Slashdot Mirror
iPod Mini Worldwide Rollout Delayed
falcon5768 writes "Apparently those 4-gig, $249 little buggers are selling faster than anyone expected.... So fast that the original April rollout worldwide has been delayed till July to keep up with the demand in the states and to get enough in production to meet worldwide sales. Given that there where 100,000 pre-orders alone, does this mean that yet again Apple hit on a niche that no one else (including me) thought would sell. I have been hearing a lot of rumors that the biggest buyer of the iPod mini has in fact been those female tech geeks out there. So much for the idea a $249 4-gig iPod was a mistake." Rob Glaser of RealNetworks, though, claims that not opening the iPod (big or small) to other formats is a real mistake; he wants to see iPod support other proprietary formats (like, say, Real's).
100,000 pre-orders alone [...] the biggest buyer of the iPod mini has in fact been those female tech geeks out there
Ha ha ha! Next they'll be telling us about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus buying them.
Trolling is a art,
...that Apple made a huge blunder there (not supporting Real Networks). I'm sure they're kicking themselves over it.
Tim
anyone care to esplain ?
you think it's easy, but you're wrong...
Heh, first time I've heard that one. Funny that it's the female demographic too...
"No, give me the smaller one"
As seen on Wired: Get a free desktop PC
I bet Real doesn't like the idea of Apple not supporting their format.
That combined with their other losses these last couple of weeks, I just suspect the statement was made to make it sound like they are still a contender.
Ted
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
The iPod Mini is selling quite fast, isn't it... Go Apple! BTW, what took this article so long to appear? It's been on MacRumors.com all day.
Like the original premise (that the iPod mini was a bad idea), the claim that Apple should support niche formats like OGG or Real is stupid. Apple has demonstrated time after time after time that they and they alone define the lead in technology that the rest of the industry follows. If Apple says AAC is where its at, then that's where it's at. Period. All the naysayers and open sores advocates can go buy something else, but like every other time, they will add up to maybe a couple of thousand people. Meanwhile the rest of us will go on enjoying state of the art portable music. Thanks again Apple!
Why buy an iPod when you can buy a PocketPC, equip it with as much memory as you want (it's cheap these days), and do infinitely more things with it beyond just listening to mp3's, such as watch movies or play games?
HOW? The only people I've NOT seen drooling over them are...*shrugs*
There y'go.
Don't park drunk, accidents cause people.
"No one's gonna buy that! It's only 4 gigs, and it's too expensive! Apple is DOOMED!"
Whatever.
Yes, I'm bitter about Real.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
This just proves how incompetent Apple is at selling products.
--had to say it.
Seriously. If this device is anymore than 99.99 when it is launched in the UK then I won't be buying it! The apple bastards charge around $5,000 for a G5 here, Apple are just greedy bastards that leech of open source software and make all the zealots lap it up! Well fuck them! I have got Mandrake 10 now and its way better than any osx tripe that has been released!
The fact of the matter is that Joe Sixpack will not give a crap what format his music is in, and will mock anybody who tries to explain why he should. As long as it works, that's it. iPods will continue to sell regardless of format because unlike we nerds, normal people only store music on their iPods and listen to it from there. They don't swap their shit around as we would like to. So the iPod Minis will continue to be a raging success.
so I can rip DVD at my friend's place and bring it home and burn.
A lot of Slashdotter's should be getting used to the taste of crow right about now. Many people here predicted that teh iPod Mini would be a bust, that no one would buy a 4GB unit for $50.00 (US) less than a 15GB unit.
/. market.
And they were 100% dead wrong. Why? Because the iPod Mini isn't aimed at the tech-savy
The lesson here: Don't predict the market based solely on your preferences.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I'm not sure if it has anything to due with actually hitting a niche market or if it's just a way to be ultra-hip and spend $50 less. The vast majority of people that are buying these aren't techies, they are just average people that have very little product knowledge beyond knowing the iPod plays mp3s and that it's cool. If people shopped around, or if Apple's competitors did a better job of marketing I don't think it would sell nearly as well.
sig.
"Given that there where 100,000 pre-orders alone, does this mean that yet again Apple hit on a niche that no one else (including me) thought would sell."
And all my friends laughed at me when i bought stock in a fruit. But all i know was apple with this news their stock is at 26.87 up 1.37 / 5.37%
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
My wife says she wants an iPod, after seeing someone at her office with one. I ask which one she wants, and she sends me a damn link to the mini. I said for a bit more you could get the regular iPod with more storage...apparently this one will fit in her purse better or something. Maybe it's the ability to choose a color, but I thought you can get "skins" for your regular iPod already? In any case, chalk up another possible sale for the female geek market.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Given that Apple has positioned the mini iPod (or is it iPod mini?) again the "ultra-portable" players, it doesn't surprise me that the excellent design and substantially larger capacity have won out. Most of the lower end MP3 players ship with several hundred megs of storage; iPod mini clearly blows this away, despite carrying a healthy price premium.
What does surprise me is that so many people opt for the mini over the standard iPod. It's really not *that* much smaller, so perhaps it's the colors? An extra 50 bucks for 6 gigs extra storage, at the price of a slightly larger form factor, seems like a no-brainer to me...
Dude, lots of people thought it was a good idea. True, the majority of people on Slashdot thought it was a bad idea, but Slashdot is hardly representative of everybody.
Way to spin the issue, though--it wasn't a sound business decision built from careful research and experience, it was Yet Another Example of (beleaguered) Apple somehow succeeding with a dubious product...
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Apple's dying! Wait; they died. 39 times.
Keep your eyes to the sky.
I think the response was pretty universally negative when this product came out. The pricing, the size of the hard drive and the physical size of the unit all seemed to get a thumbs down from the Slashdot community. And yet, the thing selling quite well and apparently making back it's investment. Has anyone from Slashdot actually bought one of these things? Is the market for this product completely filled by 14 year old girls looking for a slightly cuter Ipod? Did these have any appeal to the geek community?
Just curious.
--
RumorsDaily
I was an original Mac person. Way back with the Apple II, then the Mac, etc. Finally I switched to the PC for all the obvious reasons.
/. crowd is obsessed with specs and functionality but I think the iPod is a thing of beauty. What Apple did with the mini is add a color choice which instantly makes it legitimate to the eye of a woman. Most women I know are much more color sensitive than men. The small size helps too.
What got me to buy an iPod was the almost sensual way it felt, the intuitive way it operates and the "cool" factor which is worth a lot to me.
Of course, I wouldn't go near it until the PC interface came out and I still wish it supported more formats. I know most of the
I think secretly I like seeing the Apple logo on my desk full of functional PC crap.
M
I have to say congrats to Apple for this product. Not many people (myslef included) thought it would sell with that price tag. It seems that Apple knows what there doing and I hope they make the most of it! Good job once again!
insert generic
Look at it the other way. For $50 less all you'd get is a crappy 512 MB. Or worse: A DELL!
That was joke.
This time with iPod mini's. They've arranged a special deal with Apple to reserve the first models to come off the assembly line.
Thanks, Virgina Tech... Thanks a lot....
-Pete
The first couple of times Apple pulled this type of shit it was believable but now every product that comes out seems to immediately be in short supply. It is all about creating artificial demand by keeping supply very low and giving the image that this is the thing to get.
Act now. Supplies are limited. Better run out and get yours now. What a load of crap. If Microsoft did shit like this you guys would be all over it.
Of course, I am prepared to be modded down -1 anti-Apple.
In other news, The head of GM thinks that Germany's Porsche should install Chevrolet LT1 engines in the new 911. "It'll give them a chance to reach a larger audience with that car." a spokesman for the company said.
its modded 5
as funny
lay off the coffee for a while
and relax.
