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iPod Possibilites?

DavidFDM said:
I would love to have a set of Bluetooth headphones so I could put my ipod safely away in my pack and then control it with my BT phone. That would be so very nice.
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Bluetooth headphones are baad, m--kay?

The problem with bluetooth is that it has a slow transfer rate. You won't be able to listen to music with a 128kbps quality.
 
nagromme said:
Apple doesn't need to go less than $199 to make AAC a strong player--that ship has sailed.

The market for ALL non-iPod players combined is 38% of units sold.
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again, i repeat, these are US-only numbers. Apple has a whole world to conquer! GO APPLE! FLASH IPOD!

I would buy a 512MB $150 player at once!
 
stealthboy said:
Umm... sorry, but this is just bothering me. It's spelled "Lose", not "Loose".
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Oops.. thanks! I don't really Win either..

edit: could I have said "iWin therefor I'm loose"? That would have been an even more terrible comment!
 
nagromme said:
Apple doesn't need to go less than $199 to make AAC a strong player--that ship has sailed.

The market for ALL non-iPod players combined is 38% of units sold. Flash players are less than that. And in dollars (instead of units), FAR less than that. Plus not all Flash players are under $199 anyway. So the segment that's sub-$199 is smaller still. Now how many of THOSE buyers would have spent a little more if they could gave gotten a real iPod for $199?

If and when Apple can sell a Mini of some kind (1-2 GB flash?) for $199 that will be a good thing. Lower than that isn't necessary right away--you're just not talking about a huge chunk of sales.

And Apple selling a low-capacity player (less than 500 songs) seems unlikely, given what they've said (and fairly) about how useless that really is to most people.

I also doubt there will be replaceable flash cards. A nice idea, but same goes for replaceable batteries.
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You are Coo-Coo for cocoa puffs!

This is the same arguement that relegated Apple to 3% share of new computers sold worldwide. We don't need to compte in the low end.

Yes you do. People do buy knock offs. People do buy generic boxes. You can not win this fight once your tech is commoditized - unless you do it yourself and keep clear reasons why people should pay for the premium product.

Apple can charge a premium - everything else being equal (storage capacity) the iPod's UI and iTMS/iTunes are superior. Apple enjoys the same brand cache that Sony does when it comes to MP3s.

There will always be a market for $50 or less MP3 player/USB drives - that is the low end. $99-199 is where the main stream buyers purchase and that is a place Apple wants to go. Steve said so himself.

Given the choice between a $99 MPIO or a $129 iPod almost everyone will take the iPod - if for no other reason than the sweet looking box. Seriously.
 
It's Tuesday

Well, by all accounts on Tuesday the 26th circa 2004 we should have new iPods. I guess everyone was wrong. Rumor is rumor it seems. So the $18 micro iPods with 4 GBs of memory didn't show up. Pitty.
 
The Red Wolf said:
Well, by all accounts on Tuesday the 26th circa 2004 we should have new iPods. I guess everyone was wrong. Rumor is rumor it seems. So the $18 micro iPods with 4 GBs of memory didn't show up. Pitty.
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The event is not until 1:00 PM eastern time so it is still possible. It's only 11:30 AM right now!
 
Poff said:
People seem to forget that it is only in the US that Apple has 70% of the marketshare on all mp3-players. In the rest of the world, even though the iPod is the most popular player, it is far away from having the same, big marketshare..
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You got any data on this? Or is this anecdotal?
 
slu said:
You got any data on this? Or is this anecdotal?
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From www.itavisen.no: (first in norwegian, then in english)

"På verdensbasis har iPod nå 28 prosent av markedet for MP3-spillere, regnet fra januar fram til september i år. Totalt er det hittil i år solgt 18 millioner bærbare, digitale musikkspillere i 2004. Da er alt unntatt CD-spillere regnet med: både minidisc, fastminne og harddisk."

"On a world-basis, the iPod has got 28 percent of the mp3-player market, counting from january till september this year. Counting both minidisc, flash and harddisk players (but not cd-players), 18 million portable, digital musicplayers has been sold so far in 2004."

