Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

4GB 'iPod Mini' and 15GB iPod

Originally posted by humangod
so i have to load up my ipod ONLY with songs i buy from the itunes music store? or can't i use the songs i already own? from my collection over 22 years?
Click to expand...

I removed the part about the "solid" CDs form my post to keep it short but I originally intended to mention that those were even more expensive that 99¢ a song due to printimg and manufacturing costs. Yes, you are absolutly free and welcomed to put those on you iPod classic or mini.

It's getting harder and harder these days to write precise enough a post without being picked upon. Even when not using names. ^_^ No hard feelings. Forums are all about exchange of opinions.

Originally posted by VicMacs
i was hoping for a change, something worthy of a 20th anniversary... a 20th anniversary present for us, the macusers.
Click to expand...

Let's not worry too much. 2004 is only 6 days old. Still 359 days too go. I'm pretty sure Apple can come up with a nice surpirse in the following months.
 
Originally posted by VicMacs
No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock No dock
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Where is everyone getting the idea that the dock and armband are included? Was the keynote (which I didn't watch) not clear? The website simply states the dock and armband are OPTIONAL.
 
No enthusiasm ?

Beyond the general disappointment (iPod mini too big and too expensive, no move to 90nm chips, no speed bump, no iBox, etc.), I think what really stood out to me was the lack of enthusiasm.

I felt Steve Jobs' heart wasn't into today's performance.
 
Originally posted by zimen
You know what?

I live in Italy. Only 2 months ago $249 would have ment €249 euros. Today it is €195 euros!!!! that's cool!!! it is as if you paid it 195 dollars!! Watch out on ebay for speculators.


Simon
Click to expand...

If only that were true... prices are kept artificially high, and there are taxes.

The price of a 15GB iPod in The Netherlands is EUR 349,- including 19% VAT. That would be... EUR 280,- ex. VAT or 350 USD. In the US you pay 299,- USD.

I would therefore expect the minipod to be around EUR 300 including taxes.
 
If you compare the minis to the current then it makes sense to go for the 15 gig for 50 more, but remember if you look at some of the $200 flashed based players then 250 for a quality mp3 player is a much better choice.Its gonna be interesting if this will actually sell or become like the cube.I certainly dont regret my 20 gig purchase now.
 
Originally posted by Kid Red
I totally disagree. The Rio is $249, the iPodmini is $249. The iPod comes in colors, arm band, dock and is small, light and very cool.
Click to expand...

No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band No arm band
 
Steve doesnt wanna sell iPod Minis

Steve doesnt wanna sell the mini iPods. He pisses people off, but spreads the 50 off rationale. He is trying to sell more 15 gig normal iPods.

Sure the minis will draw some busines, but until the price is lowed, it is just gunna be used to bridge the gap between 200 and 300 and get more people to buy 15 gigers.

as in "hmm mom look ipods now $250"
"thats good, but you MIGHT AS WELL just by a (normal) iPod"

besides the Profit margins on the iPod minis will likely be even smaller because of the extra eingineering due to the new form factor.

This may piss off apple fans, but it is in no way gunna lose business for apple.

An iPod for a more expensive iPod.


It pisses me off too, but I am very content with my new 20giger 🙂
 
Size matters?

I think the iPod size is limited by the display and award winning jog wheel.

Smaller would make it worst in my humble and arguable opinion.

Anybody knows if the smaller screen can display as many characters horizontally? Was the pixel size simply reduced or did we lose some pixels? Just curious.
 
I think we were all expecting Apple to really stick it to the competition. Yet I think most folks are right here.

If you listened to the Keynote, you notice the audience's reaction is pretty subdued when he announced the $249 price.

And the argument Steve makes for spending $50 more for 4GB is the same justification for blowing off the iPod Mini for the 15Gig'er.

Contrarily, I think if he'd announced a 2GB iPod Mini for $199, with or without a base station, I'd be willing to bet the place would have erupted. Psychologically, the 4GB is overkill, compared to a 256MB device and $199 is about the threshold price between small MP3 players and the iPod line. At $249, it's hard not to just opt for the low-end iPod.
 
