Apple to Unveil New Flash-based iPods? Digital Radio?

[newguineafan]

If Apple uses NAND flash for the iPods, I'm going to jump out a window.

Why the heck would you employ flash hard drives for the new iPods when there already is a NAND flash shortage? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Now, if the use flash hard drives for the fatPod, that'll be different.

 

[currentinterest]

The reason there is such a NAND Flash shortage is that Apple has pre-purchased it all.

 

[newguineafan]

3. ipod touchscreen (8,16 & 32 gig models)

Uh, what?? If you think the touchscreen models are going to be that capacity, you're on something. There is absolutely no way that Apple is going to downgrade memory capacity. If fact, they're going to INCREASE IT!!

Not to be mean, but you, my friend, need to read up.

Cheers.

 

[rstansby]

Speak for yourself

... Apple doesn't think there are many of your kind out there.

I can't say for sure that Apple won't switch to flash, but I don't think you have any idea what Apple thinks. We'll see Wednesday.

 

[mackiwi]

If Apple uses NAND flash for the iPods, I'm going to jump out a window.

Why the heck would you employ flash hard drives for the new iPods when there already is a NAND flash shortage? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Now, if the use flash hard drives for the fatPod, that'll be different.

I think nearly all those reports about NAND flash shortages also mentioned the reason for the shortage - Apple has cornered the market with forward orders taking up a third to half the global NAND production capacity for the next 12 months.

Apple have it all at locked in with advance pricing, whereas the remainder of NAND supply is costing people who dont have forward orders. Apples NAND cost is a lot less than the current market rate.

Let not forget the order they have made for the Macbook nano which will be announced at macworld. (I wish)

 

[motulist]

Of course i will look like a complete turd tomorrow when Steve Jobs walks on stage to say "FLASH IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE HARD DRIVE!"

Well then I can guarantee that you won't look like a complete turd, because Steve Jobs isn't walking on to any stage tomorrow to say anything - the show is wednesday!

 

[mackiwi]

Uh, what?? If you think the touchscreen models are going to be that capacity, you're on something. There is absolutely no way that Apple is going to downgrade memory capacity. If fact, they're going to INCREASE IT!!

Not to be mean, but you, my friend, need to read up.

Cheers.

Ummm...no need to read up - People everywhere are watching video and listening to Music on their iphones, which last time I checked were only 4 & 8 gig. I'm sure if people are happy doing that, they will be plenty happy with 8, 16 & 32 gig capacity. Its not like you see people with their iPhones carrying around video ipods as well - or am I wrong?

Well then I can guarantee that you won't look like a complete turd, because Steve Jobs isn't walking on to any stage tomorrow to say anything - the show is wednesday!

Yes - thats tomorrow in my timezone.

 

[motulist]

Yes - thats tomorrow in my timezone.

Hah! You're a proud kiwi I see. You should set your location in your Macrumors profile for all the world to see your pride.

 

[The Toon Master]

As long as it's 300-400 dollars with at least 30Gigs, i'm sold...

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Uh, what?? If you think the touchscreen models are going to be that capacity, you're on something. There is absolutely no way that Apple is going to downgrade memory capacity. If fact, they're going to INCREASE IT!!

Not to be mean, but you, my friend, need to read up.

Cheers.

I would like to see larger capacity in storage but looking into the iPod during the last few years the storage space hasn't increased that much, IMO I would love to see an 80GB and a 160GB version but going on past trends I doubt this very much.

For instance over the last 4 years the basic iPod capacity has only increased 20GB, which isn't very much considering how small factor HDD have changed in that time as well.

 

[ClassicMac247]

Price???

If it's more than 400 dollars you are better off buying an iPhone and hacking it to eliminate at&t service. I'm hoping for a touch screen ipod video, but it has to be within a reasonable price range, something like 200-350 USD.

 

[Analog Kid]

I need more space. 60GB isn't cutting it when I want to carry some video and leave room to transfer from my camera. Touch interface, wifi and a bigger hard drive makes the whole thing a no-brainer for me. They'd get my $500.

Touch and flash and wifi would leave me on the fence, as would touch with capacities the same as the current generation.

I think Flash loses it's advantage once you need more than one (or maybe two) chips. If I had to guess what capacities will be available in Flash based players, I'd look at Flash chip capacities and multiply by two...

