This is never going to happen. This is worse than the Powerbook G5 rumors or the widescreen ipod. Apple will not give us what we want. Heck, even zune has wifi although poorly implemented.
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WiFi iPods in Second Half of 2007?
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Now that would be a cool feature, not just search though, purchase on the go, and will automatically update your library, once it gets in the range of your Mac or PC with iTunes.
I could also see wireless streaming to ANY
TV, so you could show your holiday snaps at a friends house, who has an TV, wirelessly, or just show the movies or music that you carry with you that way.There is a purpose for wireless technology on an iPod.
It is already in the iPhone, so I think that it will eventually get put into a new iPod, possibly the next one. I think that we will see an iPhone without the phone sometime around either the end of this year or Macworld 08 so that the technology is exclusive to the iPhone for a little while.
That didn't seem to stop "wi-fi" from becoming a buzzword forever burned into the public psyche with almost unanimously positive connotations.
You don't see people fretting at Starbucks hotspots thinking, "Yeah, why fi indeed!"
It's all about how you reinforce the concept in marketing. People have readily adopted wi-fi and they don't call iPods IP OD... (although there was a joke on House about that...)... but reinforcement is key.
In fact, you can head off that kind of criticism at the pass by using it. Say you do a commercial that makes fun of it... "Why pod?" Then you run some shots of people using the various wireless features in their daily life... show the functionality. There. That's branding for you! In fact, that's Steve Jobs 101... taking a question not as a threat but as an opportunity to focus attention on features and benefits.
"iPod" is a name that is hitting maturity and it's in danger of becoming stale. It's never good to wait until things go bad before you institute change. That's part of staying competitive. Applies to product design as well as branding.
Wii!
Let me load a game and watch me play with my WiiPod. Or I load yours with my WiiPod. Can I play with your WiiPod? She likes to play with my WiiPod. Everybody likes my WiiPod....
Edit: ughh, my worst post ever
Let me load a game and watch me play with my WiiPod. Or I load yours with my WiiPod. Can I play with your WiiPod? She likes to play with my WiiPod. Everybody likes my WiiPod....
Edit: ughh, my worst post ever
You do know that "Wii" is pronounced "wee" as in every single commercial that mentions the name, right? I assume you also know that "wi-fi" has been around longer than "wii".
I acknowledge there's slight risk of brand confusion here but the term "wi-fi" has been around longer than "wii" and has a stronger presence in the public conscience. In fact, when I first heard about the Wii I thought it was underscoring some new wireless capability but as it turns out the brand name has nothing to do with that. It's Nintendo's attempt at reinforcing the idea of making the console a social activity... "we"... "wii"... and the "i"s in Wii represent two people... which is reinforced by the commercials that show the "i"s bowing.
I think that
TV will turn out to be a brilliant branding strategy as it involves a trademarked logo in place of a printed generic word, that can't be imitated without lawsuits and it carries with it a connotation that is meaningless in other contexts (if someone else came out with an Apple-something... what would be the point, exactly?). However, ApplePod is a bit unwieldy and too divergent from the iPod brand name.I think wiPod, pronounced similarly to iPod, would have much more association with iPod and not be confused for a Wii... Perhaps the most obvious reason being context... Nintendo has no big products with "pod" in the name.
But I'm glad that people are bringing out challenging issues like you did because it does force one to think about HOW you're going to go about reinforcing any new product concept.
Alternatively, if research showed that the associations with other products outside the Apple family are too strong, wiPod could be instead of a product name but just a part of an advertisement that does a cross-dissolve to the word "wiPod" then cross-dissolve back to "iPod" name in the title card to reinforce the wireless concept but then bring it back to the brand.
what interests me
I have to say wifi ipods really don't interest me. I don't think I would use the feature very often, and the thought of what wifi will do to battery life makes me unenthusiastic.
What I would love to see is an affordable widescreen (like the iphone), large capacity ipod. If it's hardrive based, so be it. There aren't going to be affordable 80gig flash modules out any time soon. The 4 to 8 gigs planned for the iphone wouldn't begin to cut it with my music collection, let alone storing movies.
I have to say wifi ipods really don't interest me. I don't think I would use the feature very often, and the thought of what wifi will do to battery life makes me unenthusiastic.