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Buffering.....
I want to see Ogg Vorbis support on the iPods too.
That's a classic!
What do you expect from someone who funded his company with the proceeds from a criminal act!
Best Buy can have you arrested
Does anyone actually use RealAudio for anything other than radio and sampling small audio clips? The quality is usually crap, but the format itself should never be used anyway. mp3, ogg-vorbis, and flac all seem like better options. Heck, with 4 GB, many people could encode all or many of their CDs with FLAC.
This is why geeks have such a bad rap and a hard time in the real world. LOOKS MATTER. Say it with me again. APPEARANCES MATTER, LOOKS Matter.
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
I personally am somewhat happy that there's so much interest in them, but I have a fairly significant personal interest in having these things get shipped as quickly as possible. Here's hoping that Apple can churn the damn things out fast enough to meet demand.
Dont know if this has been mentioned, but I hear the bottleneck is the 4GB drives (rumored to be supplied by Hitachi), Apple says they've totally exhausted the supply sold to them. I hope Hitachi (or whoever it is making those drives) kicks up manufacturing a bit to meet demand.
if 10% of the population is gay, plus all the metrosexuals - that's a huge market for apple products
Since all of the Anonymous Cowards that post are gay too (except me), that would indeed be a huge market.
but dont forget this is a smaller sized hard drive, and they are selling the iPods at about the same price as it would cost to buy that 4 gig drive alone. Here a previous slashdot thread on it.
30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
Score:5, Troll
Irony (yes, the proper usage of the word) is seeing a link for an earlier story, more doom and gloom for Apple.
Honestly, more power to Apple. I thought (hoped?) the mini was a mistake price wise, but a second, honest look told me this was more like sour grapes (or apples, even ? ). They did their market research, they got the product out of the door and perhaps most importantly, they cashed in on the almost unbelievable hype surrounding iPods and Apple products.
Hey, I'm a geek. I don't necessarily like mass market toys and my values (and what is attractive to me) may be different from the mass market. I *like* Apple succeeding with this, because the next generation could be a. cheaper b. have more storage capacity
They might even make the next models more attractive, price wise, for a poor student. I hope they sell a million of 'em :)
The difference and the reason I would buy the mini-ipod is that it is a smaller form factor.
And that I don't have more then a few GB of music.
Guess what, Sparky? Not everyone gives a damn about storage space. Some people actually prefer the smaller size of the unit and the *gasp* styling of it over the older models.
Having different priorities doesn't make them stupid. Not being able to understand that fact doesn't reflect too well on _your_ intelligence, however.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Glaser...said during a panel discussion Tuesday at PC Forum here that Apple is creating problems for itself by using a file format that forces consumers to buy music from Apple's own iTunes site....Apple could not be reached for comment.
Yes, that's because Apple was on its way to the bank. Laughing, I might add.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
To my family... They came out to visit, they had never seen an iPod before, and they have almost zero Apple products in the city where they are from (only 1 CompUSA is the only place that sells Apple products). They all use PCs. I took them to the Apple store, and they walked out with two iPod Minis. They would buy Apple computers if Apple would get some Retail presence in New Mexico - so that they could have a place to buy software and peripherals and such....
Looks to me that what we want in a iPod or iPod Mini is irrelevant. Apple has found a niche for these players that hasn't dried up and is very happy with what these players can do and probably aren't even aware of the advanced features in the player. IMHO, this is how it should be. If people are happy with their product, theres no need to get in their face with things they didn't want in the first place.
Then again, if there is a market for other formats to be playable on the iPod, maybe some enterprising individual needs to create a plugin for iTunes that can convert many formats to AAC?
[Just Shut Up and Do What I say]
The 4GB iPod is not competing with the 15GB iPod. The 4GB iPod is meant as an alternative to the flash based MP3 players offered by everyone else. Take a look: 256MB Rio Chiba is $200, a 256MB Rio Cali is $200, 256MB Yepp is $200, 512MB Creative MuVo2 X-Trainer is $289. I could go on and on. Now $250 for a 4GB iPod looks pretty good right? To say nothing of the fact that it's an iPod and looks so damn cool compared to any of the flash players out there. People saying the Mini iPod is expensive don't understand Apple's strategy here. They want to compete with flash players with the mini, and HD players with the regular iPod.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
not so, a lot of people on a LOT of mac websites thought it was a mistake. The running argument was for 50 dollars more you can get a 10 gig.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Must be the same women responsible for that stupid Volvo.
I could kill you, sure, but I could only make you cry with these words
> Slashdot is hardly representative of everybody.
You are obviously not using the correct definition of "everybody".
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
... and not as a smaller jukebox.
The miniature MP3 players, usually topping out at 256MB or 512MB due to the price of CF/SD cards, sell to a broader audience than the bigger jukeboxes. Even the bigger iPod is a bulky thing to carry around. The clones tend to be even bigger.
The one thing that Apple has gotten right over the years is ergonomics and human interface: the iPods -- like the iMac -- are small, easy to use (which prompts some to call them crippled), few options to confuse (do I need AFLAC? [no, that's that insurance with the duck] What's an Ogg?), and they're smooth: soothing on the eye, and easy on the fabric of the pocket, if not the wallet.
Design for Use, not Construction!
Rob Glaser of RealNetworks, though, claims that not opening the iPod (big or small) to other formats is a real mistake; he wants to see iPod support other proprietary formats (like, say, Real's).
Even though I have personally resolved not to buy any new Apple hardware ever again, I think that they finally have a real winner with the iPod. As long as the iPod supports MP3, it's fine. Even though I don't use it, I'd like to see Ogg Vorbis support. The more formats that are in use the harder it will be for them to force DRM on us.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
the initial, on-topic part: i never thought these things would sell to anybody for that price, but i guess it makes sense to me that women would adopt it first. i dont mean that to be sexist, but women tend to care more about aesthetics more, i think. also, i would guess women to care a little more about it being tiny. i mean, id be willing to lug around a bigger, uglier dell player if it was superior in the ways i deemed more important. i just dont see my wife thinking the same way. she would rather have the one that is prettier and smaller. (sure, sure, insert joke about that last sentence *here*)
now for the RvB quote:
"didnt i just tell you to stop makin up ficticous animals?"
later...
"so, unless anybody has any other names for it, we'll call it the warthog....chipathangy, how bout that? i like it...got a ring to it."
use your turn signal! you people act like it's divulging information to the enemy
They made a HUGE mistake...letting OTHER companies ride their wave...Cause supporting Real would sell SO many more iPods, and certainly not cut into their profits.
Now how do these people get quoted by anyone who has some degree of sense?
Blake
..... in another year or so, the EU will be punishing Apple for dominating the market with their capitalist American-made iPod product. Then they'll force Apple to ship the iPod with competing media players (i.e. Real Player), force them to open up the specs to competitors, and fine them half a billion euro to boot.
But, like I said, don't worry! It's all in the consumer's best interest!
Dude? Are you calling my iPod ugly? Its a fucking art piece! I shelled out an extra $100 for the damn thing, vs buying some Creative Labs knock-off because it looked so damn good.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
And while we're at it, can we give an iPod a wireless interface and GPS so that it can report to RealNetworks exactly where you've been going and what you've been doing while you've been carrying the thing around.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Rob Glaser of RealNetworks claims that not opening the iPod to other formats is a real mistake. "I can't run .RM files on iPod. What is this, the Soviet Union ?"
Bill Gates of Microsoft claims that not opening emacs to other formats is a real mistake. "I can't edit .DOC files on emacs. What is this, the Soviet Union ?"
