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Mini iPod Buzz...

Personally I think there has got to be something much bigger going on here.

I mean this sort of press coverage is crazy for an mp3 player. I think Apple will (has to?) follow this up with a lowcost eMac/iMac sucessor. The iMac is scheduled for a new form factor and people seem to have forgot that now.

Also, remember that Apple has a huge overstock probably of G4 chips that they can't sell, apart from in eMacs and Powerbooks (do Powerbooks take the same CPU as eMacs?)

Personally I think 2004 is going to be the year when Apple gains a lot of market-share, like maybe put them upto 5-10%. Here's hoping...
 
My elevator told me about mini-ipods

I saw it on the business news bullets on my elevator in the building I work in. Apple may anounce significantly lower priced ipods. Macrumors is too famous, its available to anyone, and its so popular too. should make a more exclusive site, that no one knows about, (except a select few, me included) with even better and more accurate rumors.

now I'm in a pickle, should I buy a used 20 gigger, (I can get a good deal) or a mini one? I need the harddrive space.... I guess I just get to wait until fourth gen rolls out.
 
No MiniPods?

The following comes from The December 30 Mercury News:

DRAMATICALLY SMALLER MODELS NOT LIKELY
By Jon Fortt
Mercury News

Don't count on seeing dramatically smaller or cheaper iPod music players in the new year, despite Internet rumors that Apple Computer will announce them next week in San Francisco.

For Apple CEO Steve Jobs to introduce such a product during his speech Tuesday at Macworld Conference & Expo, Apple would have to either unveil a breakthrough hard drive technology, begin selling iPods based on the same flash memory storage cards that many digital cameras use, or adopt a new small drive made by Cornice.

Apple does not typically focus its engineering efforts on hard drives. Just last month, an Apple vice president told the Mercury News that the Cupertino-based company has no plans to make a music player based on flash storage cards. And a spokesman familiar with Cornice's business said he is not aware of a relationship with Apple.

It is possible for Apple to change the iPod's shape slightly, as the company did when it introduced slimmer versions a year ago. But the Toshiba hard drives that store music in the iPod are about 2 inches wide by 3 inches tall, and a third of an inch thick -- not much smaller than the iPod itself. A similar drive from Hitachi has a slightly wider and shorter shape.

Apple also could drop its prices slightly; its 10-gigabyte iPod sells for $300, while rivals Dell and Creative sell 20-gigabyte models for about $50 less. Apple could drop the entry-level iPod's price to match those -- but it would be out of character for the company, since the iPod, at current prices, seemed to be a strong seller this holiday season.

The third option would be a device based on a miniature hard drive made by Cornice, a Colorado-based start up. Rio and RCA began using the 1.5 GB Cornice drive in music players this past summer.

Speculation among Apple fans typically runs rampant in the weeks leading up to Macworld. In recent years, rumor Web sites have cited unnamed sources promising that Apple would announce a tablet computer, a Palm-like organizer, a home theater appliance, and several other items that never materialized. In some cases, the rumor sites get the news right -- but more often, they're off the mark.
Click to expand...
 
*puts his ear to the ground*

Does anyone hear that? I swear....hmmmm

*checks the ground again*

Ya I swear it sounds like a stampede. Everyone get the heck out of the way OPERATION TSUNAMI is about to take affect.
LOL that would be great if that was the code name for these devices: TSUNAMI
 
Just to join the rumor mill was in melbourne yesterday and mini iPods are all on peoples mind brace yourselfs if there real.. even i will be getting one and if i like that ill be getting a bigger one to go with a new Power book
 
lol, I think Apple is going to HAVE to introduce these at MacWorld otherwise people are going to be *very* pissed.

I would laugh if they just sent Jobs onto the stage with a 40gb one and said it's a 2gb one and it looks exactly the same and they will be out 'in the summer sometime 😛'...
 
This is to all the dumb*sses floating around who arent happy with this unconfirmed news about the mini Ipods. I'm sure these dumbos just bought an iPod or paid huge $$$ for an iPod earlier that they dont like others getting mini-Ipods for lesser $$$.

Screw you ! to all those people who hate this unconfirmed news.
 
BBC Radio covered it too

BBC Radio Five mentioned mini-iPods also this morning and quoted the £65 price tag for 800 song capacity.

The BBC are usually extra careful with rumours, especially after the whole Iraq dossier thing.

Who knows, if true, it's pretty cool. How they've got it down to that price, if they have, is slightly baffling.
 
Originally posted by aldo
Personally I think there has got to be something much bigger going on here.

I mean this sort of press coverage is crazy for an mp3 player. I think Apple will (has to?) follow this up with a lowcost eMac/iMac sucessor. The iMac is scheduled for a new form factor and people seem to have forgot that now.

Also, remember that Apple has a huge overstock probably of G4 chips that they can't sell, apart from in eMacs and Powerbooks (do Powerbooks take the same CPU as eMacs?)

Personally I think 2004 is going to be the year when Apple gains a lot of market-share, like maybe put them upto 5-10%. Here's hoping...
Click to expand...
I am one of the few who hopes that Apple does not gain market share. When companies get larger they tend to not make quite as good of products(Gateway). Apple's just fine as is. They are turning good profits and have enough market share for most major software titles.
 
Just because...

You know, IF they actually do make a $100 *anything*Pod I'll buy one. I already have a 20gb gen 3, that I love, but for $100 I'd get one "Just Because" I'm sure one of my kids would use it, maybe I would take up mega super high impact jogging for more than 20 minutes...



