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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).
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
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!
Yes, I'm bitter about Real.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
Because females tend to be more conscious of design/looks. In general men tend to care more about specs (my iPod is bigger then yours). That is why so many ./ers were predicting that it would fail, because it is not meant for this crowd in general.
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.
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
Because it's too hard to play games or watch movies while I'm walking through the city to a friend's house, or while I'm sitting at my desk doing some drafting. I like listening to music while I do those (and other) things, and I want something that does that very well, and doesn't have a big color screen to eat up battery life.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I've met and known many female geeks. The reason most don't know they are there is because a lot of male geeks LOOK like the stereotypical geek. Female geeks do not.
Technicaly...same reason it was cheaper for me to hook up my computer with a TV-out card, than buying even the cheapest DVD-player. I like having everything and the kitchen sink on the same appliance...most people dont want their toaster to connect to the internet... They like tools focused on particular job... Gameboy for game, Ipod for music, watch for time, etc. To each his or her own.
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.
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
But I'm a female geek, and I recently bought a regular iPod. I wanted the extra space, true, but I am also offended that Apple thinks they can get away with giving us less for our money because it is "pretty". Bah.
I could kill you, sure, but I could only make you cry with these words
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?
Apple has had the same strategy for several years now. While it may be cool to have a PocketPC, it is WAY COOLER to have an iPod. The PocketPC is cold and unfeeling, while the iPod has had exceptional marketing exposure... And it seems to be working.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
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
... 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!
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
Macrumors is both rumors and news...
It's been in the news section all day.
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!
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.
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.
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
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?
You've never seen males buying cellphones, laptops or PDA's have you?
Yes I have, and I've never seen a woman with a 17" PowerBook.
I will be the first to admit that I was so freaking WRONG when I thought they would flop. I guess that is why I'm not a CEO.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
Come on. Admit it. You really wanted to insert an "In Soviet Russia" joke in there, didn't you?
I'm posting this anonymously, so as not to waste Karma on advice for the love lorn. When I burn Karma it will be for GNAA or personal attacks on Michael.
You could turn your lack of knowledge of HTML, or other things tech to your advantage. Ask one of these South Asian geek beauties to teach you a little HTML. They might even find it refreshing that you are approaching them as an intellectual supplicant, rather than attempting to show off that you know more than them.
Something else about intelligent women: If you acknowledge their intellectual superiority (whether it's true or not), you'll get a lot farther. I'm not saying to whine or cringe or worship, which would be creepy, but smart women find it a turn on that you would consider them equals or better.
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.
You bought the Karma because you thought that it was superior - just like I bought a Neuros for the same reason. I'm not broken up because iPods are selling like crazy and Neuroses are not. DI sells enough of them to stay in business and keep developing the product. Same with Rio (or whatever the company du jour is now).
At the risk of torturing an analogy to death, it's like the difference between Windows and Linux.
Don't sweat it.
-h-
I no longer own every version. I have bought each successive model as it has come out because of the increased capacity (and I need one more generation because I've got about 7GB more than my 40 GB can hold and I still buy music).
The 5 GB I sold to a friend when my 10 GB arrived. It, then, was given to a closer friend when my 20 GB arrived. That one I traded to a co-worker in exchange for a handmade weaving when my 30 GB arrived. That went on loan to yet another pal when the 40 GB arrived. I'm sure I'll dispose of that somehow when the next-gens arrive. And now, the mini.
So I guess I misspoke -- I never had a 15 GB model. If memory serves, they were initially released when the 20 GBs were so I skipped that particular capacity.
Having had all those iPods, I feel qualified to assert that while the touchpad wheel was a great idea, the touchpad buttons arranged in a row above the wheel was categorically NOT. It's very difficult to find a button in the dark when the "by feel" method will take you off to the hinterlands depending on which button happens to feel a finger first. I absolutely worship the clicking touchwheel on the mini and I will be stunned if that doesn't adorn all future iPod models.
Oh, and I find that with each new release bringing additional features (clocks, games, contacts, etc) the iPod software is more likely to lock up and require a forced reset. Battery life is also declining more than the reduced size would indicate. I loves me some iPod but contrary to popular opinion each new model is _less_ than the one that preceded it.
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
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
"100,000 pre-orders alone [...] the biggest buyer of the iPod mini has in fact been those female tech geeks out there"
I totally deplore this statement... it reeks of macho sexism especially that the poster states that the price is a mistake... what are you saying about female tech geeks... you're implicitly, though obviously, suggesting they're idiots! idiots en masse... no wonder that this male geek crowd has a reputation of being unattractive to females, especially with such attitude!....
The ipod, and even more the ipod mini, is no longer a "GEEK" product... it's a mass market and mass popular culture product now... in fact, it probably never was a intended by apple as a geek product, considering their efforts to make it easy to use... Recently, a British tabloid had a feature about the falling dollar and how much cheaper it is now to shop from the US for UK consumers... they used 3 products as an example; the first was the levi's 501, which is the classic example that as far back as i can remember has always been used as the yardstick for sure features, the second product was apple's ipod!... like it or not, apple's ipod now has the mass recognition that levi's 501 has... not a geek product, it's a popular culture product!
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.
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.
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
is that it's cheaper than the normal iPod, and 4gig is enough disk space for most people
Don't underestimate the size and weight. After shlepping an original iPod around for the past two years, I really appreciate the Mini. And I'm willing to bet I'm not alone.
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.
If you wish in one hand and shit in the other, guess which hand is full?
Apple has no compelling reason to support Real or Microsoft proprietary formats. They are doing infinitely better than any other media player manufacturer supporting just two formats - the 'standard (MP3)' and MP4 (AAC). Of course Ballmer and this Real joker are pissed that Apple isn't biting on their barely-baited hooks. Every time an iPod sells to a Windows customer, you have one more Windows customer who isn't interested in WMA files.
You understand that the reason they're delaying the European roll-out is because they're selling more than they can make, right?
Would it be better if Apple was selling fewer iPods?
It's thinking like yours that makes me laugh every time I think of how "beleaguered" Apple is.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Apple is growing like crazy. Lots of companies are bad at that.
My only point is this: On the list of problems to have, this is a really good one.
Settle down there, big guy. Somebody needs a hug.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I don't think Apple is specifically targeting women. I think it is more of a teenage/young adult focus. However, I do think they were trying to break into the "ooh, pink!" market. Why else would they make a pink one?
I could kill you, sure, but I could only make you cry with these words
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.
in addition: have you ever seen 50 cent on MTV holding a geek product in his hand? i thought so. this is pretty much when it was plain obvious and for anybody to see: the iPod is not a geek product.
_every_ teenager wants one. they don't know or care that the Nomad whatever or the Dell fuglybox exist. those things are geek products (geeks buy them, too).
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.