Apple introduces 16GB iPhone, 32GB iPod touch models

[AppleInsider]

Apple on Tuesday added new models of the iPhone and iPod touch which have double the memory, doubling the amount of music, photos and videos that customers can carry with them wherever they go.

The company's iPhone now comes in a new 16GB model for $499, joining the 8GB model for $399. Meanwhile, iPod touch now comes in a 32GB model for $499, joining the 16GB model for $399 and the 8GB model for $299.

“For some users, there’s never enough memory,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. “Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world.”

Both iPhone and iPod touch feature Apple’s Multi-Touch user interface and pioneering software that allows users to find and enjoy all their music, videos, photos and more with just a touch of their finger.

All iPhone and iPod touch models include the latest software enhancements announced last month including the ability to automatically find your location using the new Maps application; create Web Clips for your favorite websites; customize your home screen and watch movies from the new iTunes Movie Rentals.

Pricing & Availability

The new 16GB iPhone is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and AT&T retail and online stores. The 32GB iPod touch is available worldwide immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only.

iPhone and iPod touch require a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later and iTunes 7.6; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 7.6.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[Leppo]

And so the wait for a Macbook Pro update/refresh continues. I'm full of sadness.

[backtomac]

Hope for a 3g iphone before June is fading fast.

Still a nice update.

[saschke]

indeed. yawn...

[.mac]

no 3G

and no updates to mac line (

[chabig]

I'm very happy with these small updates. More memory is always nice to have. This was no doubt simply a matter of availability of higher density chips. 3G, on the other hand, is an entirely new hardware/software platform. That might take a while.

[aiolos]

Gah, why did they have to raise the price 100 bucks, faaaaaaaaaaaack.

[chabig]

Because memory is not free?

[WJHMH]

They really should have kept it the same price, still nice update.

[Steiner]

As much as I love apple I wish they would roll out these products to all the countries at the same time.

In the UK we have no update as of today! But what do I care my iPhone is as good as new and I am not going to upgrade for at least a year!

[Zandros]

How did they fast track this through FFC testing without anyone getting word out?

/Adrian

[Ireland]

touch me

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by aiolos

Gah, why did they have to raise the price 100 bucks, faaaaaaaaaaaack.

You are not very observant are you?

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by WJHMH

They really should have kept it the same price, still nice update.

They did, the just added a bigger model. Wake up people!!

[axc51]

Where's my 10.5.2?

[jont-uk]

Originally Posted by Steiner

As much as I love apple I wish they would roll out these products to all the countries at the same time.

In the UK we have no update as of today! But what do I care my iPhone is as good as new and I am not going to upgrade for at least a year!

Actually the 16gb phone is in the UK now - Applestore Glasgow has them in stock as well. As the new touch and a couple of MacBookAirs ... damn are they gorgeous in the flesh ;-)

Jon

[eAi]

Originally Posted by Steiner

As much as I love apple I wish they would roll out these products to all the countries at the same time.

In the UK we have no update as of today! But what do I care my iPhone is as good as new and I am not going to upgrade for at least a year!

The register is reporting that they're available today in the UK...

[wazup5416km]

$500 for 32GB? I don't think so.

I'll take an 8 GB. All I want is the internet and mail.

[ThunkDifferent.com]

Great news, iJust bought an iphone, now Apple has given me the opportunity to go out and buy another one!

Thunk Different.

[aegisdesign]

£329 (inc VAT) for the 16GB iPhone here in the UK. That's $650. Ouch!

To contrast, on O2's homepage today they're advertising the Black 8GB N95 for free.

Macworld UK is reporting Duffy doing a gig on the 15th Feb in the Regent Street store. I wonder if that corresponds with some other (more interesting) product updates?

[silver99]

Originally Posted by Zandros

How did they fast track this through FFC testing without anyone getting word out?

/Adrian

Why would they have to go through the FFC or FCC or whatever for just a simple memory upgrade. It's not like they're creating a whole new product.

[Ireland]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

£329 (inc VAT) for the 16GB iPhone here in the UK. That's $650. Ouch!

Where (besides Engadget) did you get that price exactly?

[zanshin]

Gotta free up $500 fast now.

Anybody want a black 80Gb 5G VidPod? Got a feeling it's gonna go unused real soon.

