cool" - apart from new buttons, the iPod hasn't changed much. That is to say, it came in at number 1 and is showing no signs of dropping.
I've got a mini and live in London and people come up to me and ask me where I got it, how much it cost, etc. Nobody can believe that it's "only" $250 (around £135). Now there's a revolution: someone in disbelief about how *cheap* an Apple product is!
Now given the insane disparity between supply and demand, Apple really should be thinking to themselves whether their price point is in fact too low. They could have charged up to $350 for this and apparently the demand would still be there. I ordered my mini on the Apple Store website and suffered from massive delays (about 5-6 weeks before I actually received the device). They even offered me at one point a 3G 15GB iPod for no extra cost, which I declined - I wanted my mini!!!
No two ways about it: Apple hit a home run. It's out of the ballpark and nobody can find the ball.
ITR 81 said:
How do you figure? The 2.5GB HD would cost Apple a few bucks less than the 4GB they use. How would that translate to a retail price of $100 less then the current mini? Apple's margins (albeit high) are lower on the mini than the iPods already. I don't see Apple selling any HD based iPod for under $249 (maybe $229) for quite some time. Their costs are in all the other components of the iPod and mini.
iChan said:
No, I don't know what you mean.
If you want to pay more money for the iPod mini, go right ahead. Alternatively, the lower the price point goes for the iPod mini (especially if there are two price points, instead of just the one that currently exists), Apple can attack more market share, not only competing with the 'high-end' flash players like Jobs was suggesting, but the low-end players as well.
DMann said:
I completely agree with this: the cheaper the ipod mini gets, the -more- demand they will get, as -more- people will want it. If you make the iPod mini more money as you suggest, it will be the same price as the low-end iPod. Remember, there's only $50 dollars between the two - the only place for the iPod mini to go is down.
And yes, I realize most of what I have addressed has probably already been said, but I wasn't at liberty to go through all of the posts. Sorry if this is rehash.
... what do you mean you do not understand why they shouldn't lower prices. If they can't build enough to fill the current demand... then all lowering the price will do is make it even harder to fill the demand. They might as well get the orders they can at 250 before they lower them.
This isn't the fuel industry. The iPod mini is not a commodity...yet. I didn't say anything about dropping the prices now, but you have to figure the second production and demand intersect, $250 won't look nearly as enticing. One reason why the iPod mini is selling out all over the place is because Creative'd $200 MuVo2 is also selling out...to eBayers who are harvesting Microdrives. The second the supply of these players become unconstrained, the iPod mini's popularity will drop a bit. The second iPod mini production ramps up, the allure will fall even more. There's something mystical about a product you can't get your hands on. It makes you want to buy it more. Apple needs to keep the price at a point where the units are continually out of stock as long as it can without moving into the zero-margin zone.Disco said: