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

Brand Dilution

[kiwioddBall]

Can this be true?

Steve Jobs is well known for keeping a clean image on his products - it seems strange to me that he would allow rainbow iPods. Rumour has it he objected to the coloured backgrounds in the iPod adverts.

It seems strange that he would dilute the iPod brand at such a critical point in its existence.

Hmm.

Small iPods - no hard drives, only RAM based??

Storage device?

[John_Booty]

What kind of storage device would these use?

My first thought was the CompactFlash-sized "microdrive" hard drives developed by IBM (not sure if they belong to Hitachi now). A 1GB microdrive sells for about $200, though. Even with the volume discount Apple would surely get, it's hard to image they could hit that $99 price point at any capacity. And I guess flash memory is ruled out for price reasons too....

Re:Storage device?

[stuartkahler]

Up until now, the only demand for Microdrives has been camera owners who want a single Compact Flash card to take thousands of high resolution pictures. Microdrives use very few parts compared to a regular hard drive, so if they were produced in massive quantities, they could slash the price to a small fraction of the current one. Building the assembly line is likely the greatest expense in producing the drives.

If Apple came to IBM with an offer to buy a million of the 1 gig drives at $40 each, ($40,000,000 contract), I'm sure some VP would work their ass off to make it happen. Especially since it would help them reduce their price on CF Mirco Drives, and push regular flash memory out of the market. There's a massive market for 1-2 gig Micro Drives that is waiting for the price to get reasonable. Portable USB storage, video and photo cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, digital picture frames, just to name a few. It's actually pretty amazing that a solid state storage device has greater market share than a disc based one right now.

Roll on iTunes music store

[adamwright]

All I want is the iTunes music store in the UK. My new 40G iPod is reading, meerly 2gig full. My credit card is ready, my bank account is ready. I've got enough of a buy list to spend 100 in 30 seconds.

So where the hell's the store!?

Re:this is good for joggers

[ljavelin]

I run at least 18 miles a week with my iPod for the last 14 months or so. So far, no problems.

Of course it can't last forever, but it's lookin' good so far.

Re:iPod battery FAQ

[Brat Food]

Course, theres also a little bit of economics to consider here:

Lets say, the iPod had the choice of using 2AA batteries. Lets's say you got your AA's at $0.50(too high? too low? i dont have to buy them). Lets's see what youve paid for JUST BATTERIES over the "300-500" charge average lifetime of apples built in battery:

err, $300-$500... I made my math too easy =(

Probably more depending on how much you use the ipod, if the ipod could run on only 2AAs, and what quality battery you buy for it. Still complaining? If you are really desperate, i think some companies offer *gasp* external battery packs. But even at 99 bucks, Apples battery replacement nost likely means your not gonna blow double that much on batteries over the next few years.

*CHEERS*