4GB 'iPod Mini' and 15GB iPod

[theipodgod16]

this isnt a blunder.... apple did this on purpose.

they want someone looking at a rio 4gb player to see a mini ipod.

then they want the perosn to say hell ill spend $50 more and get a 15gb ipod.

maybe ill even get a case, remote and dock...

oo wait.


now i might as well buy a 20 gb.


apple now has someone who was gonna give $250 to rio give $400 to apple.


its called business ethics, and apple knows it very well.

 

[JPGR_Fan]

Bought a 30 GB 3G the day it was announced.

RE-ripped all my CDs from mp3 in iTunes to AAC to fit more on (needed the later 40 GB).

Getting divorced, no longer in possession of $10,000 worth of CDs.

Can't run with 30 GB.

Tried to buy refurbished 5 GB from Apple because they are good for running. Too late.

Can't find flash based AAC/iTunes compatiable players. Love iTunes.

Am going to buy an iPOD mini. Hope the arm band works. Not pink.

 

[splashman]

mini RAM vs. iPod RAM

Originally posted by minipoduser
Where's the "loads of RAM" so it won't skip? A skipping memory-impaired altzheiPod is not for me - I'll stick with the larger memory in the brainiPods.

From what I've heard, the mini has 32MB of RAM, just like the iPod. And Apple would be stupid to reduce it, since that would mean the HD would be more active, thus reducing battery endurance.

Why do you think the mini has less?

 

[Craiger77]

iPod mini vs Rio

One thing that disappoints me about new iPod minis is their battery life. According to Rio's website their new 4Gb player has 16 hours of battery life compared to the new iPod mini's 8 hours. That is a big difference.

As for the price I expect it will follow the same course as the original, which started out at $500, and steadily fall to a price most of the people bitching here feel they can afford. Probably we will see the addition of more storage sizes as well.

One thing that did surprise me is that the mini has the same software as its big brother...most of the rumor sites predicted it to have a dumbed down limited version.

It amazes me how spoiled we have become when it comes to our price expectations of electronics. Lots of people seemed to have been able to afford the original iPod at $500 a mere two years ago with not that much more storage than the mini.

 

[Count Blah]

Re: No offense

Originally posted by NusuniAdmin
No offense to most of you people, you guys are morons in basic marketing. If they made the price too low then noone would buy the regular 15+ gig ipods. If they make it too high, then its stupid. I agree 249 bux is high. But I would say they have good logic, some people want the colors, some want smaller. It will find its place in the market soon.

Correction - a moron at marketing would price a 4 Gig MP3 player 16% lower than a 15 Gig MP3 player. A smart marketer would price a 2 Gig MP3 player at 2/3 rds of the price of their own 15 gig MP3 player(two different markets - very little canabalizing).

2gigs at $199 in the very sleak iPod mini form would KILL almost all sales of the $150 - $199 flash market and a good portion of the $100 market - IMHO.

I believe that you are seeing such anger over this because most people here want to see Apple succeed. Most people here believe that the iPod mini would succeed if it was priced at $199. We believe this because no one is buying the existing multi-Gig MP3 players that already exist in the $249 range.

I want to see Apple dominate the MP3 market, and $50 less than the elite iPod price is not going to do it - Especially when the minimal price difference makes the new offering look like a turd compared to the classic iPod.

 

[splashman]

Originally posted by rdowns
Thank you!!! Needed a good laugh after reading this depressing thread.

Don't mean to bash anyone or generalize, but can anyone think about the greater market and not only their own personal wants and opinions?

I think the answer's obvious, isn't it?

🙂

 

[mullmann]

Re: We've been let down

Originally posted by Spades
I know I've already replied in this thread three times, but I'm finally over the shock of the price and can organize my thoughts.

As have I, but it's hard to resist, no? 🙂

Rumors have led us to believe that we would be getting a flash killer. Steve Jobs even said it was supposed to be a flash killer. When the price came up though, all hopes of that vanished. Steve said himself the high-end flash market is priced $100 to $200, so making it $249 prices it right out of the market he claimed the mini targets. Instead, it fits into a market of other players that are pretty much the same thing as the mini. If a $249 device was capable of taking market share from flash players, then why haven't Rio's 1.5 gig Nitrus or Dell's 15 gig DJ done it already?

One reason I can think of is that there is very little, if anything, that truly differentiates those players from one another. There is, however, currently a fair amount that differentiates the iPod from them; everything from its integration with iTunes, its interface, ergonomics, looks, and of course its "cool factor" (which won't be as large a selling point forever, but is a compelling one right now). Many of the disappointed posters on this board have indicated that if they were going to pay $249 for an iPod, they might as well pay $50 more and get the 15GB one. My hunch is that Apple is thinking that if they can get an iPod model close enough to the low-end others in terms of price, shoppers will make the very same justication for their purchases. If they were going to spend $199, why not spend $50 more to get an iPod?

