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New iPods, iPhone?

not sure how much i would rely on a "photo" printed by a french newspaper. macbiduelle (sp?) has a poor track record, let alone some newspaper.

pics look neat, but hardly like a smart phone. so... we will see.

maybe apple will release a small phone/flash player. myself, i am hoping for something a bit more powerful like a treo.
 
hogo said:
I disagree. I think that eventually everyone's mp3 player will be their cell, will be their pda etc. Apple will want to get into it eventually, why not do it as a leader, early in the cell mp3 era rather than later.
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Apple can't go in the cellphone market as a leader. That's the problem. They're competing, in a scenario where they try to sell cellphones, with several entrenched players who have several products other than plain "Cellphones with MP3 players" and very loyal customers. Apple would be entering an already developed marketplace where there are several Apples already.

Here's the issue:

  1. Standalone MP3 players are becoming obsolete. The writing's on the wall. Nobody wants to take a cellphone and an MP3 player with them everywhere. The issue until now has been capacity. Flash is dropping in price and increasing in capacity. As cellphones gain capacity, their ability to replace standalone players becomes more and more credible.
  2. Apple currently has a large amount of its business based upon its control over the market. The iTMS would never have got off the ground had they had 3-5% of the market for MP3 players.
  3. Apple cannot produce a phone that would have anything like the share of the MP3-playing mobile phone market as they have of the stand-alone MP3 player market. Sorry. Love the phones, but there are entrenched manufacturers in that market, and the variety of different phones offered by the existing manufacturers is going to be hard to top. See also the next bullet point.
  4. Apple probably wouldn't like the experience of selling phones. You can sell phones as non-commodity products, but only for a limited amount of time. Operators have unprecedented control - they subsidize phones. They'll insist on firmware changes to lock customers into their services. They'll decide which phones they're going to promote and which they're not. Customers will usually go for the free phone, and unless Apple can come up with MP3 playing phones for well under $200, they're unlikely to be offered "free" by any carriers.

What are the consequences of Apple giving up its dominance? Answer: it loses the entire thing. If Apple doesn't have control over the vast majority of MP3 players, the iTMS loses its relevence as a music store. The amount of music available will drop. Apple can reform it, give up Fairplay in favour of Windows Media for example, but that only undermines its position further.

The only option available to Apple if it wants to remain relevent is to license Fairplay, probably through an Apple-controlled iTunes for Mobiles, to other mobile phone manufacturers. It is highly unlikely they'll succeed if they're competing with the other manufacturers.

That's the problem. That's why I'd put the chances of Apple releasing a mobile phone as close to non-existant.

I do see them forming alliances with existing manufacturers, and over time I suspect you'll see iTunes for phones moving away from the crippled version they supplied to Motorola to becoming a major system, licensed by the majority of cellphone makers. Apple will move from making hardware in this area to building and controlling the platform.
 
peharri said:
Apple can't go in the cellphone market as a leader...
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you are so wrong. apple has sold huge volumes of players. the market is about to shift to being able to do video's and games and more on the new devices. so... stop being a naysayer and see whats up.
 
New iPods would definitely make sense, due to the impending Movie Store and all, but an iPhone would be icing on the cake! The Movie Store and a new iPod seems like enough news for one announcement though, so I somewhat doubt we'd see an iPhone as well. To me, an iPhone warrants its own event, since it would be a brand new product for Apple and would obviously have ties into some of the large providers, etc.

Oh well, guess we'll see today what Apple has up its sleeve! :cool:
 
mdntcallr said:
you are so wrong. apple has sold huge volumes of players. the market is about to shift to being able to do video's and games and more on the new devices. so... stop being a naysayer and see whats up.
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actually he is absolutely correct. they have sold huge volumes of players because the technology was not up to par for an all in one cell phone. that time is nearly up. and he gave all of the reasons why in his argument. apple has virtually no control in that market.
 
If Apple wants the iPhone to be out in time for the holiday shopping season, which is a damn good idea, do they have any other choice but to release it today? An iPhone isn't something you just release without a big event. I don't see Apple having another event in a few weeks just for a phone and no other products. I think that if the iPhone even exists, and is going to be out this year, Apple may not have any other option but to release it today.
 
Drool

I love these media events. It's like Christmas three or four times a year! :D

I would like to add my drool to the drool of the masses at the potential of this iPhone. If done right it could cause a veritable landfill of obsolete cell phones.
 
the new nano

the new nano will take on some of the nice features of the original mini... there will be a complete metal jacket, but more the form factor and corner radius like the nano. A bit longer than the nano, though.

don't have to wait too much longer, do we.
 
vendettabass said:
iPhone in October I reckon!
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IF it exists, and IF it's going to come out before the Holidays, you're right.

Those are big ifs, but there is that Appleinsider article suggesting that there are several Apple Events coming down the pipe. We had three last fall, didn't we?
 
