I think that's is going to be THE hard decision for apple in the following years.. Make a full multitouch ipod nano, or stay with the buttons..
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iPod Has Apple run out of ideas?
- Thread starter neiltc13
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I think that's is going to be THE hard decision for apple in the following years.. Make a full multitouch ipod nano, or stay with the buttons..
I'm w/ ya man! Try and find a cel phone that is *gasp* just a PHONE! I haven't seen one in years. Not everyone needs a camera, music player, web browser etc in their friggin' phone. I've got a Nano that plays video but I primarily use it for audio not to sit there and look at a tiny screen. I've got a PALM to handle my contacts & calender stuff...when I need it I bring it. When I need music I bring my Nano....thats why I opted for the Nano instead of the Touch. I don't need the browser, video and contact stuff in my freakin' MP3 player.
Maybe someday I'll consolidate everything in an iPhone but for now I don't mind diversifying my gadgets. Look at it this way if one of them goes down I'm not screwed for all the other devices.
While apple likes it glitzy hyped press conferences its kinda making a rod for its own back .... issuing an invite for a "Let's Rock" conference which ends up being pretty minor rev's of the products means let-down and disappointment.
If they reduced the amount of releases then when they held one people could geniunely get excited and anticipate major annoucements.
Holding quarterly rev annoucements breeds apathy.
If they reduced the amount of releases then when they held one people could geniunely get excited and anticipate major annoucements.
Holding quarterly rev annoucements breeds apathy.
Agreed. The iPod is an extremely commercial music player, I'd think that audiophiles with a true concern for great quality audio playback wouldn't buy an iPod in the first place (at least because of the audio bit, the quality really isn't as good as some other audio players out there - even the new Sony walkman player, for example). I know more than one person who'd never consider the iPod, simply because of its inferior sound quality when compared to lots of other players out there.
The 'serious audiophiles' may look elsewhere, while the 'masses' (with a slightly smaller music collection than 100> GB perhaps) will deem the sound quality good enough, and most of them obviously value video playback capabilities (whether it's just to brag / show off, or whether they truly want to watch the latest episode of some TV show or music video in miniature format on their mp3 player screens).
Then there's the people whom the audio quality does, but don't care much for video / other features, but it's probably a minority by now.
I highly doubt Apple's run out of ideas. Multi-touch is brilliant and has endless possibilities. I'm actually shocked at how easy it is to type on and browse the web. I actually find it to be a better surfing experience than with your traditional computer and mouse.
As far as iPod sound quality goes it's very hard for me to tell the difference between a 160-192Kbps AAC and the actual CD on my 7.1 Onkyo system. It's no "audiophile" setup but then again CDs aren't either. I'd personally prefer of everything audio moved to something like DVD-A or SACD with 5.1+, only digitally. CDs sound good but they pail in comparison to those two formats. Overall, I'd rather enjoy listening to music anywhere than enjoy listening to a nice "audiophile" system only in my house.
Also I really love having one device that serves so many wants. I use it for phone, Internet, email, music in my car (via head unit dock connector) and at work (built in speaker), calendar and YouTube (great for researching products wirh real world use reviews before buying).
As far as iPod sound quality goes it's very hard for me to tell the difference between a 160-192Kbps AAC and the actual CD on my 7.1 Onkyo system. It's no "audiophile" setup but then again CDs aren't either. I'd personally prefer of everything audio moved to something like DVD-A or SACD with 5.1+, only digitally. CDs sound good but they pail in comparison to those two formats. Overall, I'd rather enjoy listening to music anywhere than enjoy listening to a nice "audiophile" system only in my house.
Also I really love having one device that serves so many wants. I use it for phone, Internet, email, music in my car (via head unit dock connector) and at work (built in speaker), calendar and YouTube (great for researching products wirh real world use reviews before buying).
Re: replaceable batteries
Why would I want this? Why would a LOT of people want this?
Have you ever been on a long trip, or out camping in the middle of nowhere, without a convenient place to recharge your iPod or iPhone... and the battery starts running out of juice? Wouldn't it be great to simply whip out a freshly-charged one and slap it in there and keep going?
Apple could sell them for $50 each, and there would be plenty of people who would be very happy to buy one or even a few, for the convenience that it would provide.
And I didn't say anything about them being "disposable". Make them rechargeable like regular iPod or cellphone batteries. And since there's some emphasis on environmental impact, what better way to keep an iPod out of the landfill than to not let it "die" just because the battery has?
Why would I want this? Why would a LOT of people want this?
Have you ever been on a long trip, or out camping in the middle of nowhere, without a convenient place to recharge your iPod or iPhone... and the battery starts running out of juice? Wouldn't it be great to simply whip out a freshly-charged one and slap it in there and keep going?
Apple could sell them for $50 each, and there would be plenty of people who would be very happy to buy one or even a few, for the convenience that it would provide.
