Today, Apple introduced the iPod Touch. It’s essentially an iPhone without the phone part, and without the speakers and built-in microphone. $299 buys you an 8GB sytem, complete with all the iPhone-like touchy goodness you’ve come to know and want. $399 buys you a 16 GB model with the same embarrassing name.
The iTouch includes built-in WiFi so you can use Safari and YouTube on-the-go as well as make purchases from the iTunes Store. (the iPhone will offer the same ability later this month). Its main button bar offers direct access to Music (great icon), Videos (ugly icon) and Photos (same old icon), as well as the new iTunes WiFi store.
For all the folks who think this is so important you have to drag other Posts off-topic, here’s your sandbox!
In other news…. NBC, who decided that they wanted to charge $4.99/episode left iTunes because Apple wouldn’t charge more than $1.99 has signed with Amazon who will charge…..
Wait for it….. $1.99/episode.
http://tinyurl.com/25ep9n
Since the thread has deteriorated after the initial interesting conversation, a common trend around here, I’ll flame the children.
#23, #30 – You’ve already lost this argument, but you keep posting. Interesting…
#27 – Those are great assumptions, but try some facts next time. The Shuffle is a great “small” gift, so no way that’s going anywhere. Likewise, Apple’s clearly married to the iPod Classic design; If they weren’t, they’d already have killed it off and put the larger memory in the iPod Touch.
#26 – You’re taking his opinion seriously? Wake up: He’s a moron.
#25 – Just because you can’t afford the in device is no reason to get pissy.
#25 This costs me about 1/3 of a *pod and the battery never runs out on me.
Yours’ is the superior intellect. I bow in your general direction.
#25 Suck on that!
I prefer Fake Steve’s variation on that theme. i.e. Siooma
I also like the Fake Steve’s take on AT&T’s reaction to WiFi iTunes and Apple selling ringtones.
http://tinyurl.com/3djnos
“Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re not half as pissed as Stan Sigman (photo) from AT&T Wireless. We just stole away his music downloads with our WiFi music store, and wiped out his ringtone sales by offering them ourselves.”
#30 – no one gives a rat’s ass about PDA’s anymore.
#8 “While I’m certainly pro-Apple, my first impression from the presentation was that they have one-too-many devices in the iPod family. They’ll sell, but will the profit margin be as high when sales are spread over five products as opposed to three? Without question, no.”
I wondered about that myself. It seems to me that Apple went slower on expanding the iPod lineup in previous days.
And what happened to considering the iPhone the third leg of the stool, rather than part of the iPod lineup? At the Apple site, it is in the row with the others
Also, what does the price cut portend for the 3g iPhone 2.0 that we have all been expecting? Jobs says he wants to put a bunch of phones in stockings for the holidays. If the lower price ropes in a lot more people, what happens to that ‘halo effect’ come April or May when an iPhone with a high-speed connection comes rolling out.
The 4GB iPhone is on sale for $299 while supplies last.
one more thing. since I am a grownup, I don’t have much use for ringtones. but Apple’s approach seems mighty money-grubbing – charging you to let you make ringtones out of music that you already bought.
yet one more thing – that deal with Starbucks was along the lines of the things many on this blog were suggesting for the Zune some time ago – using the wi-fi on a portable device for promotional purposes.
talk about missed opportunities – MS was way out ahead with putting wi-fi into a music player, but did exactly NOTHING with it.
#42 No no no … you could squirt with it…
HERE
http://tinyurl.com/33q5gp
Slashing prices already ? The market for them must be smaller than expected. Ether that or they’re dumping them to make room for the Next generation device.
#46 Or trying to build momentum…remember, they cash in from AT&T…
#43. Nothing MS ever released could ever make me squirt.
#47. exactly. $6/mos minimum. that means an extra $72/year on each iPhone minimum, which originally had a $200 markup.
that’s still a pretty good margin, even before you add in all those $.99 ring tones.
#49 …which originally had a $200 markup.
That reminds me of the heated arguments regarding how much markup Apple was really getting… with several people saying the guesstimated cost of components was not accounting for R&D costs, assembly costs, etc.
With the new iPod Touch, given that the whole screen is the interface and the functionality is delivered by software, is this the end of line for the product? Apart from storage, is there anything else that the next versions would/could have? Granted faster wifi, but it seems to do everything required for a handheld.
#50. Yes, the markup amount was controversial. I have trouble seeing Apple now selling them at a loss, however. Goes against the whole iPod market model of giving away the software, making a few cents on the songs and making real money on the hardware.
I guess so long as they aren’t taking a loss on the component or assembly prices the “intangibles” like R&D and marketing can be recouped over time without running the risks that are associated with loss-leaders like game consoles.
R&D can easily been explained by the spin-offs: the iPodTouch’s R&D comes completely free because it was done for the iPhone. That’s why they dropped $200: they have both more economy of scale because of the different platforms using the same technology, and are also doing the math, and aiming for a higher figure.