Howard Stern of Loudmouth Inc claims not opening the airwaves on ClearChannel is a real mistake. "I can't say F*** on radio ! What is this, the Soviet Union ?"
Janet Jackson of Boob Inc. claims not opening her bra on public television is a real mistake. "I can't expose my nipples ! What is this, the Soviet Union ?"
Wait till you see how well the iPod UltraSubMiniature sells...
its even cooler.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
If you make it pink, and it matches their hair style, hand bag, outfit, or shoes..
They will come.
Ummmm... shouldn't that be RealMistake(tm)? ;)
Un-news
It's still lame.
People who disagree with you are not automatically evil, greedy, or stupid.
Now only if Apple would start to spread around their newfound iPod/iTunes marketing genius to products that really contribute to the bottom line: Macs. Yes, their brand is out there and going strong. But the number of Mac purchases, and their profits, remains relatively flat.
Please, Apple, cut the G5 price just a couple hundred bucks...$2G+ price is still keeping a lot of us on the fence. You've found a magic pricing formula...now spread around the memo!
Considering you can get a 30 gig for $500 (probably less now), $249 for 4GB is a flatout ripoff.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
What is "RvB"?
*sigh* do we have to go over this again and again? The iPod supports:
AAC (16 to 320 Kbps) with or without Fairplay DRM, MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF and WAV
How many portable players support RealNetworks formats?
Those who laugh at you for you having a Mac.. are the people who constantly call you to fix their PC.
So the slashdot crowd was wrong. (Yet again) Good thing I did not short those SCO stocks before... However, I feel that most slashdotters don't really understand what marketing is.
Even though "marketing" is a dread-word around here, Apple seems to have a really good marketing department to me. They get it right quite often.
Remember, marketing does not just reffer to the selling process of a given item, but also the process by which you conduct research into a given area to determine if there really is a market after all. It is important to check to see if the market is there by research, because what you can divine just by intuition is often wrong for marketing.
A very interesting read (even if you are a computer only type geek) on marketing is:
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
It covers things like how Listerine was the market leader for mouthwash - because everyone wanted to keep their mouth free from germs - and the medicie taste was irrelevant... Enter Scope, with better tasting mouthwash for "fresh breath" not germ killing so much, and now Scope is #1 in the market - Listerine #2.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
The people who say you can get the 15gig for $50 more don't get it - they serve different purposes.
I keep my thrid-generation 30 gig at home most of the time, connected to my stereo, because I have put all my CDs in storage. Meanwhile, on my daily commute, I carry the mini - 4 gig is plenty of songs for an hour a day! And the tininess makes a huge difference, plus the new "click wheel" is, for me, the ideal controller. When I travel, the big one comes with me - more music, plus a FW HD. But for quick trips around town, the mini beats it hands down - and the big one (I realize it's demented to call the regular size big, but that's how it feels, now) can be home, serving as my music library.
Now, of course not everyone buying the mini has both, but I bet there are a fair number. And for those who choose only a mini, well, the tiny size and great interface are powerful draws - and many people think 1000 songs at a time is plenty!
Being a female tech geek myself, I was with you all when I thought the the mini was an idiotic concept priced for failure.
But then they started putting these ads in the InStyle magazine (girly fashion mag touting the latest styles out there). The ad was two facing pages with postcard pop-ups of paper iPod Minis to actual size, one of each color. Damn it if it didn't look as nice as some of those cute little handbags in the same price range a few pages away.
I still didn't get it, but I swear, if they slap a little Hello Kitty on it, I may have to cave in to the cuteness factor.
XD
Sorry Real, but I don't see any need for the iPod to support yet another proprietary audio format. The iPod can deal with stanard AAC and MP3, and Apple's FairPlay AAC. Ogg Vorbis would be nice, as it is an open standard that anyone can implement royalty-free, but I can live with what I have right now. Real and Windows Media? I wouldn't have bought my iPod if I needed them.
The beauty (to me, the consumer) of FairPlay DRM is that every track bought from the iTunes Store comes with the same rights. I don't have to wonder what I can do with my purchases, or read any fine print. I like that. I doubt I'll ever buy off of another online store, because it's a problem I don't need... unless someone else starts selling FairPlay AAC files or standard un-mangled files.
Red vs. Blue... it's actually really funny.
Link.
I wonder if maybe the iTMS has helped sell the player. If the iTMS grows in popularity, it follows that sales of the iPod hardware would increase. I wonder, then, if this surge in sales wouldn't have happened anyway, without the launch of the Mini. The Pepsi promotion and TV adverts have to be helping get the word out.
It's kind of sad to see a superior product (IMHO) like the Rio Karma get sidelined due to the iPod mini's momentum/marketing/teenybopper appeal.
It's like seeing your favorite band get no recognition while some guy named "Ludacris" goes platinum several times over.
I loved my iPod when I first got it, but then I got my hands on a Rio Karma. I wanted to believe that my money was well spent, but after playing with the Karma's equally-intuitive UI and seeing their Dev team actually active in their forums and implementing/listening to what their users suggested, I made the switch. Instead of pointless features for a digital audio player like "Breakout" or "Contacts" (I wanted a DAP, not a PDA), the Karma has audio-related features like gapless playback and being able to create/edit several playlists on-the-go. Plus, the sound quality is great, and not as flat as several reviewers have mentioned the iPod as being.
I told my gf I could get her a 15 gig iPod for $70 (Canadian) more then a 4 gig mini iPod. Her immediate response was "Does it come in pink?"
Sufficive to say my gf is now eagerly awaiting the worldwide release so she can have a pink mini iPod.
You forgot to add:
:)
overclocked AMD motherboard... which runs FreeVo 'cause TiVo sucks and is too expensive (and is dead anyway)
10% of the population isn't gay. 0.5-1% is a more realistic number. By comparison, AIDS infected individuals account for 0.25% of the US population. Coincidence?
What is it about Apple that they can generate such huge pre-orders of a gadget that costs $250 and *still* not make a profit?
I know you're a troll but... how many times since 1998 has Apple NOT reported a profit? They're one of the only tech companies that actually make money in this ruined economy.
Those who laugh at you for you having a Mac.. are the people who constantly call you to fix their PC.
I bought one - I got a discount through work and I really like the small form factor. Well, it turns out there are bugs in it and they freeze up or hang on a regular baisis. Just check out the post on the Apple support forums or any other iPod forums.
Mine arrived last week and has yet to work - waiting on the return box from Apple to ship it back for a replacement.
My advice to potential buyers is to wait for the 1.01 release or buy it at the Apple Store without getting it engraved - then you can exchange it there instead of sending it in for repair (= replacement).
Should have know better to buy a v1.0 Apple product - at least other companys give nice little gifts to their beta testers.
Why buy a VW beetle when you can buy a Hummer, equip it with as many extra gallons of gas as you want (it's cheap these days), and do infinitely more things with it beyond just driving around, such as get lost in a forest or parachute into desert combat?
I've heard from photo hobbyist friends that people are buying the mini's to get the drives to use in their cameras because it's cheaper than buying just the drives.
Now you know that Apple has really hit the nail on the head... the president of Real says that Apple must license technologies like Real... or die!
I kind of agree with the premise - Apple will have to change their business model over time. And maybe that will include other highly proprietary audio formats. Or maybe more open audio formats. Or something.
In any case, this isn't really news. This is a press release by Real, wishing that Apple would support their product.
I wonder if the annoying Real pop-up ads are part of Real's proposed licensing deal.
No I'm not. I love my Ipod as well, but I think the mini is a lot nicer looking than my 40gb.
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
Again, you're looking at a pretty small cross-section of the consumer audience--people who frequent/run geek tech sites. (The audience at Mac news sites, after all, is not that different demographically from Slashdot--primarily comprised of tech-oriented, male geeks.) While the tech-oriented crowd was indeed screaming about the cost to capacity ratio, plenty of people were swooning over it's compact form factor, it's styling, even the freakin' colors! The iPod mini was never meant to appeal to case-modders and DIY geeks. The iPod mini was designed to appeal to the same crowd that buys ultra-compact, color-screen, flip-lid camera phones. Apple knew that this was a big market from the start, as did a lot of other people.
The tech-geek conventional wisdom was blindsided by the iPod's success because the tech-geek conventional wisdom failed to understand that other people buy digital gadgets, too!
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Me: So is there day I should come back? Do you know which day you'll be getting more?
Employee: We have no idea when we'll be getting more. They said "a couple of weeks" and that was a couple of weeks ago. We're still saying "weeks"
I see they're selling for $50-100 above retail on Craigslist. Go capitalism.
No, DESIGN MATTERS.
Linux on iPod
xox,
Dead Nancy
Have I ever ripped a CD to .rm format and listened to it? No I haven't. I don't want to. This is absolutely stupid.
Yay! (BTW, Real is crappy.)
but at least she has big tits or something. LOL
There are thousands of tech companies that make money. They may not be dot coms but there is a shit load of money being made out there but companies besides Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, Sun, etc.
Either way, Apple reported a loss in 2001 of $25 Million and had losses in the 4th Q of 2002 and the 1st Q of 2003. Even their recent profit of $63 Million in Q1 04 is a joke for a company that had $2 Billion in revenue that quarter.
would have all of your heads. The correct usage is iPods Mini.
If I could make this sig kill you, I would.
I've heard quite a few people are buying them to rip out the 4gig hard drives and putting them in their digital cameras. I guess it is 200 bucks cheaper.
And they were 100% dead wrong. Why? Because the iPod Mini isn't aimed at the tech-savy /. market.
Maybe the /. market may be technological, but I increasingly wonder if it is a savvy one.
blog
n/t
I went into the apple store to buy iLife 2004 (Garage band rules!) and brought my SO with me. In the 45 minutes I spent playing with the neat apple toys she purchased an iPod Mini.
She was almost ready to buy an iBook after I explained all the nifty features.. but she took a pass on it.. for now.
I've converted another heathen!
(disclaimer: I worked for Macwarheouse Apple Support in the mid 90's. Did you? if so let me know - I'm glad some of us lived)
I am the lord of the pun. Dance Knave!
Apple has had a long history with not being able to predict demand for their products, or they have some obfuscated business model that does this on purpose.
Anyone remember the powerbook 520 540/c, or the first power macs? Anyone remember the magazines (ugh, it was that long ago) constantly reporting the long lead times for newly introduced models? I often wonder how much $tronger the company would be today if they would have nailed every introduction with enough supply to meet the demand. Maybe another factor in the mac price premium?
Does that mean Microsoft would file a lawsuit against them?
And they were 100% dead wrong. Why? Because the iPod Mini isn't aimed at the tech-savy /. market.
You, sir, are a wanker.
Apple is not going to undersell itself. Even given its tendency to produce runaway successes, it also produces the occasional bomb (e.g. G4 Cube critical praise, market flop).
The "limited" supply is because no one, not even Apple, wants overstock on a cool product that no one will buy.
However, if you can say "Look at my penis next to this Yukon! It's enormous!", then you're just that much better off. ;)
I can see why females who like music would go for the iPod mini, of course, though I don't know any that have one.
I went to the Apple store in a mall in New Jersey one day to pick up an extra docking station for my iPod and the line was out the door and snaking around the staircase. I went up to the guy at the entrance:
Me: "Is this the line to get in?"
Him: "Are you looking to buy an iPod mini?"
Me: "No, I need another station for my iPod."
Him: "This line's for the mini. Go right in."
I didn't even realize that it was the same day that the minis came out. [Had I been looking to buy one, I could've beat the crowd too!] I had stopped looking for mp3 players when I got mine as a gift from my wife. (Thx honey!)
I didn't see many females in the line, but maybe I wasn't really looking. I seemed to notice that they were mostly young (read: high school-aged) teens. I guess the minis are what's cool. Then again $50 is a big difference when you ain't got no job. I happen to think they are ugly, but that's just me.
My iPod gets the most looks of any player I've owned, at any rate. I'm not surprised.
size matters if you're using it on, say, the rowing machine or the recumbent bike machine or the elliptical machine. I figured the iPod v.2 was large enough so it would be bumped off when the fat ^H^H^H muscles kept pushing on it. the mini iPod can hang on the gym shorts elastic and not get knocked off, provided you pick a spot where you have less fat ^H^H^H muscle.
if they packed the armband geegaw with 'em, it might not matter as much, provided you aren't working that fat ^H^H^H muscle in your routine. but they don't. and the armbands didn't ship when the minis did.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
My wife loves having an mp3 player with her when she works out. One of the most important factors for her was that it had an arm band. Compare the iPod mini to other wearable mp3 players on the market. Most in the 512mb range are $200+. Looking at it from that end the iPod mini isn't a bad deal. But the fact that it came in pink didn't hurt either.
Oh yeah, and you can only play one song at a time.
WWJD? JWRTFA!
For Apple, keeping the list of proprietary formats small is good. It will only become a problem when some big distribution studio goes exclusive on another proprietary format, and they are less likely to do that if the #1 portable player doesn't support it. Apple may not be in control now, but they certainly have more power than if they opened up and supported everyone. IMHO
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
"Want to see my dead fly? It has a web server in it." A newbee admin walks into the lead admin's cubie. Holding up some tweezers, he says "Hey look, I found a fly in the server." Lead admin sighs, holds head and mutters "that was the server..."
Real are really hypocrite! I remember swearing at many web sites because we could only get audio/video samples in .ra and .rm. Obviously, only RealPlayer could play those, which sucks so badly. Who's talking open standards now that they're not leading anymore?
Thank God someone nailed the point. I too initially scoffed at the idea of paying $250 for a 4gb player. But while comparing it to similar players, the iPod mini is in a class all its own. I have a 20gb iPod and every cent was worth it.
.deviatefromtheabsolute.
A lot of people i know who have mp3 portables use them exclusively for the gym, so Apple probably did a little bit of market research and found that a smaller device would be a hit among active people and women. For most people, the 4GB size limitation is not an issue. Remember, most of these active people are using 128mb flash players. The only big issue is the $250 price tag. Apparently apple priced it right, otherwise the device wouldn't be selling that well.
they're supposed to be going out of business . . .
As Richard Clarke stated, I don't do nuances
Heck, I can't even complete a sentence without
earphones or a teleprompter.
Regards,
The World's Most Dangerous Leader
- In Soviet Russia, the .RM file runs YOU! .DOC file edits YOU!
- In Soviet Russia, the
- In Soviet Russia, F*** says YOU!
- In Soviet Russia, your nipples expose YOU!
Sheesh, all the money must be making them stupid.
If telling yourself these things helps you sleep at night, keep doing it.
How much of the success of the original 5gb (and later) iPods was the resale of the PCMCIA hard drive for $500?
I theorize that the same kinds of people who tore out the hard drive from the *first* iPods would be doing the same with the current ones.
In the end history has shown us that the success of the iPod was legitimate, and I would posit that the Mini is enjoying a similar success.
GPL Deconstructed
What a ridiculous company. They're pushing a poory-designed player and inefficient, ugly codecs. Who the hell would want to support them?!
A related article over at The Register made this point rather effectively:
so not buying until it supports them properly (although i would absolutely love to). May choose an alternative if a really good one comes along.
Quack, quack.
"Is that not dangerous?" asked Scar Steelclaw from the Mordor Daily Examiner.
"Yeah, sweet, sweet music unspools right into the cerbral cortex, or somewhere." said Jobs. "Now everyone can share in the reality distortion field, sort of a distorted collective unconsciousness."
"What sort of music?" asked Millie Bumblestoat from the Happy Elf Land newsletter.
"I just took an iCapsule 30 minutes ago," said Jobs.
"Hello?!" said Millie.
"All I hear is a relaxing hum," sighed Jobs before passing out.
--- Ban humanity.
I happen to know that Apple is having a hard time getting parts for the Mini. The delays aren't actually due to their massive popularity (although preorders did exceed even Apple's optimal number) but to delivery delays and pricing problems (in part due to crazy fluctuations in the price of various metals worldwide).
Apple decided, in typical fashion, to leak a rumor that would spin the problem to their advantage.
She seemed surprisingly disappointed when I said it only came in white.
Apple's done their market research on this one, folks.
"He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once." - Steve Jobs on Bill Gates
REAL has yet to release any OS X native encoding tools for Real audio or video. It sucks that I have to run Classic to encode stuff (reluctantly mind you)
I agree to what the parent post described. Although the Karma is not as elegant as the iPod it has a very good Dev team that actually responds to suggestions and firmware bugz. The only problem i faced when buying it was the price that in the UK where i live the cheapest i could find was 269 pounds, a price 1/3 above the US price ($270). Speaking for myself, i was looking for a versatile mp3-ogg player with enough capacity to cram my Heavy metal collection into and enough space for file storage. Before shelling out that kind of money (as beeing a degree student) i was lurking over the Archos 600 player, a player robust enough for travelling and bouncing about.As soon as i found out that it is more hackable than any other mp3 device out there (whack the HD out and exchange it with a bigger one, upload custom firmware to enhance the capabilities,etc) i decided i'm gonna give it a try as soon as i have the money to spend for it. http://rockbox.haxx.se
Roses are red, violets are blue, most poems rhyme, but this one doesn't...
It's been pointed out elsewhere ( I definitely saw a comment in the Money article article), but the pricing structure is definitely part of the the clever plan to upsell.
For $50 bucks more, you get that 11 GB more storage. For $100 more than that, you get over $100 worth of accessories and 5 GB more storage.
I was lucky. When the dockable iPods came out, I managed to snag a 2nd Gen 10 GB with all the accessories for $169 from the Apple Store refurb section. The kicker is that it wasn't refurbed, but new, sealed in the retail box.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Because foremost, it is a very practical player in ways many others are not (and women are generally more practical than men and want features that are useful to them as opposed to just existing for possible future use for some remote scenario). Getting songs onto it is very fast, you can use it easily, and even the size while adding to "cuteness" is primarily a practically useful feature rather than just a gimmick or fashion statement.
That really is the key - the primary buyer of the iPod is not buying it for fashion (for what piece of electronics is really fashionable to the level of clothing or accessories) but instead for the practical features it offers to deliver portable music to the user as easily as possible. People keep scoffing at the possible sucess of the iPod because they misunderatand this very key point - as long as you continue to believe people buy an iPod for reasons of apperance you will also continue to be suprised at any sucess they attain in any form because you misunderstand the core of what makes them desireable.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Your Slashdot alias is "Daltorak".
Either way, Apple reported a loss in 2001 of $25 Million and had losses in the 4th Q of 2002 and the 1st Q of 2003. Even their recent profit of $63 Million in Q1 04 is a joke for a company that had $2 Billion in revenue that quarter.
So only four losses out of about 24 quarters since 1998? Wow, they're doing awesome!
Those who laugh at you for you having a Mac.. are the people who constantly call you to fix their PC.
Slashdot: The iPod-mini is overpriced and has no target audience!
Rest of the world: We don't give a flying fuck!
people have realized that a $299 mini ipod has a $499 hitachi microdrive inside it. Users are buying it to take the drive out just like they can with the muvo- and save a ton
Take a look: 256MB Rio Chiba is $200, a 256MB Rio Cali is $200, 256MB Yepp is $200, 512MB Creative MuVo2 X-Trainer is $289. I could go on and on.
You left out the 4Gb Muvo2 for $200, and several 1.5Gb players which have dropped below $200 now that they're slightly out of date, not to mention the occasional extra-cheapo deal (those $100 10Gb "Classic" players, the Nomad Zen 30Gb which has gone below $250 on sale recently).
This was covered before in noting that the cards have been modified so you cannot use them with a camera - unlike other players with a 4GB HD.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'd love to see a (admittedly somewhat clunky) PDA that let you enter new contact, todo, and datebook entries. I envision using the wheel like an old arcade game character select. Not as slick as palm, but I realize I'm using less and less of my Palm features... ;-)
feh, maybe I should give the REX another try
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
People were hoping it was going to be $200, not $250. Many people went ahead and bought the 15GB for $300 when the announcement was made. (Good for Apple.) Many more people said that it was only $50 more than a RAM based player... and ordered one. (Good for Apple.) Some other people went ahead and spent another $150 or $250 over the cost of the Mini to get a 20GB or 40GB ipod... because the 15GB's were out of stock. (Good for Apple.)
The mini rounded out the product line. People's disappointment was that it was 25% more expensive than the rumor sites had touted. Reality is that it was a very well-placed product.
So with those numbers, will you admit that Apple does not over charge for their products? I mean, after all, if expenses + profit = revenue, then that makes the expenses what, roughly 1.9 billion?
Love the Donnie Darko sig.
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
I don't mean to diss the Mac crowd here, but how much of this shortage is due to the fact that the minis have 4GB microdrives [bensbargains.net] in them, which by themselves cost more than $250 [ebay.com] ?
Ummmm, geeee, I dunno - maybe it's because they're buying them EN MASSE DIRECTLY FROM THE MANUFACTURER IN BULK???
Duuuuhhh. Next time think twice before you type. Of course, once would be an improvement.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
from what i understand- you can get a $400 hitachi microdrive out of a $249 iPod mini. Maybe users are buying it to take the drive like they do with the the muvo. that would
I don't want iPods to support wma and don't really care about Real - if not even one of them want to support the mac crowd, why should Apple roll over? And in the end, different DRM schemes would complicate the user experience.
But I do wish Apple would license Fairplay to others - and why not start with smaller download shops with music you don't find in those Windows-only shops?
Better yet, why not build on the next version of AAC DRM together with Sony, Philips and some others and be done with the other formats? Make it work on all platforms (Linux included) and stick it to The Man.
This said, Ogg Vorbis support would be cool too, not because I use it, but because of the nerd value. Those that want it will know how to use it and it doesn't imply any DRM hassle.
Final thought: I only know two other (very small but nice) online music shops that want Apple customers, so the talk on Apple limiting your freedom is really very warped cowdung.
I think, therefore I am...I think.
I visited my sister a couple of weeks ago, coincidentally arriving on the day that her 13-year old daughter's (blue) iPod Mini arrived. She bought it herself, with her babysitting money. In that age group, there aren't "portable mp3 players", there are iPods. Period.
Support FLAC, and I'd buy one. The only mass market player out there that does at the moment is the Rio Karma, which frankly, looks like ass. If there was a 10+ GB player that was small, looked nice like the iPod, and supported FLAC, I'd purchase it. Every single one of my media files is a properly named and labeled FLAC file, because disk is cheap, and I like listening to cd quality audio, not mp3 quality.
While the iPod mini is obviously a success, if they'd just used the old form factor (which was plenty good for 90% of people) made colors, and stuck the old 5GB drive from a few years ago in it, they could have easily met demand and priced it at $150. Sure, cool is great, but the 5GB would have sold 5 million by now vs. whatever hundred thousand the Mini has done. In 6 months they could have brought out the Mini AND had the whole portable player market to themselves forever more.
Apple always innovates too fast for the market, can never fill demand, and eventually loses to the company that copies them and has the supply. I love 'em but they're stupid from a business perspective. They could have it all if they just slowed down a little bit.
"Apparently those 4-gig, $249 little buggers are selling faster than anyone expected"
Can someone tell me why? it's only 20% less then a regular i-pod, but has a substantially smaller hard drive.
I am not trolling, I just wondering what value add feature this has that the i-pod doesn't.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Are you kidding? Have you ever seen the average woman's handbag? I've seen smaller European cars.
would think of it as a value decsion. This is a horeid deal compared to the i-pod. price per megabyte.
Plus, I would of thought it sexist to create something that is a lower performance, but then call it slim and put it in pastel colors.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It's because all the tech dorks here are thinking in terms of specs (also the reason Linux on the desktop sucks right now).
Apple knows that specs aren't enough--you have to design a friendly, pleasant, usable device that also looks pretty damned cool. They make it fun.
OSS people hate that because they consider it the forte of "marketing" which is the forte of the proprietary companies they rival against. But Apple has it right. It's like people who design cars, they make the interiors look great. It's not *just* about horsepower and mileage. You have to like driving it.
what happened to the duck?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"There's something the technicians need to learn from the artists. If it isn't aesthetically pleasing, it's probably wrong."
irb(main):001:0>
I'd love to get an iPod but with no Ogg (I have loads off OGG's) I can't, the Rio Karma looks like its probably too big and the iRiver just looks soooo ugly (and big). Anybody know of another alternative? jensofsweden look like a posibility but I can't bring up any specs from anywhere.
That is why they really took off with the mini's vs the larger more expensive ones.
MY idea ipod-lite.
Have only a 1 gig drive. Yes, I could only hold half the songs but it could bring the cost down to $150-$200. After all if my playlists gets full I just resynch with my computer and exchange mp3 or aac files.
Its less convient of course but I can not justify the cost of having a moma hard drive and only resynch occasionally. I have a budget and its a pain but even the mini's are too expensive.
http://saveie6.com/
My zire 71's been on that trip three or four times. Still works like a gem. Of course, you'd have to be sprinting to have enough music on my 64MB card to last 8 miles.
...
the wheel thing is very cool and functionality is a high point. i just dont think people get an iPod because they played with the alternatives and it worked the best.
The thing is that you can play with them and know that the work really well, without even having used a different model - they work well enough to convince you they would be usable in daily life. That's why I think that functionality may still be a primary reason for choosing them. It would be really interesting to see some kind of breakdown about how many people had had contact with one before buying them as that would go a long way to prove or disprove the theory. My theory comes about from hearing a lot of people relate stories about buying them after playing with one, and seeing people react to them at Apple stores (they show only casual interest as they pick them up, but get really into them when they start using it).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm a male geek and I bought a mini. I wasn't really sold on the whole iPod concept at least as far as liking it enough to spend money on. Then I used a mini for a while. The tilting scroll wheel is a HUGE improvement over the 3G ipod's buttons [I can use it without looking at it] and the size difference means that it's really pocket-sized now the construction feel 100% more sturdy as well. One of the other tipping points for me was that I didn't want to be carrying $400+ worth of music player on my person. If I get mugged or something I'd much rather absorb a $250 loss. Also, since I can't fit my whole collection on even a 40 gig iPod [at a decent bitrate] I figured I'd just go with the cheapest model since I'll have to manage everything by hand anyway.
I just wish the dock wasn't such a rip-off.
Thank god Real isn't supported on any portable format. (that I can think of right now). I consider RealNetworks far worse then Microsoft. I burn just thinking of them.
Their website alone, should scare anyone off. When your trying to download the free player and have to go on an epic quest to find it. Or they have hidden checkboxes to sign you up for things.
Grrr... bad company, baaddd company.
Josh
is that it's cheaper than the normal iPod, and 4gig is enough disk space for most people
I'd really like to know the sales figures between the five colours - Since, my girlfriend is desparate to buy a PINK one :) I just wonder if any colour is winning out right...
I'll stick with my 3G 20gb...
Agreed. Luckily, I don't have that problem. ;)
today is spelling optional day.
ditto
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/03/25.14 .shtml
Apple Computer confirmed to The Mac Observer Thursday that its announcement in delaying worldwide release of the iPod mini to July is due to a shortage of Hitachi-made hard drives.
"We're consuming almost all of those drives that are being made," Stan Ng, Director of iPod Worldwide Product Marketing, told The Mac Observer. "So we're putting them in iPod minis as quick as we can get them and trying to get them out as quickly as possible.
He decided to just watch the government, and kind of scale it down to size, and run his life that way. --Laurie Anderson
After all, who is stupid enough not to fork over $.50 cents more for a pound or two more of fries!! Even if you end up eating only a few.
Some people might thing that releasing an even smaller iPod for LESS money than the larger versions is amazing. After all, look how much super miniature cell phones go for...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I wanted an MP3 player. Just as I was about to buy an iPod mini or something similar, I saw the Sony NetMD USB MiniDisc players in the discount bin at my local electronics store. $69. Each minidisc can hold up to 5 hours of music. I couldn't let this go. With all the shiz I've heard about iPod battery problems (my MD player gets 50 hours on 1 AA battery --- I LOVE it!), and the fact the the MP3 player selling right next to it had a max capacity of 1 minidisc (and that's it) and that the MD player came with 6 free discs, this was an offer I couldn't refuse. I thought (key word) I saw something on /. once about there being OSS software to transfer files to the MD player. Super!
Well I was slightly wrong... Apparently since Sony also owns a record company as well as make MD players, this thing came with DRM out the ass. I was determined to not use the Sony software. Unfortunately there was no OSS software for this, aside from a kludgy solution involving Sony's disc image software and Nero.
**However, RealOne Player to the rescue!**
Sony makes a plug-in for RealOne player to allow DRM-free transfer of files to my NetMD player. It's relatively painless to transfer MP3s to MiniDiscs. With MDs being dirt cheap nowadays, and the fact that I get 50 hours of charge on a single AA battery, I could tour Europe and never have to change batteries, nor recharge every few hours like the iPod users. Also my storage space is unlimited.
Sure, it's not as slick as the iPod, but it's the best $69 I've ever spent. Couple that with an FM modulator for my car and I can drive till I'm dead.
I could not believe this auction listing. $41 for INFORMATION about how to get a MINI iPod for free? I see those at times selling for like a buck or two on eBay and some poor sucker biting. But this has had 18 bids!!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
who believes he or she has to get iPod for free ... No matter how much Apple will charge, there always one on a crowd complaining 'What is this so expensive? I can't afford it. Can Apply give me a personal discount?'. I personally saw quite a few postings like that.
Shure, bud. Go ahead and contact Steve Jobs directly. I'm sure he'll be very attentive to your needs.
I have been hearing a lot of rumors that the biggest buyer of the iPod mini has in fact been those female tech geeks out there. So much for the idea a $249 4-gig iPod was a mistake."
Screw that. It's not just females who want pretty colors here, and it is not a nieche market. Its the market of people, like me, who just cannot justify spending 500 bucks to carry around enough music to listen to for 4 weeks straight non-stop, when they only *have* around 1 GB of music they even listen to anyways. It's people who don't have 500 bucks to blow on nonsense like that.