And I didn't say anything about them being "disposable". Make them rechargeable like regular iPod or cellphone batteries. And since there's some emphasis on environmental impact, what better way to keep an iPod out of the landfill than to not let it "die" just because the battery has?
You do realize that you can buy mobile dockable chargers. Some even let you use AA batteries. Personally, I'd rather them keep the device thin.Re: replaceable batteries
Why would I want this? Why would a LOT of people want this?
Have you ever been on a long trip, or out camping in the middle of nowhere, without a convenient place to recharge your iPod or iPhone... and the battery starts running out of juice? Wouldn't it be great to simply whip out a freshly-charged one and slap it in there and keep going?
Apple could sell them for $50 each, and there would be plenty of people who would be very happy to buy one or even a few, for the convenience that it would provide.
And I didn't say anything about them being "disposable". Make them rechargeable like regular iPod or cellphone batteries. And since there's some emphasis on environmental impact, what better way to keep an iPod out of the landfill than to not let it "die" just because the battery has?
I believe it is properly referred to as the choad Nano. The new nano doesn't quite appeal to me, and the Touch's refinements hardly merited a keynote. What really irked me was the single configuration of the Classic. Yeah, the 160 was a fatty, but I really would like to carry around my ENTIRE library, podcasts included. With my 80 GB Classic, I'm forced to go through and uncheck certain items - a task I haven't had to do since my 2 GB Nano.
That's a little harsh. At any rate, it does wonders for marketing!
(Besides, so far, Apple is the only manufacturer that I've seen that can pull off usable multi-touch.
First time I've ever heard THAT!I think the thing is that each of the current ipods was so well designed in its first iteration that all progress has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. There's a limit to how much smaller any of them can get, mostly because a certain amount of size is desirable so that controls are easy to use and the screen is decently sized.
But on the other hand, the touch is only a year old, so I think it's not really fair to say they're out of ideas.
My main problem with Apple right now is that they've stagnated.
iPods:
1) The new nano takes design cues from the Zune
2) The 160 GB version was too fat? WTF?! The whole point of the 160 GB one was that you could put ALL your music in the car or on a dock and it didn't matter how thin it was because nobody ever saw the side, just the front. We didn't CARE if it was slightly thicker.
3) So.... what did they do to the iPod touch? Exactly. It's still the same product - adding front USB ports to my computer is not revolutionary and neither was adding volume controls. And other than that, it's a little bit thinner (when it was thin enough), got a Nike + iPod thingie (who uses that anyways, when I run I do it on a treadmill) built-in (and I seriously doubt that the people who had been using it really cared that there was a dongle), and then we got integrated speakers. Big whoop.
Recent macs:
1) The MacBook Air... how do I describe this. It's like buying a nice pizza and right when it's out of the oven, you press paper towels onto the surface of the pizza to get all the fatty oils off of it. Yeah it makes the pizza a little healthier but then it tastes like CRAP. Look at the Lenovo X300 - just barely thicker and heavier but WORLDS apart in terms of the keyboard, ruggedness, an optical drive (although I actually agree with Steve on this, optical drives are becoming increasingly unnecessary), more USB ports... it's just a better computer from a hardware standpoint.
2) iMac Aluminum - WHAT were they thinking?! Ugly as hell and the remote doesn't attach to the side anymore. Dear god.
What happened to the Apple that brought us the Titanium Powerbook - Not just the first 17" laptop to the market but the lightest too (I have a Dell laptop from the same time period, twice as thick and the same weight but 15.4")? What happened to the Apple that forever made the CD player obsolete? What happened to the innovation at Apple? What happened to "Think Different" - the Apple that wouldn't settle for tiered pricing on iTunes? What happened to the Apple that decided that public image was more important that big sales?
I know a few users that used to be part of Apple's core audience - they still hold onto their Powermac G5's and eMacs. That was back when owning a Mac had a statement. Now that I can go to a completely random person on my dorm floor to borrow a USB cable for my iPod, Apple is no longer the status symbol nor the image it used to be.
Want to be innovative Apple? Simple - go pick off the remains of Microsoft's failed efforts. Microsoft has the brain talent but not the means to market it properly. Proper example - Tablet PCs and education. Simply make a Macbook that has a reversible screen, a pen silo, put proper handwriting recognition in OS X, and jack the price up $500. I see enough MacBook Pros to know that student's parents will be able to afford it. Sponsor initiatives to get paper textbooks onto these Tablets and you're basically marketing the Jesus laptop for a student. And then, be innovative while you're at it - put in a nice high pixel-density display, make it light like the MacBook Air... you could go places with this.
