Rumors of Mini iPods

TheKidWho writes "According to Thinksecret: 'Reliable sources inside and outside of Apple have confirmed Apple will announce the new pocket-size iPods in a number of capacities and in various colors, including stripes. Capacities will be 2 and 4GB -- meaning users could store some 400 and 800 songs, respectively. Prices will start at around $100US, Think Secret has learned. It is not known if the new product line will be available immediately after introduction. It is also expected that current iPod models will be revamped to add body colors as well.' With the $99 price tag, it seems these rumored iPods could make big headway in the low end mp3 player market."

Comments

this is good for joggers

[Savatte]

The smaller and lighter the mp3 player, the better for joggers and runners. cd players are too bulky and heavy, but this could easily work.

The Sony Way?

[Destoo]

So that's how it's going to work. Kill the current market by spreading specs and rumors.

100$ for a 2gb lightweight device by apple? amazing indeed.

Just like the Playstation 2's specs killed the Dreamcast.

Sorry, I'm just bitter.
I probably just need more brandy in my coffee.
Merry Xmas

Re:The Sony Way?

[DeltaSigma]

PS2's specs killed the dreamcast because consoles are released on a much larger time table. New MP3 players come out all the time. They're far closer to commodity hardware than gaming consoles are, thus, someone's not going to wait more than a few months for this ipod to materialize before they go out and buy from a different manufacturer.

I think it would be Perfect Timing

[mesach]

since they are set to "sell" 100 million songs through the Pepsi promotion...

All you have to do is introduce a cheap player and then they have the free music, and you have the Apple Ipod cast in stone as the mp3 player to buy.

Makes perfect sense

[SengirV]

Why sell a prodeut for $100 when people are buying in droves at $299 - $499?

So the idea of releasing them for xmas is a horrible one indeed.

I think that the timing of the cheaper miniPods coincides nicely with the $100 mill Pepsi give-a-way starting in February.

It's all a game, the game called 'Maximize Profits'. And selling only the current iPods for xmas make you a big fat winner winner chicken dinner. Also, how many people are going to return their $150 128 meg POS flash MP3 player to Best Buy to get one of these new miniPods? I'd say more than a few.

I hope they keep the games

[Dixie_Flatline]

I just got an iPod for Solstice (actually, I got it a few weeks early), and the single best feature about it is the games.

That's right. The 4 crappy games that came on it are a blessing.

I HATE shopping. I've hated shopping since I was young and my mother dragged me out to malls to shop around. Back then, they didn't even have chairs everywhere. I stood around and hated the experience. Now, when I go shopping there are chairs everywhere, but nothing to do. It turns out, I still hate the experience.

But now that I have an iPod, I can listen to the music, toodle around with Parachute or Name that Song, and look up every once in a while to say, "Yes dear, that looks great." I don't know if any of the other MP3 players out there have these little time wasters on them, but they should.

(Oh, I hear the iPod does other things, too, like keep your contacts, alarms, notes and files. So handy!)

Re:Batteries? (Creative Nomad)

[valmont]

what are the dimensions of a Nomad Zen NX? would you care to give a comparison to iPod's dimensions? i haven't found on their site any documentation about which battery it uses, how much it costs, and what it takes to replace it. It does say it's a replaceable battery, but technically, iPod *also* has a replaceable battery.

hint: if the iPod is a smaller, more portable form-factor while touting similar capacity, while being less confusing, with less holes to plug shit in, less buttons to fuck with, your average consumer ain't guna give a shit about a device that's a geek's dream. detachable this or that, believe it or not, is confusing to the average user. It's a matter of which audience you cater to. More on this later.

There are reasons why there are tradeoffs. the iPod is extremely small for the capacity it offers, it is extremely portable and unintrusive. i have fit mine (2G) in just about any pocket i've had. Furthermore, many of my co-workers had bought competing players, absolutely every single one of them complained about either its form-factor or lack of capacity. Nomad Jukebox3 is a big square-ish size, much like today's CD players that are basically the size of a CD, which is NOT a form factor that is nearly as appealing as one of an iPod's. Don't get me wrong the features and interoperability capabilities of the Nomad jukebox3 are simply impressive but when a device's form-factor is not really a constraint, you can go to town with features. That doesn't mean this is necessarily what the average user Apple targets will be drawn to. The Jukebox3's affluence of buttons and holes to plug things in also make it, to your average non-computer geek, a "complicated", "confusing" device, while geeks see those features as a God-Sent. it's all relative. Sure the lack of replaceable battery is frustrating. But it ain't the first time, nor is it ever guna be the last time this sort of issue will plague consumer electronics.

Replacing an iPod battery is NOT that hard, you just gotta be careful and requires a bit of skills. If that doesn't do it, then pay the $100 for the cost of the battery and to have someone else install it and be done with it. Or buy extended warranty such as AppleCare or one from Fry's, Best Buy, CompUSA, FNAC, or whoever sells you the iPod. It ain't that bad. People always pit the price of a battery against the price of the device it goes into and get infuriated to "pay $100 for a battery for a device that's only $400". No no no and no. Most resilient, quality batteries are expensive and that's the fucking way it is. Especially the type of flat one required for the iPod, it is quite a nice piece of engineering. When it dies, you gotta pay. period. Take a deep fucking breath and accept this fact.

It always works like this: you shop for some device, it tells you it's rechargeable, but no one ever cares to ask "yes but for how long, what do i do when it can no-longer hold a charge" to make an informed purchasing decision based on those questions. They don't think, then get pissed when the inevitable happens, then go whine at their lawyers, who in the end will be the only winners in the upcoming class-action lawsuit. Once people also get the device they rarely ever look at best practices included in their manual to enhance battery life. There you have it.

feel free to read a couple more ideas about why things may be the way they are.

this isn't about zealotry. some people happened to have understood why Apple has made the compromises it did at the time it did and accept 'em without whining all fucking day, and will eventually vote with their feet and potentially wait for improvements, others choose to bitch around, karma-whoring on slashdot, thinking they're smart and have a fucking clue about industrial design and stating the obvious ad nauseum, bragging about how device X or Y has a detachable this or that while never addres