IMO, its still too big and overpriced. I bet a 1GB iPod for 150 would sell 5x as many units as either of these.
I mean, you have USB2 / Firewire, you can swap the whole 1 GB in about 5 mins. You listen to the music for a few weeks, you get sick of it, you spend 5 mins and swap it out. Who needs to carry their whole freaking collection? I sure don't. 1 GB is enough for me.
I'd spend 150 for a 1 GB iPod, but I sure as hell won't spend 250 on a 4 GB one, or 500 on a 10 GB one. We're not all loaded enough to spend money on useless gadgets, when a cheaper alternative is just as practical.
And that's why this thing is succeeding. Has nothing to do with girls or colors.
"Rob Glaser of RealNetworks, though, claims that not opening the iPod (big or small) to other formats is a real mistake; he wants to see iPod support other proprietary formats (like, say, Real's)." He might as well just sue Apple for anti-trust violations since the have such a big market share, that it might as well constitute a monopoly. After all, that's what Real is doing successfully in Europe against Microsoft. He should force Apple to ship the iPod without any codecs because only shipping with the AAC codec hurts consumers. Consumers would be much better off if they had to download the codec of their choice themselves, or let the OEM choose. I'm being sarcastic if you can't tell.
Vote for Pedro
I was showing my iPod off to a girl a couple of months ago, touting the features and telling her about the smaller pink ones that were coming out soon.
She oohed and aahed that thing for quite a while (playing with it the whole time) and then asked one of the silliest questions I'd ever heard.
"Is it easy to use?"
My only response... "You tell me. You're using it right now."
She's since bought her own pink iPod Mini.
fs
See? Straight from the source: men want it now, women will wait for it.
And, no matter what they say, size does matter.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Every time an iPod is dropped God cries. Stop making God cry.
What I will admit is that Apple sells their non-essential items at a significant loss thinking that they will make it up on their over-priced desktops and laptops. Microsoft does the same thing only their main money makers are Windows and Office. It is all about establishing brand image.
So you call that other guy a troll and then when somebody confronts you with facts you turn to sarcasm? Doesn't say much for your character. I think the point was well made that Apple is not doing well in this not so ruined economy.
apple has always been about the experience, it has never stressed on being so technologically advanced (although it's always been one of the foremost innovators in the tech. field) where it forgets about providing users with uncomplicated, effortless and intuitive interfaces. apple is about new-technology wrapped in a great design leading to an experience that endears the user to the machine, and to the brand.
i live on an alternate planet
First of all, the Karma is more comparable to the original iPod than the mini.
Second of all, there's no reason this has to be an either/or thing.
Finally, as much as I like the Karma, I have to take exception to your characterization. Major stereo mags have lauded the iPod audio. Did you perhaps read their review? They wanted to hate the iPod because they hate compressed audio. Instead, it won an award from them. Also note that the Karma has the exact same audio chip the iPod has (I have both taken apart on my desk right now) and to be honest, that chip is the secret to the sound. It sets the fidelity and max power output.
In short, I find your characterization of iPod buyers as shallow annoying to say the least. It isn't as if they are making a major mistake with their purchases, they are getting a good unit.
Finally, gapless playback is a misnomer. MP3s actually have silence encoded within them, so in order to hear no blank space in between, you typically have to crossfade between two of them. This eliminates the gap, but is no less jarring when the beats jump in a music mix. The Karma does this crossfading.
1. Pretty Colors. 2. ??? 3. Profit!
Have you ever seen the average woman's handbag?
That's why it has to be tiny...so she can fit it in there with the approximately 85,000 other objects of approximately the same size.
You know, compacts, tampons, cell fone...
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
ME: My firewall is 127.0.0.1...
911 POLICE SUPPORT: his firewall is 127.34.125.254...
ME: Hmm. Seems to be on the same subnet as mine...
911: Hey.. Its really close...
ME: With those ping times... That is really close...
911: OH MY GOD, THATS IN YOUR OWN HOUSE!!!
ME: What? Bu... *THUD*..........%#$%!$#$#$###NO CARRIER###
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
But so much for the rest of the wrold. We don't have the iTunes Music Store - now it seems we don't even get the player.
Time for me to send Steve Jobs a globe with a big red arrow stuck on it pointing at England, and a note saying "I am here".
I am so smart! S-M-R-T!</homer> :-)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
It's too bad the Microdrive inside the iPod turns out to be not reusable. I was very close to buying one to extract the drive and throw the iPod away. Instead I'll have to buy a Muvo2 - they have 4GB microdrives inside that apparently are not crippled.
At $249, it's a good deal, since the drives alone normally sell for > $400.
Heck, I may even grab an old 128MB CF card I'm not using anymore and keep the Muvo servicable.
I wonder how many people are buying them just for the drive inside?
The iPod mini is still too big for me, I only really like the super small units; if I was going for an iPod I would certainly go for the 15 GB unit for $50 more.
I don't understand the deal with the mini! Why buy the mini when, for fifty bucks more, you can have the regular one? Seems to me that you are loosing 11GB and the ability to have it now, all to save $50. I say, if you're already going to spend $250, don't get scared now - go on and pay the $300 for more space. Is it the size that makes the differance?? The multiple available colors? I really don't understand why the mini is so cool and desireable.
I planned on inserting something witty here but never got around to it.
Crap, now 13 year old kids are buying stuff I've been putting off as 'too expensive'. I gotta get myself a piece of this lucrative babysitting racket...
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
I got an ipod mini the first day they came out and it wouldn't play AAC's without freezing entirely. They replaced it with a new one and it still has the problem they said they would fix.
Do not tell me about geek this and that. Women are not interested in only pink and such ipod materials. If a geek is geek, I call him geek. If girl is geek, then she too is one.
If bad worker ruins the day, I chastize him and chew him out. If he or she performs with diligence, then they are rewarded with recognition and job well done.
iPod? Same logic. No color scheme or marketing ploy will change how women work.
I suggest you read Slashdot
Although I initially thought the $250 price was really high, I understand it now. For those of us with less than 4 gigabytes of music, The iPod mini is not only just as good as the original iPod.... it is better. It has a smaller size, and a better design, for $50 less! It is also good for people with 4+ GB of music that don't need all their music, but enough to last an 8 hour work day or a several day vacation. The only real competition is the Muvo2 at $50 less ... but Apple hardware is always more expensive.
And I doubt the iPod mini costs more than $50 less to manufacture than the standard iPod. Compare it to desktop vs. Notebook hard drives. A 40GB Notebook hard drive goes for $119... a despktop hard drive has 5 times as much space is only $20 more!
Having said all that, I am still not buying one because $250 is too much for me to spend on a portable music player.