 

[Mac Dummy]

Originally posted by ipoddin
question about the new 15gb ipod.

A year ago, I think, there already was a 15gb version, which was then later dropped for the 10gb, right?

So is there any difference in this new 15gb version? It's not a 4th generation, but still the 3rd generation ipod, correct?

Sorry if I'm asking the obvious.

I think the last 15GB Ipod was a 2g model.

 

[brywalker]

The problem with the $199 budget will spend $250 theory is that most people wouldn't even spend $199 on a player UNLESS it was an iPod.

Personally, it is going to be a sub $200 iPod or a new MiniDisc recorder for $70. And I would much rather have an iPod.

 

[~Shard~]

I'm torn with the new iPod minis. I think they look really neat, I think they're a great idea, and I think they're really cool, but for only $50 more, you can have a 15 GB! Yet, Apple has once again enticed customers with the whole "cool" factor.

In the end, I'm still going to buy a 40 GB, as I need the space, but I think in general, Apple will succeed with the iPod mini - it addresses another market segment, and maybe people who want a smaller player, with smaller capacity will not even care that the 15 GB is only $50 more - they want a smaller player with smaller capacity, and the iPod mini will be perfect for them. Plus, maybe they just want a colorful MP3 player. 😎 I have concerns with the high price, but I'm sure that will come down over the next few months... Just in time for iPod updates? 😎

 

[QCassidy352]

Re: $50

Originally posted by Macmaniac
are there any other truly valid reasons for not liking the new iPod mini

how about the fact that it's ugly as sin? Pointy corners instead of rounded, cheap colors that look cheesier than the fruity imacs, and weird proportions pretty much kill it for me. Price aside.

 

[mullmann]

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...

Here's one reason... maybe they don't need 15GB. I've got a 10GB iPod, and while I love it, I have all the music on it I want, plus two 15-hour audiobooks at maximum quality, and I still have almost 7GB free. If the mini had been available when I was shopping, I would absolutely have gotten one. Sure, 10GB more for $50 might seem like a great bargain, but not if the extra space is of no value to you. Anyone who would pay more in that case has half a brain, indeed.

 

[thirdwaver]

Interesting lack of logic...

So Apple expects us to see the logic behind spending an additional $50 to go from 256 MB to 4gb. Seems reasonable. Now explain how spending an additional $50 gets 11 more gb. It seems to me like another ploy to get people to buy iPods.

A mentor of mine once said, "if you need to ask how much, you don't see the value." What's wrong with Apple making something JUST ONCE that people don't have to "do their homework" to compare and see the value. A $100 +/- 2GB iPod would be an instant no brainer for a buyer.

I predict these mini's are gonna flop until Apple lowers the price. I was at the keynote and made a mental note that not one person applauded when Steve gave the price. Thousands of people. Not one applause. Listen to the silence Steve. You missed the mark on this one.

I own a 40GB model that I paid $500 for. I'm freaked to carry the damn thing with me because I'm afraid I'll lose it or break it (i.e. riding my motorcycle). What I want is a model around $129 with 2GB storage. If I break it or lose it, big deal. And how many parents want to spend $250 on an iPod for their skateboarding kids to break! No, there's a market for a cheaper model and there's a way to make it.

Make one for the cheapskates, Apple, or you're going to lose marketshare to the company that does.

Sean

 

[QCassidy352]

Originally posted by theipodgod16
this isnt a blunder.... apple did this on purpose.

they want someone looking at a rio 4gb player to see a mini ipod.

then they want the perosn to say hell ill spend $50 more and get a 15gb ipod.

maybe ill even get a case, remote and dock...

oo wait.


now i might as well buy a 20 gb.


apple now has someone who was gonna give $250 to rio give $400 to apple.


its called business ethics, and apple knows it very well.

So the way you see it, the mini ipod is really a ploy to boost sales of the bigger ipods?

Well, that's great in theory, and a very interesting idea. BUT... I don't think people really think that way. If you go in looking to spend $250, I don't think most people just casually slide that number up to $400. That's a world of difference to many people.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Thanks but no. For $250 I have WAY better options if I was in the market for low end music players.

1. Spend $50 more and get a 15GB iPod or a 20GB Dell Jukebox.
2. Spend the exact same amount and get a Dell jukebox which has 15GB of space and doubtlessly better battery life.


$250 is Apple's greed showing once again. If the quoted $70 price of the internal hard drive is true then Apple (The additional components, other then the battery, can't account for the $180.) is making a massive killing in these iPod minies.
A little part of me at this point hopes the competition wipes the floor with Apple. This overpricing the hardware is getting ridiculous. $250 isn't a price for "The rest of us." It's still a premium. It's still something that a user contemplates when they are shopping. It's not an impulse buy and it's still in the realm of a luxury price. $199 wouldn't be THAT much of a stretch. Apple once again is positioning itself to be shoved out of the market by its competition and frankly Jobs comment on the interface on the competition's devices is total unfiltered BS. I've seen the UI for the Dell Jukebox. It's as easy, if not easier what with an up down scroll wheel, as the iPod. Thanks but my deflectors are high and Jobs's RDF had no effect on me.