[krispie]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

Macworld UK is reporting Duffy doing a gig on the 15th Feb in the Regent Street store. I wonder if that corresponds with some other (more interesting) product updates?

Given that it's Duffy, any new products will presumably be bland and over-rateed.

[NasserAE]

I don't care about 3G. In US 3G is not available in all areas. I don't want to pay more for feature that is not available in my area. I like the added memory more. I will probably replace my iphone when I they release 64 GB iPhone

[iextreme]

I'm kinda surprised by this and worried what it means for the launch of the new MacBook Pros and MacBooks.

While I'm no expert on Apple launch dates, this seems sort of unlike Apple to do, usually they upgrade their iPods all at once during the autumn...

Personally, I think 500 for the 32G is way to much, but if u keep in mind what they are charging for the SSD of 64Gb, it kinda makes since, but would still have been nice if the line would have seen a 50-100 price drop or if they just removed the 8G all together and replaced the 8G-16G, 16-32G at the same price points.

For me, now comes the question, do I really wanna fork out 500 for 32G, nothing lesser will do...

[ShavenYak]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

£329 (inc VAT) for the 16GB iPhone here in the UK. That's $650. Ouch!

To contrast, on O2's homepage today they're advertising the Black 8GB N95 for free.

Macworld UK is reporting Duffy doing a gig on the 15th Feb in the Regent Street store. I wonder if that corresponds with some other (more interesting) product updates?

The N95 costs about $650 (unlocked) over here in the States. No carrier subsidises them. A free N95 and a $650 iPhone is clearly a better deal than a $650 N95 and a $499 iPhone, so kwitcherbitchin.

[ascii]

Those are much more sensible than the original sizes, good job Apple.

Remember a gigabyte isn't what it used to be. The 8GB phone was too low and the quickly discontinued 4GB one just deserved a blank stare.

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by Ireland

Where (besides Engadget) did you get that price exactly?

From the Register article quoted earlier in the thread.

Originally Posted by ShavenYak

The N95 costs about $650 (unlocked) over here in the States. No carrier subsidises them. A free N95 and a $650 iPhone is clearly a better deal than a $650 N95 and a $499 iPhone, so kwitcherbitchin.

But I'm not in Kansas, Toto.

[HyteProsector]

Originally Posted by ThunkDifferent.com

Great news, iJust bought an iphone, now Apple has given me the opportunity to go out and buy another one!

word to the wise: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

It never hurts to do a little research before shelling out hundreds of dollars. They've had this thing on "don't buy" for quite some time.

[solsun]

Originally Posted by ascii

Those are much more sensible than the original sizes, good job Apple.

Remember a gigabyte isn't what it used to be. The 8GB phone was too low and the quickly discontinued 4GB one just deserved a blank stare.

I suppose it's all what you use it for... I have the 8gb and I still have about 2 gigs empty.. Not because I can't fill it up, but because I just don't watch media on my iPhone.. I use it mainly for phone, mail and Safari... Add to that about 100 of my favorite albums and about 500 photos.. That brings me under 6 gigs and I honestly can't see needing any more than that for my phone..

[aegisdesign]

Originally Posted by Ireland

Where (besides Engadget) did you get that price exactly?

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itune...S&NewsID=20350 also has it at £329

[teckstud]

Doesn't it usually work that after a long period of time the price of storage goes down? The increased model then sells for the same as the high end previous version? What gives this time? The 8 &16 GB flash drive hasn't decreased in cost since last September- 6 months? Wouldn't these drop in another 3 months at most? Who would buy now at these prices?

[Flounder]

Originally Posted by iextreme

I'm kinda surprised by this and worried what it means for the launch of the new MacBook Pros and MacBooks.

While I'm no expert on Apple launch dates, this seems sort of unlike Apple to do, usually they upgrade their iPods all at once during the autumn...

This is the same pattern they follow almost every year.

1. Macworld gives us the launch of new, redesigned, or quite significantly upgraded products.

2. People get upset that the normal speed/feature bump of an existing product that is due for an update doesn't happen.

3. The updates that didn't happen in 2 get rolled out during February and March.

In the end, this was a very minor update. The storage increased, but so did the price. It's nothing to get excited about, which is why Apple saw fit to release it on Super Tuesday, when the attention is pretty low.

