iPod...wait for 60GB NON-photo?

[bbj4ever]

I gotta a ton of music and will only buy more and more every year. My collection will rip to over 40GB in 128 AAC, BUT I don't want to pay and extra $200 for the 60GB iPod Photo...

So, does anyone think (or "know," wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more) that there will be a straight 60GB iPod available after MWSF? Either way, I'm waiting to find out before I buy an iPod, but I was wondering what all y'all thought.

Also, have any Mac experts/addicts objectively assessed the non-iPod hard drive based players? I know some are good machines and have some features that many want to see in the iPod (real recording capabilities being one of them), but I also know a lot of them aren't really Mac compatible. AND none of them are iTunes compatible (but I could deal with that if the product was good enough).

By the way, I'm not going to endlessly wait to buy an 80GB next year (although I'd buy one now if they were available).

Thanks and Peace.

 

[Vector]

I think that apple will probably release a 60Gb regular iPod in the next few months.

I too am waiting for them to release one as my collection is now over 40Gb and my iPod only holds 37Gb once formatted. I don't need or want the capabilities of the iPod photo.

There are, of course, other players out there, but in my opinion none of them are as easy to use or as well designed as the iPod. I have three iPods and would not consider buying anything else at this point.

The reason that there isn't a 60Gb regualr iPod at this point is likely due to hard drive supply constraints. Apple probably wanted all of the early 60Gb hard drives to be used in the iPod photo, and then they will release a 60Gb regular iPod once hard drive supplies increase.

Even if this is not the case, Apple will increase the hard drive size in the regular iPod. There is no reason that they would leave the regular iPod at a top capacity 40Gb for a prolonged time.

 

[mkrishnan]

Do you think this is what will happen, or do you think they will phase out non-Photo iPods in favor of a full line of photo iPods? Much like there are hardly any black and white PDAs or phones left on the market....

 

[Vector]

Apple will not phase out the standard iPods any time soon. From what i have read, the photo iPods are not selling nearly as well as other iPods right now. This is likely due to the pricing. The standard iPods are still the ones bringing in the bulk of the revenues, and they are all that most people really want or need.

I can see apple going to all color iPods eventually, but not in the next year or two. The prices would have to be increased, and there is just no reason to do it yet when the standard iPods are selling so well.

 

[rainman::|:|]

I'm going to disagree... Apple won't make a 60gb iPod until the iPod Photo is at 80gb (or, the iPod Photo will always be larger, until all iPods are color)... But IIRC, the 80gb drives are in the pipeline and so I would expect this to happen in March or April. I don't know about MWSF... Right after such a HUGE holiday season for Apple, they probably want to make sure inventory is under control before announcing a new line... If they have a bunch of overstocked iPods after Christmas, because they made too many, they will want to sell them before a new model comes out. But they'll want to get those 80gb iPods out there ASAP, so maybe february=announcement, march = shipment.

paul

 

[mkrishnan]

I tend to think what comes next might be a photo iPod at a smaller size, maybe 30 gigs, alongside a slow phasing out of the BW iPods...first, BW iPods have always been most popular in their smallest sizes, with steadily decreasing demand for bigger ones, right? There are probably a lot of users who would find the photo functionality useful at less than 40 gigs. Second, it's true that right now demand outstrips supply, but it makes sense for Apple to do everything it can to stay relatively near the top of that wave, rather than let availability saturate. In order to do that, they will have to keep adding features....if you think about it, from a sales curve standpoint, the 4G iPod was probably not particularly called for -- I don't remember sales really tanking in the period before it came out.

 

[James_C]

I don't think we are likely to see an update to the white iPod / iPod photo until after March next year. First up for update is the iPod Mini's (rumors are going around that the HD is going up to 5GB), and Apple may introduce a flash based player. While some people need more than 40GB HD space for their music collection they are going to be in the minority.

 

[MentalFabric]

I'm not so sure about whether Apple will phase out the B&W iPod, imo I'd say the iPod Photo will become a camera/MP3 player, while the iPod will just focus on music, but will almost certainly get a colour screen at some point…

 

[mkrishnan]

I'm not so sure about whether Apple will phase out the B&W iPod, imo I'd say the iPod Photo will become a camera/MP3 player, while the iPod will just focus on music, but will almost certainly get a colour screen at some point…

So...if they give them color screens, how exactly is that not phasing out black and white iPods? 😀 From color screen to iPod photo capabilities is...basically all software, with little sense in offering one without the others. I still think there is a market for users who want the photo capability but can squeeze movies and photos into a lot less than 40 gigs...