Rather than waiting for the iPod Mini overseas release (originally scheduled for April), I purchased one on a timely business trip to San Francisco which happened to coincide with the new downtown SF store opening. Patting myself on the back for purchasing it aside, here are some reasons for its success: 1) Appeal Mostly appeals to the female demographic with the pastel colors, primitive shapes, sleek ergonomics, and conspicuous backlight (reminds me of old B&W macs). Looking at their marketing strategy, you will see the iPod mini with fashion items in department store displays. It becomes a must-have accessory like a certain pair of shoes or handbag, but probably has a higher reusability. Take a look at trends in the digital camera market... portable cameras are becoming more portable (e.g. Casio EXLIM, Pentax Optio-S, Canon SD10, Sony ?) and even use brand names such as Porsche and Coach to enhance their stylishness. 2) Price Competitiveness The closest competitor is the Creative Muvo 2 4GB mp3 player $200, which is somewhat ugly and not highly publicized. Many people have been purchasing the Muvo 2 only to extract the 4GB microdrive and use it in their digital cameras since purchasing a high-speed 4GB microdrive would have cost them $400 more. 3) Usability There is a very short learning curve for this device. There are few enough buttons and features to make it simple enough to use similar to the Mac OS. If you search deeper, you can find a lot more hidden features for the power user. This seems to be a pattern followed by many OS designers including Apple and Microsoft. 4) Performance Having compared the iPod mini to other portable mp3 players such as the Yepp and iRiver, the sound circuitry seems to be higher quality. It's not to the point where it could even replace a quality sound card, but good enough to justify using a nice set of headphones/earphones. The only qualm I have about it is that it crashes every so often... and there's no sad Mac or bomb to indicate it. Moving back to the subject, I don't think it's a mistake not to open it up to other formats since MP3 is still the dominant format. I would predict that 10 years from now, mp3 players will lose their style like the digital watch and will become just another function of another device. But, opening it up to all formats would simply accelerate this process and Apple would not be able to reap as much profit.
have been hearing a lot of rumors that the biggest buyer of the iPod mini has in fact been those female tech geeks out there
translation: I, falcon5768, am a fucking sexist.
If you own an ipod and you are going to rip music, why would you waste your time with mp3, and leave it with itunes AAC default?
Besides, winamp can play it etc...
AAC is the way to go
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
God damn it, I was going to buy one next week, but no, thanks to you I'm going to have to wait until July, thank you very very much!
;-)
Would you please stop hogging them so that we could get at least a couple over here in Europe too
approximately same size as a tampon???? Either you haven't seen {tampon|mini ipod|woman's genitalia}, or you are part of a supersize race!
The negative moderation of the above comment gives more proof of the Jobsian Reality Distortion Field.
Crap, now 13 year old kids are buying stuff I've been putting off as 'too expensive'. I gotta get myself a piece of this lucrative babysitting racket...
... or just a better paid tech job?
"dalying" seems to be one of the cornerstones of apples business. they where doing it with the G5 and they are doing it now with the iPod Mini:
I am an IT-journalist (biggest austrian computer-mag) and ordered a review sample fo the G5 when it was introduced. After 2 months of "we just sent you a sample" we finally got it.
Now it's the same with the iPod Mini. We ordered it, they say we'll have it "the next day", nothing happens.
Apple is creating an artificially high demand for these products by keeping the supply as low as possible. For other businesses it would be a severe problem if they were unable to deliver their product - but apple is actually cashing in on it!
I can only take my hat off to such strategic business competence.
------
move along, nothing to see here
Yeah, you do :)
:)
I'm 13 and I'm already reselling for a webhost (not joking, but only to geeky friends at the moment), not to mention the lead Jazilla developer + a whole lot of other stuff.
I refuse to disclose my financial status except to say that I'm in the black and don't have any debt to anybody
You can believe me or not believe me on this one..
CELLPHONE
You don't have a woman?
Apple found their niche market, flaky bimbos and their dumb enabling boyfriends who buy them whatever they want.
So a man and a woman are in an elevator, and suddenly one of the cables breaks. The elevator brakes catch, but the two passengers inside know they only have a few minutes to live, because it's unlikely rescue will be possible.
So the woman says to the man, "Listen, we only a few minutes to live..make me feel like a woman one last time."
The man thinks about it, nods, and slowly starts removing his clothes, article by article. When he finishes, he hands the pile to her and says, "Fold these."
Rail? Step away from Quake, it's warping your mind.
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
You're 13 years old....who in the world would you have debt TO???
"Apparently those 4-gig,
*What*? "Those" refers to an aforementioned thing, yet here it can only refer to "Apparently".
Have you read my journal today?
So they are short on supply now.
They're going to expand the market world-wide this summer.
They will be extremely short this fall/winter for the holiday season if they don't ramp production up. Infact, if they drop the price another $50, like a lot of people have been guesstimating, they'd better be prepared for the customers clammoring for it for xmas/holiday gifts.
http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal
I think he's talking about the iPod Micro Edition.
I believe another reply to this post missed the issue here.
;^D)
Let's say I'm going to have 100 mini's made a month for 12 months and I have 1200 people willing to pay $150 for them. I could sell 100 a month at $150 for 12 months and rake in $180,000. Not bad.
Let's say, though, that 300 of those people are willing to pay *more* than $150 -- say $250. If I price the mini's at $250 for three months to fit that need, I'll make ($250 * 300) + ($150 * 900) = $210,000! (And that's not including the extra interest from having that higher revenue up front...
Of course it's more complicated than that. Some of those 900 are going to be pissed that they can't get the mini for $150 the first three months, and say 100 will go buy Rios. But the point is that Apple is awfully savvy on prices (*), and though they're turning a few people away now, overall it's better for the company. The fact that they can't supply enough for the demand is good in that people want this product (and Apple stock went up a buck or so yesterday, I *think*; it's near the highest it's been in quite a while), but bad in that you've lost some revenue by underestimating demand -- but good that you've created free media exposure by perhaps planning not to have enough... Let the market-watchers conjecture away.
(*As anyone who's tried to pick a mid-line Mac can tell you. "I think I'll buy an eMac with Superdrive. No, wait, for $XXX I can get the iMac with a larger HD, flat screen... but if I'm going to do that I can get a G4 Powerbook for $XXX..." Two days later you've got a dual G5 staring at you out of its cardboard box.)
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
but women tend to care more about aesthetics more, i think. also, i would guess women to care a little more about [the small size]
Wow... it's turns out I'm a woman and never knew it until now...
But seriously, there's few things I hate more than sweeping generalizations based on gender. Everyone is different.
But Apple wouldn't sell one at any price, because it wouldn't be "a thousand songs in your pocket", unless your collection were encoded at 32 kbps.
Remember, hard drive prices are anything but proportional to their capacities. Apple would not save enough on smaller Microdrives to price minis any lower. And it's not what they want to do anyway.
Let's say all you need is 2GB of songs. That's it.
Now, are you going to pay $250 or $300? But wait, there's a catch - the $250 is also substantially smaller and has better controls!!!
Now how much would you pay?
Your argument is that you would pay more for something that does the same thing, but is bulkier. Mine is that I'd rather buy something for a little less, that also takes less space.
If all you are doing is listening to songs at times during the day, the 2GB is enough for most people. I have an older 5GB iPod and that has enough space that I am very happy with it even for week long road trips. But mostly how I use it is listening during the week to and from work, which hardly needs even 2GB to have a wide variety of stuff. Then I have to charge it anyway which means I sync and the songs change out.
If I were buying today, I'd also buy a MINI iPod - it holds all the songs that I need and is also smaller and thus can be more places the current one is not.
P.S. - The super-size thing was very clear. When I order a combo meal I only eat a few of the fries and almost never finsih the drink. So to add a pound of fries is stupid - all I do is pay more to eat and drink the same amount of food.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
His parents?
I don't want or need a gun, but when people are at risk of being mugged for stupid trinkets, I want them to be able to defend themselves.
After all, most men can kill pretty easily by brute force alone. What hope does a woman have in a one on one mugging situation? None, as far as most muggers are concerned. But if even a small minority of women were carrying concealed weapons, the hazard penalty goes way up for the average criminal, and he/she/it has to factor getting a nut blown off for a stupid trinket into the 'let's rob the shills' job de jour.
Panacea? Hopefuly it's pragmatic. I don't know if people who are too socially brainwashed to poke a pencil in your eye in the name of defense are more likely to be hurt during such an exchange though.