What I would love to see is an affordable widescreen (like the iphone), large capacity ipod. If it's hardrive based, so be it. There aren't going to be affordable 80gig flash modules out any time soon. The 4 to 8 gigs planned for the iphone wouldn't begin to cut it with my music collection, let alone storing movies.
DigiTimes seems accurate to me lately, so I am going to believe this a little. 
A WiFi iPod would be very cool if implemented properly.
A WiFi iPod would be very cool if implemented properly.
They might tack on wifi capability in the same way and for the same reason that they added the iPod with video instead of the video iPod.
Even though most people may not use a feature on a regular basis and may always use their portable device as a music player only, when they're making their buying decision some consumers may look at the competition and say "the iPod is cool, but it doesn't do feature x which seems really cutting edge on this other device, so I want to buy the device that gives me the newest toys!"
Even though most people may not use a feature on a regular basis and may always use their portable device as a music player only, when they're making their buying decision some consumers may look at the competition and say "the iPod is cool, but it doesn't do feature x which seems really cutting edge on this other device, so I want to buy the device that gives me the newest toys!"
Right, there would have to be a portal based service provided by Apple (and others) so browsing wouldn't be so tough. A lot of people use the internet just for viewing mail, stocks, weather, that sort of thing.
Widgets are a great idea - I can see the next iPod sharing a lot with the iPhone,it would cut down cost of manufacturing both
so this was the cause of the Leopard delay...
Staff from the iPhone team were put on the WiFiPod (Pro) Team so the sole guy working on Leopard at the moment had to be put on the iPhone desk to get it out ready for June.
i heart Apple Consumer Electronics, Inc.
Staff from the iPhone team were put on the WiFiPod (Pro) Team so the sole guy working on Leopard at the moment had to be put on the iPhone desk to get it out ready for June.
i heart Apple Consumer Electronics, Inc.
iPhone Lite
I tend to think the next iPod will be released AFTER the iPhone and probably will be an iPhone like device, sans the cellular access.
I'd like to see bluetooth in it, too, but I can see several usages of the iPhone design in the iPod.
Localized text messaging might be a big hit.
The new touch screen might be bring a Nintendo type era to the games that would come with it, too.
I tend to think the next iPod will be released AFTER the iPhone and probably will be an iPhone like device, sans the cellular access.
I'd like to see bluetooth in it, too, but I can see several usages of the iPhone design in the iPod.
Localized text messaging might be a big hit.
The new touch screen might be bring a Nintendo type era to the games that would come with it, too.
Compete? Has anyone outside of Microsoft, or even a significant amount of MS employees bought a zune? And this upgrade, if it happens doesnt compel me to upgrade my current ipod(Unless it has some other cool features they dont talk about).
But this doesnt seem feasible or likely if its the same form factor as the current Video.
But this doesnt seem feasible or likely if its the same form factor as the current Video.
Noone's suggested streaming music from your iTunes yet. Especially if you had fast upload at your house, you could connect to it with your iPod at starbucks and listen to your whole collection.
Or even just around the house like tv for music...
Just a thought.
Or even just around the house
like tv for music...Just a thought.
OK, you're walking down the street and you see posters splashed up on a wall for the new album by X#%^*^%%%!!* and you download it right at that moment. Or you're sitting a RITUAL COFFEE ROASTERS IN SAN FRANCISCO and they play a song you love and you download it right then. WIFI!!
Otherwise by the time you get home...you've forggotten all about it.
BUT there will need to be a legal-Apple way to get those new songs back into you iTunes MAC library..simply. No squirting pleeeze.
Otherwise by the time you get home...you've forggotten all about it.
BUT there will need to be a legal-Apple way to get those new songs back into you iTunes MAC library..simply. No squirting pleeeze.
I'd be right after you in the queue. That's the ultimate dream for me; I'm not sure I want a Phone in my iPod, and I don't wnat it at the expense of so much capacity. Yet WiFi would be perfect for me - at uni I can check out lecture notes and course sites without dragging my iBook around (which I don't generally do). I just fear it may not happen in order not to hurt iPhone sales, or if it does it'll be cripppled to 8GB or in some other way?