I can imagine the room where the price was being hashed out. I'm willing to be it came down to this:
1. We can keep this price at a high level until either market saturation, until people lose interest, or if people just say no at which point we can drop the price.

Greed. Its may have been refined by Microsoft but Apple has its own version. I have no problems with companies making a profit off their products. That's the beauty of capitalism but only when the price is reasonable and for what the competition is starting to give the public for the same or similar prices, heck even what Apple themselves is producing for $50 more, its an insane pricing structure. The ONLY thing I'm happy to see is the 10GB drive going away and the 15GB drive taking its place for the same amount. If they had keep the same models at the same price Dell would have been a VERY tempting offer. Even now you can get 5GB more on the Dell model for the same price. Fortunately 5GB isn't that much of a diff and the iPod's style makes up for that to a certain extent.
But when it comes to the iPod minies. Great concept bad price structure IMHO of course.


PS- Why no black!?!

 

[Fender2112]

Originally posted by greenstork
It's important to note that in many cases when multiple colors of a product are offered, like the fruit colored iMacs, retailers can get stuck with a large inventory of unpopular colors. In the case of the iMacs, the strawberry iMac was not well received and consequently many retailers got stuck with a surplus inventory of them.

So before you jump to some sexist conclusion...

Thank you. That's the point I was getting at.

I still don't like the pink.
Blue would be my first choice, then the green.

And yes I am male.

 

[rtdunham]

overpriced

i agree w/m czech. As a sizeable stockholder (not that I am sizeable: my stockholdings are 🙂 ) i can't see that this is a very viable product release.

Steve cited his goal as capturing the 31% of the "high end flash mp3 player" market, and I think the iPod mini misses that boat.

Just ask yourself this: HOW MANY customers do you really, really think balked at buying the $299 10GB iPod but will be moved to buy the new one at $250? I can't imagine that diff motivating hundreds of thousands of people who had NOT bought the product to now do so. And face it, the product differentiation itself is minimal: fractions of an inch this-way-and-that, but only about 25% of the storage capacity of the marginally more costly model.

The standard iPod's design is inarguably slicker. IT is the product with two years of hard-earned cool factor; IT has the various accessories already available.

Like some other posters, I hope steve knows something that's not apparent to me. IMHO, the market was ripe for a 99-149 flash memory device, for people for whom cost IS a big factor, and for people who want solid-state reliability, or MAYBE some market slot for a 149-199 2GB-4GB mimi. I'm not meaning to be critical, but this just doesn't strike me as a very desirable product.

Hope to be wrong.

TD

 

[bthek]

The ipod mini is a blaring example that Apple clearly does not understand it's true strengths and weeknesses as a company, and is likely continuing to make the same mistake. (it may not be a mistake depending on how you look at it)

Mr. Jobs thinks(as do most Macfans) that apple's success is based on making 'better' products, and assumes that putting out better products will win marketshare.

As a marketing consultant, putting out a 'superior' product is more apt to get you MIND share not MARKET share. When you think about about some of the most successful products in recent history they are rarely the 'best' products in their category. They are usually the products percieved to be the best 'value'.

We are still in the early stages of MP3 player technology, and Apples current marketshare is peanuts compared with the potential of of the technology in the years to come. So their marketshare is , to me at least, is not all that impressive. True competition has yet to arrive. But it will, it always does.

Because product refinement, usability, and overall product improvement is Jobs number one priority our beloved AppleCo has been pioneers in many areas. The success of the ipod is an example of that. Apple is NOT the master of inventing products, What apple does best is make techonolgies USABLE by the masses(mindshare).

Bill Gates has become the richest man in the world by making this USABILITY accessible to the masses.(marketshare)

With iPod and iTms, Apple is once again riding the beginning of a huge curve, sadly it will probably get make the same mistakes it has always made, only to see a marketshare they helped create elude them again.

Mac people, reality is, although their is a niche for the mini, it is NOT the mega seller we had all hoped to see.

Here is my hope...that the mini is only the second in a few other ipod models that Apple will debut in the next 12-18 months.

If that is the case, we can all rest well knowing that Apple is trying to find a way to make iPods accesible to the masses. This will mean that Apple must find a way to create an entry level MP3 player at a staggering price WITHout sacrificing the Apple user experience. If they don't they will fail long term in winning marketshare. Accesibility is the key to techonology marketshare, NOT usability and

But I ask the questions, does apple really in it's heart of heart want MASS MARKET SHARE, probably not. For apple people, mind share is likely more valuable. It's choosing science and art over mass profit and corporate conformity.