Mr. Gekko, I'm sorry I didn't be nicer towards you. You are the winner, I'm the looser. I just want to say I'm going to talk a lot to my "source" tomorrow.....
 
"What baffles me completely is that they barely touched the normal iPod line. Who would pay $399 for a 20 when $299 gets you 15? And I am still waiting for a > 40GB size. My collection is over 50GB, and I HATE not being able to autosync"

WORD!!!!!!!!!! I would love to autosync my 45gigs.


The accesories do count for something, though. I bet they upped to 15 so they can avoid the cannabilization of the lower iPod, by making the size more attractive.


I'm not sure this will eat into flash players since no one has tested how this thing performs when running. Its one thing to sell it with an armband, quite another to actually run with it and experience no skipping.

250 is pretty fat, but I'm guessing that they are banking on the pepsi commercials starting an iTunes/iPod explosion and that form factor/coolness will carry these players out the door.

Besides just how many people legally own anywhere near 40 gigs of music? Even if they do, how many of them HAVE to have all of their music on their player at once? With a CD player you had to change the disc each time. With 4 gigs it will still take quite some time to listen to the music before needing to change out songs.
 
Even if it was $199. Everyone would wine that that was too much, it should be $149.

blah blah blah. Don't like it Don't buy it.
Click to expand...

That's the common refraint if you're part of the apple community. But let's face it, Jobs is trying to get outside of the Apple community, or so he says. Therefore, the iPod cannot be evaluated in the same context as the rest of the Apple product line, because the goals simply aren't the same. The iPods, by Jobs own admission, have to appeal to a different type of consumer. Therefore, you can't just dismiss the complaining.

Rather, the only way this is a rational approach is if they introduce a cheaper model in the near future, say by April (so there is enough time for them to be graduation presents). Then, Apple can gouge people for the cool factor (which they've done for years to some degree) and the Apple faithful (some portion of which will be willing to shill out the money rather than wait just because of their allegiance to Apple) and hopefully be able to produce a volume product under $200 by spring. Getting under that benchmark seems to be the key (note that the WSJ journal article specifically talked about a sub-$200 player...why? Because a lot of people are going to be able going over that mark).

If Apple isn't under $200 in three months, they are squandering, to some degree though not catastrophically, the momentum they have now and the opportunity to dominate the market immediately.
 
Originally posted by edesignuk
Yes they are very nice, yes they are smaller, yes they are "cool", yes they are a rip off!!!!! Please, anyone with half a brain will pay another $50 for 15GB.

...I don't get it...
Click to expand...

Are these the same people that expected it to cost $199 and are now refusing to pay that same extra $50 to get it at $249?
 
Steve said it came with a dock, belt clip, and arm band. But he must have ment them as options.
Originally posted by Gimzotoy
I totally agree. Where is everyone getting the idea that the dock and armband are included? Was the keynote (which I didn't watch) not clear? The website simply states the dock and armband are OPTIONAL.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by merge
I am disapointed with the price.. BUT..

The mini comes with a Dock, Belt clip, and an armband..
with an estimated value of $70.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't - the dock and armband are optional... where'd you ASSume they'd be included? 😛

Whooo - 10 pages already? Yikes! If I had time to read to the end, I woulda noticed that it's been addressed already. Sorry for the redundancy folks.
 
When jobs was showing the stats of the rio (coincidence that rio is the competitor for the iPod mini and it is showed as a "bad" company here) he showed the price of 199 bucks. I was like sweet hes going to compare it with this new product at the same price. But when he said 50 bucks more i was so annoyed. It would of been such an uproar if it had been these sweet specs for the same price as the other player in comparision, thus 199 bucks.
 
Originally posted by mullmann
Are these the same people that expected it to cost $199 and are now refusing to pay that same extra $50 to get it at $249?
Click to expand...

Yes we are the same ones. Im not paying extra to get a dock and armband and cool earbuds!
 