 

[newguineafan]

Ummm...no need to read up - People everywhere are watching video and listening to Music on their iphones, which last time I checked were only 4 & 8 gig. I'm sure if people are happy doing that, they will be plenty happy with 8, 16 & 32 gig capacity. Its not like you see people with their iPhones carrying around video ipods as well - or am I wrong?

I completely understand what you are saying, but the current capacities for the video iPods are 30gigs and 80gigs. What I'm saying is that Apple is not going to downgrade capacities for the iPods, ever.

 

[nemaslov]

Have you ever heard of a Smart Playlist?

To be honest, myself or Apple doesn't think there are many of your kind out there. The widescreen iPod will be flash based IMO.

Well there ARE many music people who don't care about video or wide screen and want more capacity. Mant who want to take entire libraries with them. For Apple to grow 30 60 80GB, I can't believe they will just stop and make every single version smaller.

There are many who don't want to share an iPod wih a phone or anything else. It's all about music for us.

 

[michelle21]

Well its fun to speculate about this so I think I will join the fun.

Lets start with some assumptions first.

1) The Iphone is new, just released, selling good but not great. (probably better than expected though).

So assumption 1, apple will try to minimize any effect the new products would have on IPHONE sales.

assumption 2, the new ipods will be osx based and have a new interface.

Assumption 3 the new nano may or may not have video but will have coverflow.


Ok lets explore.

A lot of speculation is over something called the ipod touch which would basically be an iphone without the phone.

Ipod and wif
Iphone interface

But I think even if this were the case it would not be released as early as september 5th, it might be anounced as a coming product , like the appletv was initially.
A iphone without the phone cabability would definitely eat into Iphone sales and I'm sure strain the att partnership, although such an animal is coming I don't see it until AFTER a 3g iphone is released and I doubt you will see that before next year.

How about the interface, A lot of the Iphone touch interface does not make any sense on a Ipod only product, I seriously doubt you will see that.

Wifi, Wifi on an Ipod would only make sense if it included wireless syncing, I suspose you could see this, but if they did that on the Ipod I also suspect an Iphone upgrade to include the functionality would appear at the same time. the Iphone is Steve's job new baby and he's not going to let that lag behind the other products. New inovations are likely to surface there first.

Now for the Nano:

I think video on the nano makes very little sense for that form factor.

So here is my prediction for weds.

1) New osx based Ipods.

A new nano with embedded osX and coverflow.
A new video ipod (for the christmas season)

Widescreen, no wifi , some type of virtual clickwheel but not resembling the iphone interface.

3) something Jobs hinted on in the last event, Improvements to appleTV, probably more links to outside content, maybe a ajax based browser similar to the iphone with web 2.0 as the primary language.

4) new partnership deals for content

5) somekind of Iphone upgrade to add capability that wasn't ready at launch, more flexibility on layout customization maybe.

6) ringtones from itunes


Here's some additional stuff that is possible and I would like to see.

1) Iphone upgrade with an improved webkit that includes google gears this will allow persistant storage of web pages and data on the phone.

2) Limited partnership with some companies (pray for slingmedia) for 3rd party apps.


So these are my predictions, I think they are a bit more conservative than what some are predicting.

 

[newguineafan]

I would like to see larger capacity in storage but looking into the iPod during the last few years the storage space hasn't increased that much, IMO I would love to see an 80GB and a 160GB version but going on past trends I doubt this very much.

For instance over the last 4 years the basic iPod capacity has only increased 20GB, which isn't very much considering how small factor HDD have changed in that time as well.

Yes, of course, but the capacity won't be downgraded, either. There are two options for capacity:

1) Stay the same
2) Go up

Either way, the capacity of current iPods is not going to decrease.

 

[robPOD]

Who cares what memory it uses Im getting one any way

 

[ezekielrage_99]

If it's more than 400 dollars you are better off buying an iPhone and hacking it to eliminate at&t service. I'm hoping for a touch screen ipod video, but it has to be within a reasonable price range, something like 200-350 USD.

I think that's the pricing psychology for most people, that if I spend more than USD$400 I should get an iPhone instead.

However with that said there are plenty of other countries that don't have access to the iPhone yet and would gladly buy a more expensive iPod with touch screen capacity if given the choice (I know that I would buy if give the opportunity).

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Yes, of course, but the capacity won't be downgraded, either. There are two options for capacity:

1) Stay the same
2) Go up

Either way, the capacity of current iPods is not going to decrease.

I wasn't debating the incremental updates for iPod capacity, but I think there will be some dissapointed people out there when the storage wont be as significant as some were expecting.