MBPs might be next week, or they might not be for 6 weeks, but they'll be here by the end of March, guaranteed.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Zandros

How did they fast track this through FFC testing without anyone getting word out?n

What part of the FCC handles non-radio, solid state memory?

Originally Posted by aiolos

Gah, why did they have to raise the price 100 bucks, faaaaaaaaaaaack.

They didn't raise the price of the 8GB iPhone.

Originally Posted by .mac

no 3G

and no updates to mac line (

We will know when a 3G version is coming because the FCC will get ahold of it. Apple will try to make this as fast as possible now so we should see it in stores 8-12 weeks later. I beliive it took 3 months last time, and Im guessing will be able to get this fast tracked. 2.75G iPhone sales will drop significantly once it hits the FCC.

I agree with Flounder, the MB and MBPs will be updated before the end of March accroding to Apple's history. But first Apple needs to give the MBA some time to shine alone as their new portable.

Originally Posted by NasserAE

I don't care about 3G. In US 3G is not available in all areas. I don't want to pay more for feature that is not available in my area. I like the added memory more. I will probably replace my iphone when I they release 64 GB iPhone

I have 1TB of media so I'm not getting one until they have a 1TB SSDs for the iPhone. Seriously, if you want 64GB you'll be waiting awhile. Besides the enormous cost, they don't even that quantity of SSD that will fit in the iPhone.

Originally Posted by Flounder

This is the same pattern they follow almost every year.

1. Macworld gives us the launch of new, redesigned, or quite significantly upgraded products.

2. People get upset that the normal speed/feature bump of an existing product that is due for an update doesn't happen.

3. The updates that didn't happen in 2 get rolled out during February and March.

In the end, this was a very minor update. The storage increased, but so did the price. It's nothing to get excited about, which is why Apple saw fit to release it on Super Tuesday, when the attention is pretty low.

MBPs might be next week, or they might not be for 6 weeks, but they'll be here by the end of March, guaranteed.

There is also another pattern.

1. Apple releases new product or an update to existing product.

2. People start to rejoice that a long awaiting item is here.

3. The rejoicing gets muted by the bellyaching of those who expected more for a lower price or who were expecting something else altogether.


PS: I have a hunch that 10.5.2 will be released this afternoon around 12:30 PST.

[Reaperducer]

Originally Posted by aegisdesign

£329 (inc VAT) for the 16GB iPhone here in the UK. That's $650. Ouch!

To contrast, on O2's homepage today they're advertising the Black 8GB N95 for free.

But then you're stuck with an N95 instead of an iPhone. The two certainly aren't equivalent.

There's a reason they're free.

[CREB]

Originally Posted by NasserAE

I don't care about 3G. In US 3G is not available in all areas.

This is an important statement as most people do not realize that although you may have a 3G capable phone that does not mean that you will receive 3G if you are not in an area that has it. Even in Southern California there are many pockets where you cannot receive 3G, and your phone will simply default to Edge. It is even worse when you happen to live in an area where you can only get Edge and a mile or so away your friend can get 3G. Having a capable 3G phone is no guarantee you will receive 3G.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by aiolos

Gah, why did they have to raise the price 100 bucks, faaaaaaaaaaaack.

What are you talking about: Relative to when I bought mine, they have doubled the memory and lowered the price $100!

[iextreme]

Hey Flounder,

Thanks for clearing that up for me, appreciate it!

But I'm not really worried about the MBP update as I'm not in the market for a new laptop until end of June or July. But that kinda worries me, cause I'll come close to the yearly october/november refresh and I really want a new MacBook that is rumored to maybe come in Aluminum.

The reason I'm worried about this is that I am currently in Japan, but leave in July and my Bro is in America but is leaving in August. Both places, Apple products are between 30-45% cheaper than Sweden...

I don't want to pay a premium just cause I'm not American or Japanese!

[Zandros]

Originally Posted by silver99

Why would they have to go through the FFC or FCC or whatever for just a simple memory upgrade. It's not like they're creating a whole new product.

Originally Posted by solipsism

What part of the FCC handles non-radio, solid state memory?

I don't know, but it seems like Sony has to go through FCC revision for even a simple colour update. Also, I was under the impression that motherboards have to pass (self testing admittedly) FCC regulations, so it's not impossible that there are some regulations for memory, right? There was a Gigabyte motherboard that failed to meet the regulations, but still went to market.

I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the FCC though.

/Adrian