Slashdot Mirror
iPod Generation 4 Released
I_am_Rambi writes "According to MSNBC "The considerably tweaked fourth-generation iPod will roll out this week, and Newsweek got an advance peek. It looks a bit different, operates more efficiently, has a few more features and costs less. Here are the highlights...." Improved battery life, upto 12 hours, a click wheel, more efficient menus, multiple on the go play list, and probably one of the best changes is a lower price. $399 (down from $499) for a 40 gig, $299 (down from $399) for a 20 gig, and there are no 15 gig versions." And you can read Apple's iPod site for the full details.
Why do they refuse to offer an iPod for $200?
Umm... Marketing?
The iPod is very successful. Right now, the people that are buying them are going to pay a premium. When this market is saturated, they can then sell lower priced versions. This is pretty straight forward economics.
I'll be one of the first to buy the cheap version that comes out around Christmas time.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Sadly, the cost to make a tiny hard drive like that doesn't go down. Capacities go up, but the expensive part is the actual physical hardware, not the capacity. I agree that I would have seriously considered getting a 15GB if it were dropped $100.
The emperor is naked.
Why do they refuse to offer an iPod for $200? They'd sell like hotcakes. Not everyone needs 40 freakin' gigs.
They're already selling like hotcakes, nimrod.
Q: Why would you drop the price on something that you already can't make enough of?
A: You're an idiot?
If this post offends you, it's because the truth hurts. Try saving up, it's how a lot of us can afford expensive items.
I wish!
I don't see any technical reason why things like multiple generated playlists, speed-variable playback and hearing the clicker through the headphones can't be done on current iPods.
However, the current update page seems to restrict those features the the newest model.
I wish Apple wouldn't try and alienate their older customers so much like this. With software, it isn't so bad since the investment usually isn't as large. But with firmware and hardware, the investment can be quite conciderable.
In addition to the marketing aspects pointed out by other folks, let me remind you of the economics of marking these things.
Hard disks, such as those used in the iPod, have high fixed costs to produce. So while it may be possible to cram more bits in the same package as technology advances, its difficult to take an older, smaller disk and produce them cheaply. The single biggest cost in producing an iPod is the hard disk. QED, etc.
Also, given that iPods in all varieties have been selling like hotcakes from the start, why would Apple want to lower the price? Clearly lots of people are willing to pay the $300-$500...I know I was.
for bringing their products to the masses.
Now its cool to own mac stuff, and not as geeky. When im podding down the street I get stopped by common folk, conversations are struck and I'm meeting new people all from a little white music device.
"oh I want one of those, whats yours" - is all thats said until a conversation is struck.
I have a 3rd gen ipod, and very happy with it. I wont bother with a mini, or the 4th because mine is going great guns.
Some would say expensive, but if they can charge the market and get away with it to get the best margin then goodluck to them.
Sure.
20 gigs: $299
40 gigs: $399
15 gigs with Ogg support: $499
I mean, come on. What do you really mean by "huge?" They obviously don't feel that the cost of integrating the feature would be worth the effort. And when I think about it, I can't blame them: hell, I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't have included mp3 support if it wasn't for the fact that the installed base made that the "cost of entry" for the device to the market. Otherwise, they'd just have gone with AAC (and later, ALC).
Oh, and by the way: what do you mean by "many like you?"
Somehow, I kinda doubt your conception of "many" jibes with theirs.
I used to feel the same. Finally I admitted I'd made the wrong choice, re-ripped as VBR mp3s, got an iPod and never looked back.
/.ers tend to overestimate the real world impact of their pet technologies.
It's not the first time (and won't be the last) that I'd backed the wrong horse. For instance, I preferred the Amiga to the PC, but I lost out there too. Market forces meant that I either stayed back with my little minority interest and my politics, or I (begrudgingly at first) followed the herd.
I held out for a good while for ogg support, now I've had 9 months of happy iPodding and I couldn't care less. I really don't see the benefit of vorbis over decent bitrate VBR. I also don't think 95% of the people who've bought iPods have any idea at all what ogg, flac, aiff, audible and so on are.
Whenever I see the spec, though, I always wonder how many people are carrying round an iPod full of WAVs...
My record collection was entirely converted to VQF. VQF. It was going to be the next big thing-- sounded better than mp3 at lower bitrates. Well, we all know how that turned out... who's heard of vqf now?
Learned an important lesson about "better" standards. Unless it's got widespread adoption, or improves things by an order of magnitude, it's not going anywhere. Vorbis may sneak in as people start using it here and there (video games, etc...) just because it's free, but I'd expect that to take a LONG time. For now, I'm sticking with mp3 for portables, and keeping the files in FLAC for easy reconversion next time. If only I'd had the storage space for that the first time around-- converting LPs is *tedious*.
This isn't as complex as you are trying to make it.
here's how this works:
1. The low end iPod doesn't have a dock or carrying case. It never has.
2. The 15GB model has been eliminated, and the 20GB is now the low end.
3. The 20GB iPod cost you $399 yesterday, and now it costs $299.
Therefore, with these three statements, there was a price reduction, and the product line has been enhanced where the accessory opkits remain the same.
Stop thinking you're getting screwed when you really aren't.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.