IMO if the new iPods go flash then I'd think it's reasonable to expect 16GB, 32GB and maybe 64GB or if Apple stays HDD I'd expect to have from 40GB to 160GB.

 

[mackiwi]

.....A lot of speculation is over something called the ipod touch which would basically be an iphone without the phone.

Ipod and wif
Iphone interface

But I think even if this were the case it would not be released as early as september 5th, it might be anounced as a coming product , like the appletv was initially.
A iphone without the phone cabability would definitely eat into Iphone sales and I'm sure strain the att partnership, although such an animal is coming I don't see it until AFTER a 3g iphone is released and I doubt you will see that before next year.....

according to this: (http://www.appleinsider.com/article...s_launch_new_ipodsiphones_apple_lobbying.html we are seeing a large, hyped product, probably from apple, hitting the shelves on thursday.

not saying your wrong, but IMO i think the Apple TV & iphone were the exception to the rule that apple hardware is released on the day of announcement.

 

[michelle21]

I wasn't debating the incremental updates for iPod capacity, but I think there will be some dissapointed people out there when the storage wont be as significant as some were expecting.

IMO if the new iPods go flash then I'd think it's reasonable to expect 16GB, 32GB and maybe 64GB or if Apple stays HDD I'd expect to have from 40GB to 160GB.

I would love higher capacity, I have a 4gb Iphone and the capacity is constrainig, when I'm around wifi I perfer steaming the content vs. storing it on the Iphone. Although I'm dreaming of itunes integration someday similar to appletv I think for the time being we will be limited to the wifi streaming me and a few other people on this forum are developing.

Any incremental upgrade above 8gb is going to hurt Iphone sales. Edge network is the Iphone's achiles heel, apple will NOT release in my opinion higher capacity widescreen Ipods until it addresses that issue. probably late next year.

After playing with video streaming on the iphone since day one, I can say that this product cries out for 3g.

 

[mackiwi]

IMO - The iPod Touch & iphone will share the same technology regarding the touch screen.

Three reasons:

- economies of scale, will be much cheaper to use same components across the two.

- Software (in particular: Touch screen games). Apple will want to be able to have a single version to program & distribute that works across both device ranges. I really think the iPod Touch is going to be promoted as a games platform.

- Video Content - apple will want the iPhone and iPod Touch's screen to be the defacto format for mobile video downloads on iTunes. Content producers will only have to distribute & maximise for the one format. (will be interesting to see if the New Fat-nano like ipod will share the same screen dimensions to enable easy down scaling)

 

[michelle21]

according to this: (http://www.appleinsider.com/article...s_launch_new_ipodsiphones_apple_lobbying.html we are seeing a large, hyped product, probably from apple, hitting the shelves on thursday.

not saying your wrong, but IMO i think the Apple TV & iphone were the exception to the rule that apple hardware is released on the day of announcement.

There is no specific of Apple, and my guess new products of that magnitude would hit bestbuy and circuitcity first. I'll bet a major game product from sony or netendo is more likely. Has the new psp shipped, I know thats supposed to ship this month, and sony is really hurting on ps3 . Those would be more likely targets for the target chain, then apple.

 

[michelle21]

IMO - The iPod Touch & iphone will share the same technology regarding the touch screen.

Three reasons:

- economies of scale, will be much cheaper to use same components across the two.

- Software (in particular: Touch screen games). Apple will want to be able to have a single version to program & distribute that works across both device ranges. I really think the iPod Touch is going to be promoted as a games platform.

- Video Content - apple will want the iPhone and iPod Touch's screen to be the defacto format for mobile video downloads on iTunes. Content producers will only have to distribute & maximise for the one format. (will be interesting to see if the New Fat-nano like ipod will share the same screen dimensions to enable easy down scaling)

Actually I believe politics will take presidence, and the above though pratical from an engineering standpoint is not from the perpective of the partnership with att standpoint.

 

[mackiwi]

There is no specific of Apple, and my guess new products of that magnitude would hit bestbuy and circuitcity first. I'll bet a major game product from sony or netendo is more likely. Has the new psp shipped, I know thats supposed to ship this month, and sony is really hurting on ps3 . Those would be more likely targets for the target chain, then apple.

True, no mention of apple, but the tidbit about after hours delivery of product sounds very apple like. You remember the iPhone armoured cars right? LOL, they were ludicrous.