Apple unleashed the new range of iPods overnight, including the iPhone-esque iPod touch.
- My take on the new range, especially the naming of the “classic”: over on karan on everything.
- It looks like they got the headphone jack on the Touch right.
- No games on the Touch; probably pending update for touch & phone?
- Wifi iTunes store. Meh.
- US$200 price drop on the phone! Whoa. Brings it closer to a reasonable price here in Oz =)
- The price of phone functionality? US$99. That means phone, mobile internet, and bluetooth basically.
- Apple’s stock dropped 5% from the announcement – clearly, the markets aren’t enamoured of the new range.
Has the iPod jumped the shark? Maybe, just maybe.
Dropped? Man, I want one of those touch screen ones now. That’s kind of the only reason I wanted the iPhone, because the actual phone features of it didn’t exactly break any new ground (liek zomg, it’s a 2G phone! With no MMS! Wow!). I think they might almost have too many lines out now, with the shuffle, new nano, “classic” and touch versions. Still, very cool.
Balderdash.
The classic is there most likely because they couldn’t cram a hard drive into the touch. They leveraged all their iPhone smarts (and profit from AT&T) to answer the call and build a “phone-less iPhone”. “Classic” does sound awful but I think it is Apple’s way of saying “we really want you to like the touch so we can invest the R&D, put a hard drive in it and then say goodbye to the classic forever”.
Meh at the wifi iTunes store? This is ambitious and potentially a game-changer. Sure, it’s very very US-centric but it’s a big fuck you to cellular networks. Ringtone and song downloads have been a great way to milk customers dry and now Apple is getting in on the game and bringing their sensible iTunes pricing with them. They could be creating something great here.
$99 is oversimplifying. The iPhone certainly appeals to people who thought they’d never buy an Apple product and they could be leveraging the halo effect again. There’s probably some profit-sharing going on with the networks. Maybe the iPod touch at the same margin as the iPhone originally was as a way to gauge interest and control demand.
I don’t think they couldn’t cram a hard-drive into the iTouch. They’ve had the smarts to do it for the iPod for yonks, not to mention the iPod mini (remember that one? :). It’s simply a different strategy at the moment, I say (though 8mm thick is pretty sweet).
Meh @ iTunes wifi store because it’s nothing really revolutionary in the innovation sense – it’s just a different way of accessing the same store, an iTunes.app on the phone/ipod. Sure, it is revolutionary in terms of how you interact with the device – you can buy it right on the device! – but it feels more like “well that was obvious” than “wow”.
Also, I’m yet to find decent wifi outside of the home that you have to pay for – sure, if you’re a mobile worker and already paying for it, or have it otherwise bundled up, good for you; for everyone else, it’s a little pointless. The Starbucks hookup would be of more interest if I ever bought coffee at Starbucks.
You know, I’ve always sworn off iPods…until I saw the Touch.
the ipod nano is very cute! was playing with dylan’s one today
dylan’s flat mate is crazy into mac stuff. so crazy he has actually owned 3 iphones
Z: resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilated :D
and damn, if chicky says they’re cute… I must be looking at it wrong >_>