I think Apple can find ideas, I just don't think that Apple has the balls anymore to sell it.
iPods:
1) The new nano takes design cues from the Zune
2) The 160 GB version was too fat? WTF?! The whole point of the 160 GB one was that you could put ALL your music in the car or on a dock and it didn't matter how thin it was because nobody ever saw the side, just the front. We didn't CARE if it was slightly thicker.
3) So.... what did they do to the iPod touch? Exactly. It's still the same product - adding front USB ports to my computer is not revolutionary and neither was adding volume controls. And other than that, it's a little bit thinner (when it was thin enough), got a Nike + iPod thingie (who uses that anyways, when I run I do it on a treadmill) built-in (and I seriously doubt that the people who had been using it really cared that there was a dongle), and then we got integrated speakers. Big whoop.
Recent macs:
1) The MacBook Air... how do I describe this. It's like buying a nice pizza and right when it's out of the oven, you press paper towels onto the surface of the pizza to get all the fatty oils off of it. Yeah it makes the pizza a little healthier but then it tastes like CRAP. Look at the Lenovo X300 - just barely thicker and heavier but WORLDS apart in terms of the keyboard, ruggedness, an optical drive (although I actually agree with Steve on this, optical drives are becoming increasingly unnecessary), more USB ports... it's just a better computer from a hardware standpoint.
2) iMac Aluminum - WHAT were they thinking?! Ugly as hell and the remote doesn't attach to the side anymore. Dear god.
What happened to the Apple that brought us the Titanium Powerbook - Not just the first 17" laptop to the market but the lightest too (I have a Dell laptop from the same time period, twice as thick and the same weight but 15.4")? What happened to the Apple that forever made the CD player obsolete? What happened to the innovation at Apple? What happened to "Think Different" - the Apple that wouldn't settle for tiered pricing on iTunes? What happened to the Apple that decided that public image was more important that big sales?
I know a few users that used to be part of Apple's core audience - they still hold onto their Powermac G5's and eMacs. That was back when owning a Mac had a statement. Now that I can go to a completely random person on my dorm floor to borrow a USB cable for my iPod, Apple is no longer the status symbol nor the image it used to be.
Want to be innovative Apple? Simple - go pick off the remains of Microsoft's failed efforts. Microsoft has the brain talent but not the means to market it properly. Proper example - Tablet PCs and education. Simply make a Macbook that has a reversible screen, a pen silo, put proper handwriting recognition in OS X, and jack the price up $500. I see enough MacBook Pros to know that student's parents will be able to afford it. Sponsor initiatives to get paper textbooks onto these Tablets and you're basically marketing the Jesus laptop for a student. And then, be innovative while you're at it - put in a nice high pixel-density display, make it light like the MacBook Air... you could go places with this.
I think Apple can find ideas, I just don't think that Apple has the balls anymore to sell it.
Interesting.
I too have felt that way. I used to be the oddball w/ the Mac....now they're at coffee shops everywhere. The thing is, back when they were all beige...they were built very well...they were built to last. I have never had a problem w/ a Mac ever. Never had to return one or take it in for a fix. I looked after it and it didn't break. Now all I hear about is flaws, returns and major screw-ups. I go into the Apple store and it looks like an electronics Toys-r-us. Seriously, I sat down w/ the Air for a few minutes and couldn't stand it. That screen is terrible imo. I'm glad I got the white iMac (last of the matte and yes the remote attaches to the side)...at first I was disappointed because they revamped the line but I really like that white version, its awesome! I don't know whats scarier, the nVidia chip or what they're going to do with a MBP redesign.
I too have felt that way. I used to be the oddball w/ the Mac....now they're at coffee shops everywhere. The thing is, back when they were all beige...they were built very well...they were built to last. I have never had a problem w/ a Mac ever. Never had to return one or take it in for a fix. I looked after it and it didn't break. Now all I hear about is flaws, returns and major screw-ups. I go into the Apple store and it looks like an electronics Toys-r-us. Seriously, I sat down w/ the Air for a few minutes and couldn't stand it. That screen is terrible imo. I'm glad I got the white iMac (last of the matte and yes the remote attaches to the side)...at first I was disappointed because they revamped the line but I really like that white version, its awesome! I don't know whats scarier, the nVidia chip or what they're going to do with a MBP redesign.
I'm curious...do you think there was ever a time in which Apple wouldn't have preferred to be where they are now? Because I think their niche-dwelling for so long wasn't happening because they didn't choose to be mainstream, merely because that they couldn't manage to reach a larger audience before they introduced the iPod.
And any change that's happening now happened as a result of being more commercial. I think one thing just led to another here.
As for me, I'm happy that Apple's becoming more popular. For one, it shaves a bit off Microsoft's monopoly and makes them sweat a little, and secondly, more and more people are using an OS that deserves that amount of users, and a whole lot more.
This complaining about how everyone has it... is nothing but being angry at a perceived loss of distinction.
I think a person's character and meaningful deeds define him as an individual, not the consumer products he buys.