Of course introducing the iPhone at a higher price was a bold move, showing how confident Apple was on the inherent qualities of the product and the acceptance rate. My guess is that they overshot it and now are correcting the price point.
A couple of things…
First the iSuppli report that claimed heavy demand for the iPhone just two days ago. How did iSuppli get it so wrong? Or am I the only person who thinks it would be insane to lower the cost this drastically just two months in with heavy demand?
Second, If iSuppli did such a poor job measuring demand for the iPhone, how do we know thier other research on the cost of goods sold is not also broken?
Third, I think the iPod Touch with the safari browser is an enterprise worthy device. Is Apple gonna open it up so third party integrators can add a scanner and credit card swipe?
Steve Jobs’ first Major Mistake in years:
Cheese off your best, most loyal, early adopter customers.
Sure, the iPhone would inevitably go lower in price, but Jobs is insulated enough in his brushed-aluminum tower to have missed the slap in the face his lowering of the iPhone price means to all who valued it highly so early, and made it the number one selling model.
The Remedy: Mail the early adopters who aren’t covered by the recent pseudo rebate, a nice meaty Apple Gift Card. That way it’s a “gift” from Apple for having been so helpful to their early success with the iPhone, and the actual cost to them for sending the Gift Card is around half of its face value.
Steve: You could still recover from this arrogant error. But will you?
#57
Haven’t you heard the roar and applause when Jobs announced the price cut?
That’s not the way the “best, most loyal, early adopter customers” think. They immediately thought:
– “great, now I can buy three more for the wife and kids…Maybe one for each employee…”
Um, companies like ipodjuice.com are around and sell ipod battery kits so it’s not like you have to always go wiht APple as a solution or toss the thing out when the battery dies.
-laura
#57, #58
I disagree. I think that there is some sort of arbitrary psychological barrier to consumer electronics devices that cost more than $400. I am in retail and I can’t explain it. Price something at $425 dollars and everybody thinks it is too expensive. Drop the price to $400 and it is a steal, OMG gotta have it!
Look at the pricing of digital cameras vs sales…
Same thing with Computer Game video cards.
It is cheap and easy, but Game Console systems. (excluding the wii)
Television sets.
I simply dont accept the conspiracy theories that Jobs wanted to take his most loyal customers for a measly 100 million bucks when his company is valued at 120 billion dollars. He loves those guys, they are the ones that make him a rock star when really he is just another nerd. It is obvious that he has long standing issues about being a nerd and wanted to be a rock star instead.
Instead I think this probably has more to do with the NBC deal. iTunes Video obviously does not have the grip on the media companies that iTunes audio has. Rather than easing into the phone market they have to make a swift move to dominate now before someone else makes a portable video player that works with Unbox.
I think just like the Prada phone caused a rush to market with the iPhone, there is something else just around the corner. I wonder what it is?
61,
The iPhone battery issue has been done to death, I can’t believe it’s still an issue.
Big removable battery=easy replacement and long operating time BUT big device.
Small removable battery=easy replacement and small device BUT short operating time.
Big fixed battery=long operating life AND small device.
Apple did the math and decided a long operating life in a small device was more important. All other arguments are disingenuous.
# 57 Above.
Steve: Wow. You can take a criticism and recover from a faux pas faster than anything else in technology!
Nice to see that you read this blog.
(Re: Gift card going out to early adopters. Probably a subsequent article here from John.)
Aww man, this story just got hot again, and no place to post at top of forum.
Apple just apologized for screwing over iPhone customers and gave them some of their money back…
Or…
Apple has an abundance of dead inventory so they are bribing the apple faithful to come back in the store in an effort to generate some cash and stay solvent.
#57 Peter iNova
“The Remedy: Mail the early adopters who aren’t covered by the recent pseudo rebate, a nice meaty Apple Gift Card. ”
Like this?
http://tinyurl.com/yvwfbk
#62 #66 In all truthfulness the Battery Bit is a some sort of a gimmick. I mean, replacement batteries. When have you ever needed them. And when did your phone oultlived it’s battery. Sure, I have friends with 8 years old cell phones. Yeah, and they had battery replacements too. But that’s what? 5 % of the market? Nahh. Also Apple’s business model is planned obsolescence. They need those fanbo…er… customers to keep buying on every other release of the damn thing…How many iPod users just bought the next gen cool thing when the battery of the old started to hint that was getting old?
still don’t own a cellphone and am gonna wait awhile more before i do after reading about apple bs
#64. the credit is no good for iTunes purchases, only the Apple store, and the only thing there that I would even be remotely interested in would be the Apple TV.
so, Jobs’ ‘apology’ would be getting at least another $199 out of me …
maybe I’ll just buy a few more chargers and/or ear buds on the general principle of the thing.