This is why i think Apple tends to ignore the eventual commoditization of all technology,we mac addicts refuse to let our Macs become commodities to us. They mean alot more. The truth is we are the minority, for most people technology is a tool at worst, a toy at best. To mac users, our apple stuff is part of our iLIFE(pun intended). It is a statement about who we are.

So what will it be Apple, mindshare or marketshare?

My 43 cents.

 

[CoolSpot]

Poor move for Apple

I won't argue that the color choices and being the cheapest ipod won't help sales, but apple really has boxed itself in.

Just about every person that is willing to spend $250 dollars on a mp3 player is not going to lose a lot of sleep over spending $300. Apple has this market covered with the regular ipod. It certainly is apple's choice if they only wish to sell to this market (the profit margins are pretty decent), but don't be surprised when the numbers are small.

Making the player a miniature model appeals to primarily active users (joggers, bikers, etc.).
The smaller hard-drive space would be perfectly at home in this market since most do not need millions of songs for a device they will likely use for an hour or two a day.

Also hinted at by most rumors was an expected lower price. A lower price would open the ipod up to a very large market (think millions of units). Apple would be competing a little on price, but the Apple name and iTunes support would have easily helped boost sales to cover for slightly lower profit margins.

Now a smart thinker at apple would have said, "Hey, we can do this miniature thing and pick up the jogging crowd, and we can ship the unit at a low price and get a bunch of the casual/impulse buy crowd interested in it."

Rather than do that, Apple probably did the least intelligent thing. They released a mini player that is high in price. This kills the impulse buy market entirely, and results in the only new market for the ipod is active users that are looking to buy a higher end mp3 player.

That's a TINY market compared to the potential sales they would have had had the minipod been 100-200 dollars.

 

[rammorris]

The form factor of the mini has grown on me. I suggest everyone check out the qtvr view on Apple's site. As compared to its competitor's the mini is elegant. If I can exercise with it, I am willing to spend the money. As a practicle matter I don't need to carry more than a 1,000 songs with me. I haven't heard anyone talk about the scroll wheel. It doesn't appear to be solid state like the 3rd Generation big boys. If that is the case, it is disappointing. I have an old 5 gig that has a mechanical scroll wheel. Solid state is much cleaner.

 

[jbembe]

THE IHUMP TAKES FLIGHT

LOLOLOL

We should get some royalties when Apple steals our idea, we've got the ad campaign together and everything.

WHO CAN RESIST 3$/gig??

I think biking is not nearly as rough as jogging, so the memory buffer SHOULD be enough for it to survive the occasional jitter. Has anyone mountain biked with an iPod?...mixed flat gravel trails and offroad...Results?

I've done a 100k mtn bike Death Ride in the Flinthills of Kansas on basically rough jeep track and the iPod performed perfectly. Only problem was sweat.

 

[vitrector]

Re: iPod mini vs Rio

Originally posted by Craiger77
One thing that disappoints me about new iPod minis is their battery life. According to Rio's website their new 4Gb player has 16 hours of battery life compared to the new iPod mini's 8 hours. That is a big difference.

As for the price I expect it will follow the same course as the original, which started out at $500, and steadily fall to a price most of the people bitching here feel they can afford. Probably we will see the addition of more storage sizes as well.

One thing that did surprise me is that the mini has the same software as its big brother...most of the rumor sites predicted it to have a dumbed down limited version.

It amazes me how spoiled we have become when it comes to our price expectations of electronics. Lots of people seemed to have been able to afford the original iPod at $500 a mere two years ago with not that much more storage than the mini.

FYI, the original iPod sold for $399.00, not $500.00.

 

[Edot]

Size

This thing is very small for what it is, big screen, great way to navigate, hard shell. It have no worries about it selling well.

 

[kugino]

grumble grumble grumble...that's not to say that i wasn't disappointed today, either...to steal a greenspan phrase, there was considerable "irrational exuberance" for many of us...but, i'm assuming that the marketing gurus over at apple are smarter than (most of) us, so they definitely see a market out there. don't be surprised if it sells like hotcakes

 

[Edot]

Originally posted by rammorris
The form factor of the mini has grown on me. I suggest everyone check out the qtvr view on Apple's site. As compared to its competitor's the mini is elegant. If I can exercise with it, I am willing to spend the money. As a practicle matter I don't need to carry more than a 1,000 songs with me. I haven't heard anyone talk about the scroll wheel. It doesn't appear to be solid state like the 3rd Generation big boys. If that is the case, it is disappointing. I have an old 5 gig that has a mechanical scroll wheel. Solid state is much cleaner.

It is solid state, and the whole solid state wheel can be pressed in at the top, bottom,and sides to perform the button actions.