Re: Re: Re: NeatGekko scooped you all

Originally posted by bokdol
...And now for the size: NO 2BG (weak) Apple will show off a nice 4.5 GB in multiple colors. 2 models in muli color is a nightmare. They will have the one size only...
Click to expand...
You bring up an interesting point. Would the sell more with two sizes and two colors rather than one size and five colors?
 
i must echo the thoughts of everyone else in saying that $249 is totally absurd. what in the world is apple thinking? i couldn't believe my eyes when i saw it. hopefully that will be corrected by the next macworld, and the will put out the pb g5 to make up for the this sillyness 😉
 
People might be disappointed with the price, but I don't see a lot of good business arguments against it.

I think this is the thinking behind the $249:

1. Same as the 4 GB Rio. The minipod is nicer, and looks much cooler. The iPod is a hot brand name. People will choose the iPod over that product, for the same price. I haven't seen the new Rio player, but I'm guessing it will look like a hunk of junk next to these slick minipods.

2. Apple WILL come out with new versions of this, and perhaps lower priced versions. Apple is considered a high-end brand, and they actually need to be careful about protecting that, so they need to be careful about under-pricing. Aggressively pricing their products has never been part of the Apple business model, and there is no reason to expect them to change that now.

3. Sure it's only $50 less than the 15 GB iPod, but look at it! Don't underestimate the number of people who are going to think about how cool they look with one of these things in the gym. I'll bet you a lot of people would pay $300 for that thing.

4. Prices are determined by demand. If it doesn't sell at $249, they'll drop the price. If anything is going to put a drag on sales, it's the huge sales from last quarter.
 
I think the iPod mini is an awesome little thing, and in many ways worth the $249.00. However, it is not worth it to me, the size and weight reduction is not worth only $50 cheaper, AND 11 GB smaller. $199.00 is definitely the price point Apple should have gone for.
As is, it will not be a flash player killer, it is too expensive. Apple could really try and do things right for the future by offering a product that truly competes with the low end or at least middle [flash] MP3 player market, and thus capture the non-committed (committed as in which DRM, file format they are using). With the proliferating of proprietary file and DRM formats, people will be locked down to use whichever format they end up buying their songs in. Since iTunes does not support .wma, and many of the cheap players do, Rhapsody etc. music services will lock consumers out of the iTunes music store.
Until there is inter-operability of the music files/players Apple should bend over backwards to get market share. But then again, Apple is best at providing good ideas/innovation to business savvy companies, and not at gaining market share of their own.
It's just so sad....

[edited for clarity and spelling]
 
Just like the usb 2 and firewire, the armband is included. Are you dumb or something. He may have a reality distortion field, but that cant stop people for suing him for false advertising.

Just as he stated, the accesories are comming with it. And yes I can ASSume this
 
Did you hear the crickets in the audience?

When Steve said the price you could have heard a pin drop, people there were like all excited, anticipating a REALISTIC price like $149 or $199 maybe high end, but NOOOO!!! Typical Apple, more proof Jobs doesn't get it, most consumers don't have $249 lying around, then again, if you're given lear jets money isn't a concept. And yeah some people blah blah profit margin blah, believe me, they were already making as much as 50% margin/mark up on the previous iPods, these things are probably that or more, this price is joke.

HEAR ME APPLE, YOUR PRICE FOR THIS IS A JOKE!!!

$199 would have been a bit much, good though, good enough. $249... phaw!
 
Originally posted by mullmann
Are these the same people that expected it to cost $199 and are now refusing to pay that same extra $50 to get it at $249?
Click to expand...
By that arguement why would anyone every buy anything but the most expensive product. At some point you just don't have the money. Apparently, in a lot of people minds, the $200 is more than want.
 
The fact is, the ipod mini is ridicuously overpriced. Before the mini rumors even began, I fully expected an update to the iPod line at Macworld. Either price reductions across the board, or an increase in capacity.

We actually would have been better off if the minipods had NOT been released, as then Apple might have lowered the price on the 10 GB model to $250.

And why weren't the upper end models updated?

Apple should be selling the mini iPod at cost, and try to make their money on iTunes music downloads, rather than the hardware itself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back