😛
 
what if the "mini" ipods are not smaller in a physical size because that seems to me like it would make it more expensive the smaller it is. I hope for a 5 gb. 4 and 2 seem weird to me. How bout 5 and 2.5 those seem more normal to me., but I am happy with my fourty I only have 5gb of music, but they had not 20's. I hope apple also anounces new normal price Ipods new form factor bigger hardrives something cool. God bless the compusa tap program since I got my first gen 3 10gb ipod in april I have had like for different ipods two 10's a 30 and now a 40. It is so awesome
 
IBM MicroDrive for Mini iPod?

I haven't been following the buzz so I do not know if this has been brought up yet, but what are the chances of using an IBM MicroDrive for the mini iPods? It would conform to the form factor that is in the above "leaked photo" (same size as a compact flash card). Although I agree that the photo shows a device that fails to meet a lot of design standards for usability (and I don't see colors), it looks like a microdrive device.

As far as pricing, 3-4 years ago when they were first released a 512MB micrdrive went for $140. Surely they are up to 2GB and are within a usable price range by now. I haven't been following development of the drives so I couldn't tell you for sure.
 
Re: In demand!

Originally posted by xtekdiver
If nothing else, it demonstrates that there is a huge demand for such a device and with a low price point. My only question is how will this kind of device impact sales of larger capacity iPods? My guess is that sales for the larger version will be impacted significantly. People plunk down $300 - 400 because they have to, but if you can have a smaller capcity drive for only $100 then that will be the hot ticket. Perhaps the larger iPods will evolve into video devices.
Click to expand...

I think that "if the rumor is true" the miniPod will be for kids to put their free Pepsi tunes on. If serious music lovers buy the smaller miniPods instead of the larger iPods, they will still have to buy a new larger iPod when the miniPod is full.
Maybe a win win situation.

Jim Goodloe
http://homepage.mac.com/jgoodloe
 
i think the cat is out of the bag

I'm sure it's no surprise that Apple pay top flight PR companies in all key territories.

IF this story was way off the mark or just plain wrong, their PR company would have easily killed this story. They haven't. So i don't think there's any doubt it (new iPods) WILL happen.

but as an afternote....i seriously think that there will be a surprise that is aimed at the mainstream (maybe also PC users), maybe a software programme (iWord) or a universally compatible OS....

Apple are the best when is comes to marketing and i think letting the media 'spoil' the iPod news, is a sacrifice to get EVERYONE watching the keynote. IMO
 
Re: i think the cat is out of the bag

Originally posted by d.f
...Apple are the best when is comes to marketing and i think letting the media 'spoil' the iPod news, is a sacrifice to get EVERYONE watching the keynote. IMO
Click to expand...

Sacrifice? I'd consider it smart and FREE Apple marketing to cash in on THE hottest xmas item of the year.

Even NY Post is getting in on the action...
"7:03AM Apple Computer may unveil $100 iPod next week at MacWorld -- NY Post (AAPL) 21.28: The New York Post reports rumors that Apple will unveil a smaller, $100 iPod next week at the MacWorld trade show. The move, widely discussed on Apple fan Web sites, could pre-empt a number of challengers to the popular digital-music player next year. However, an analyst at Jupiter Research is skeptical, noting that sales of $300 and $400 iPods remain strong, and that "the hallmark of Apple has never been lower prices, it's been the best experience." "

man, 6 days and counting!!!!

All we need now is for Hansen to do a promo "mBop with the new mPod"
 
Apple dosen't comment on rumours. Never has. Pre MacWorlds are always full of them. The only time Apple does anything is when a photograph is published of a new device that was stolen or unauthorised. When they ask a picture to be removed, you can be assured that it is real. This has happened in the past. So far no "real" photos have been published. Apple also doesn't put out misinformation. It's against the law for a public company to do that. FTC rules don't allow that. If Apple did such leaks to get their stock price to rise, they would be in deep doo doo (to quote MJ).

Here's an interesting photo which is on the Target Website.

B00009KO3A.16._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Complete page is here.
 
This is silly, silly as the time Readers Digest actually quoted The Onion as a credible news source (shows you how clueless and out-of-touch RD is). Though yeah, there's a good chance, these news agencies reporting this could wear some egg here. I mean, if they want credible they should be quoting MacRumors.com... er... no wait... ?
 
Originally posted by pkradd

Here's an interesting photo which is on the Target Website.

B00009KO3A.16._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Complete page is here.
Click to expand...

What in the HELL!?!? Some dork Photoshopped the top of the iPod off on a curve?!?! That's the stupidest thing I've seen and no people, that's not some leak image so no moron go saying that it's that. Kinda important to have a display on an MP3 player. Apple should slap Target with some legal something for that image, they should have just left it with the iPod trailing out of the frame. How stupid.
 
CNBC mention MacRumors

Hey arn, I was just watching CNBC and they were talking about all of the rumors floating around about $100 miniPods. Their "market analyst" basically debunked any ideas of new iPod coming in priced at $100 and said it would surely be more expensive.

However, of note in the TV summary of the rumors, they mentioned popular websites posting rumors about $100 iPods and they mentioned MacRumors amongst others.

Congrats, your site is being mentioned on TV.
 
Re: Re: In demand!

Originally posted by J-Squire
There will still be a huge demand for large MP3 music devices for people with 10+ GB of music.
Click to expand...

I've got 37 GB of music at home and I'd be more than happy with a gig or two to take to go at the right price. I'd have a couple of "hit the road" playlists and that would be that. People who are putting 30 gigs worth of music are operating from a different paradigm than those who just want some music for a drive or a long walk. Having all my music ready at all times wherever I am seems like techno-overkill to me. Just because I CAN do it doesn't mean that I should or that it would be more beneficial. Sure, there are times where it would be cool, but it's certainly not worth the upcharge to ME.

2¢ and counting...
 
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