Ensoniq said:
The 8 new iPod SKU numbers most likely are this:

iPod Video White (Low Capacity)
iPod Video White (High Capacity)
iPod Video Black (Low Capacity)
iPod Video Black (High Capacity)

Replace the word "Video" with "Nano" for the other 4 SKU numbers.
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Now that's just plain lazy. :p
 
mdntcallr said:
you are so wrong. apple has sold huge volumes of players. the market is about to shift to being able to do video's and games and more on the new devices. so... stop being a naysayer and see whats up.
Click to expand...

Have you ever heard the phrase keep it simple, stupid? Apple will likely continue to emphasize the standard iPod, mostly because the fully video-capable iPod will be a pretty expensive and niche item.

That's why I see the following iPod models coming out:

iPod Shuffle replacement:

1) About the same size as current Shuffle.
2) Will switch to a scratchproof case design.
3) Will include a small LCD display to show song titles and elapsed time primarily, along with menus to configure player.
4) Will be available in 1 GB, 2 GB and possibly 4 GB flash memory storage capacities.

iPod Nano replacement:

1) Slightly larger than current Nano.
2) Will use metallic scratchproof case design and larger scratchproof display; it will look like a reduced-size iPod Mini.
3) Will be available in 8 GB, 6 GB and possibly 4 GB flash memory storage capacities initially, with a 12 GB model coming out early in 2007.

hard disk iPod replacement

1) Will be about the same size as current HD-based iPods.
2) Will switch to metallic scratchproof case design.
3) Will offer increased storage capacity in using 80 GB and 40 GB hard drives.

new "video" iPod

1) Will be almost the size of the Microsoft portable PC based on the Origami specifications in order to accommodate large display necesary to see videos clearly.
2) Will use scratchproof case and scratchproof display.
3) The display itself sports full touch-screen functionality.
4) Will have storage capacities on hard disk of 80 GB and 120 GB.

The new "video" iPod may not be available initially, but maybe 30-90 days from today's announcement.
 
Some people believe that the Handset market is saturated and that apple won't do well.
I partially agree but also think that apple stands a good chance if they can get round the operators greedy roadblocks.

It will encourage all the handset manufacturers to step their game in in the market.
 
peharri said:
And I can then see Apple looking at reality, sighing, and burying it in the giant warehouse of Apple products that never saw the light of day. There's just no way to sell such a thing, and doing so would undermine Apple's ability to work with other manufacturers to ensure it retains control over the media scene after MP3 players become obsoleted by large capacity MP3-playing cellphones.

There's probably a corner of the warehouse assigned to projects like this. You'll have to crawl through archives of the Copland source code and blueprints for future Apple IIIs to get there. Prototype dual-core G5 iMacs and a Broadway-based microtablet line a small clearing. There, the janitor has built something akin to a shrine, only visible to a favoured few. And yes, one of the slimmest, cleanest, most friendly cellphones is currently sitting there, with pride of place.
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About a week and a half ago my wife was running software updates on her ibook and i saw an itunes update /itunes phone driver. I didn't see it on the imac G5 or on our Power Mac and I couldn't get a screen shot before the updates were finished. Why a phone driver in itunes?? (gets down on knees and begs for phone):D
 
I hope they keep the old style ipod case and not switch them all to the metallic case. I like'em shinny, scratches and all.
 
Bibulous said:
I hope they keep the old style ipod case and not switch them all to the metallic case. I like'em shinny, scratches and all.
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I don't think so, because Apple got burned by the fact the iPod Nano was so easily scratched (small wonder why Fry's Electronics always included a case with every iPod Nano sale). Apple will go to a scratchproof case and display.
 
way2l84sanity said:
About a week and a half ago my wife was running software updates on her ibook and i saw an itunes update /itunes phone driver. I didn't see it on the imac G5 or on our Power Mac and I couldn't get a screen shot before the updates were finished. Why a phone driver in itunes?? (gets down on knees and begs for phone):D
Click to expand...

Apple iTunes for mobile phones already exists, most (in)famously in the original Motorola ROKR. As I understand it, just as you maintain your iPod playlists with iTunes, you maintain your iTunes for mobile phones playlists with iTunes too. I would be very surprised, especially given Apple's secrecy, if the update you saw was to do with anything other than that.
 
If NANOs go well upwrd in storage I bet they will have video capability, despite the tiny screens. Afterall, wouldn't Apple want everyone buying their movies, and not just the upper level iPod owners?
 
maddav said:
8 New iPod stock numbers eh?

iPod Video 50GB
iPod Video 80GB
iPod Nano 8GB (black)
iPod Nano 8GB (white)
iPod Nano 8GB (colour 3)
iPod Nano 8GB (colour 4)
iPod Nano 8GB (colour 5)
iPod Nano 8GB (colour 6)

*dreams* :p
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Probably more like

iPod Nano 4GB, 6GB, and 8GB, in either metallic black or white. I'm not buying the colors thing. Too much trouble from a manufacturing perspective to manage. Apple wants to get these out into the wild, not read about shortages of this color, or surplus of another.
 
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