Sorry, my english translation skills are not at all that good..

http://www.itavisen.no/showArticle.php?articleId=1304601
 
Poff said:
No flash-player.. :(
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I think this is a bad move on Apple's part.
While I really, really like the photo iPod, and am not even opposed to that fugly U2 iPod, I think Apple is missing the point by failing to have a sub-$200 price point in the iPod line-up.
The iPod has helped popularize the MP3 player market, to the point where this will be the biggest holiday season yet for this blossoming market. There are lots of folks who can't afford $300 or even $250 for an iPod or a mini, but they will get some digital player for Christmas this year, even if it is an el cheapo $79 512MB player. If it uses a different DRM and isn't compatible with iTMS, then these folks are building a collection of music that they cannot port over to an iPod when they decide they can afford it. Given a choice later of either abandoning/re-purchasing $$ worth of music to buy an iPod, or of going with another product/vendor, guess what the vast majority will choose? Apple is just being short-sighted here. Maybe they plan on introducing one as soon as they know they have the capability to meet demand (a novel concept for Apple lately), but missing this holiday season is not something Apple can un-do down the road. Every consumer who starts their library without iTMS compatibility is one more nail in the coffin precluding Apple from becoming a long term player in this market.
Sacrifice a little margin now, Steve. The brand couldn't be hotter. You can still charge a smallish premium over the competition because of that brand. Get the technology into as many hands as possible now, and lock people in to iTMS!

Where's my damn $179 2GB purple flash iPod mini???
 
..tried making a flash-ipod petition on petitiononline.com but got a server error.. and I was really in the mood for a little battle with Apple.
 
powermac666 said:
I think this is a bad move on Apple's part.
While I really, really like the photo iPod, and am not even opposed to that fugly U2 iPod, I think Apple is missing the point by failing to have a sub-$200 price point in the iPod line-up.
The iPod has helped popularize the MP3 player market, to the point where this will be the biggest holiday season yet for this blossoming market. There are lots of folks who can't afford $300 or even $250 for an iPod or a mini, but they will get some digital player for Christmas this year, even if it is an el cheapo $79 512MB player. If it uses a different DRM and isn't compatible with iTMS, then these folks are building a collection of music that they cannot port over to an iPod when they decide they can afford it. Given a choice later of either abandoning/re-purchasing $$ worth of music to buy an iPod, or of going with another product/vendor, guess what the vast majority will choose? Apple is just being short-sighted here. Maybe they plan on introducing one as soon as they know they have the capability to meet demand (a novel concept for Apple lately), but missing this holiday season is not something Apple can un-do down the road. Every consumer who starts their library without iTMS compatibility is one more nail in the coffin precluding Apple from becoming a long term player in this market.
Sacrifice a little margin now, Steve. The brand couldn't be hotter. You can still charge a smallish premium over the competition because of that brand. Get the technology into as many hands as possible now, and lock people in to iTMS!

Where's my damn $179 2GB purple flash iPod mini???
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Next Monday is Apple's deadline for Christmas products. It could still happen.
 
Poff said:
Bluetooth headphones are baad, m--kay?

The problem with bluetooth is that it has a slow transfer rate. You won't be able to listen to music with a 128kbps quality.
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M--no. ;)

Case in point the Sony Ericsson HBM-30.
Check Here...

Bluetooth is actually capable of producing speeds of 120 kpbs - 723kbps. Which even at half, is good enough. Source

The bluetooth headphones would be nice because you could set it up with iTunes to have your song pause on incoming calls.

The bigger problem is battery life. Continuous Bluetooth usage is limited to a couple of hours (could be more but the headphones would be bulkier).
 
lewdvig said:
Next Monday is Apple's deadline for Christmas products. It could still happen.
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If it will ever come, it will probably not be before Christ-mass. Maybe Apple wants everyone to shell out the extra bucks. Maybe they are afraid those who would get a regular mini will instead get a flash-mini..
 
suntzu said:
M--no. ;)

Case in point the Sony Ericsson HBM-30.
Check Here...

Bluetooth is actually capable of producing speeds of 120 kpbs - 723kbps. Which even at half, is good enough. Source

The bluetooth headphones would be nice because you could set it up with iTunes to have your song pause on incoming calls.

The bigger problem is battery life. Continuous Bluetooth usage is limited to a couple of hours (could be more but the headphones would be bulkier).
Click to expand...

I know some companies experiment with wireless bluetooth headphones, and they have a problem with low transfer rates. I don't know, maybe these are theoretical transfer rates, but actual transfer rates may be much smaller depending on surroundings. A big part of the experimenting is making a compression algorithm that won't sound so bad. Well.. it hasn't taken off yet.


Edit: btw. that sony-ericsson thing of yours doesn't transfer music by bluetooth, only the phonecalls. The headphones are ordinary, wired ones.
 
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