Quote:
Originally Posted by
ak1808 
I think that they will replace the iPod nano line with an iPhone nano at the same price points.
No touchscreen, but instead a back-illuminated touchpad that can do a "clickwheel" and a "number pad" or "text pad" mode. GSM, no SIM-lock, world-wide availble immediately.
Why? The price difference between a 4GB nano and a 4GB Sandisk has gone to 100$, which basically shows how cheap flash memory has gotten. Now, they could obivously do the same as last year: Change the design a bit, double the capacity, sell that.
But: This will get old soon. In fact, very soon. Expect vastly more music phones next year, everywhere. I would assume that even low-end phones will include a 1 Gig flash player and a headphone jack. Just because it is soo cheap to do that. Then, in order to sell a nano, you need to convince all these people that the MP3 on their phone is too crappy, and that they actually need something better. I find that a hard sell. Remember: Up till now, most phones did not have MP3, if you wanted it you paid a lot extra, and, as pointed out, Sync/Headphones was an issue. That will change next year.
The whole iPhone thing was to aggressivly attack the coming transition from stand-alone MP3 players to cell phones taking that over. Apple know this is coming.
Now, consider the alternative I discribed: With the margins the iPod nano is enjoying at the moment, it is absolutly possible to include Microphone, Loudspeaker and Phone Chip for the same price as now (these components should be max. 30$).
In one big swoop (Christmas) Apple would get roughly 8-10 million of their Phones out into the market. In one blow, they would hit the phone market, hard. And the entire threat of mobile phones replacing iPods would be gone forever. Now, iPods would be replacing mobile phones.
Who would have thought that?
:-) I know it's bold, but I could imagine Jobs doing that.
What do you think?
When I was reading your post, I was agreeing with you more and more. At first I was shocked by the prospect of seeing the iPod nano go, but then again, it wouldn't be the first time Apple replaces their best-selling product with something even more awesome (and even better-selling
).
Simply adding a basic phone functionality to the iPod nano makes sense. The additional GSM chipset really shouldn't be that expensive (I think $30 is a bit much; Mel?) and neither should it be too big or power-hungry to fit in a slightly revised / thicker iPod nano enclosure. And, as you said, sell them un-locked, worldwide. Just insert your SIM and you're good to go.
I do have two minor points, though. Why shouldn't it just keep the click-wheel? It has been said in these forums before: How often do you actually dial in a phone number on your cell phone? You have your contacts list, or your missed calls list; and for the rare occasion you actually do have to dial in a phone number, the click-wheel works well enough. Although I have to admit that SMS would be kind of cumbersome this way. And your price points are too low. $299 for the only model, which would have to be limited to 4 GB so as not to outshine its bigger brother. Possibly a 4 and a 8 GB upgraded 2G iPod nano at $149 and $199, respectively. Hell (sorry, Kasper), add a 16 GB model at $249 to fill the gap. Or price the one with phone functionality at $249, making my entire point redundant. Oh, well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ak1808
And the entire threat of mobile phones replacing iPods would be gone forever. Now, iPods would be replacing mobile phones.
Who would have thought that?
Genius. And after the transition is complete, they'll all be named iPods again. They're still pods, after all.
See you at the Munich store opening next year.
