Isn't it time to bring a $200 iPod to market?

satchmo

<a href="http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-3622-8-20498979-1.html?tag=sd"; target="_blank">http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-3622-8-20498979-1.html?tag=sd</a>;



As reported on cnet, new MP3 players will be priced about $100 (and lower) in time for the Christmas season.

While none of these have the capacity or speed of the iPod, they are very tempting to many who will never spend $300 for one.



An iPod price drop to $200 will certainly make it difficult to pass up. Plus all the development costs should be recouped by now.

I doubt we'll see this, but perhaps a discount will be forth coming in a "buy a mac, get $100 off an iPod promo".

ghost_user_name

Unfortunately, I don't see this happening yet (if ever). Sure components may be cheap enough for Apple to do that, but would it?



Consider that some people have been practically begging for a cheap $600 Mac from Apple. Sure, that's been *possible* for ages, but it never happened. The lowest the iMac ever got was US$800, right? Even that low-end deal only lasted about 6 months before it was bumped up to US$900.

groverat

For $200, I would pounce on an iPod with a great pouncing motion.

torifile

[quote]Originally posted by groverat:

<strong>For $200, I would pounce on an iPod with a great pouncing motion.</strong><hr></blockquote>



If you make a video of yourself doing that great pouncing motion, I'm sure you could subsidize the extra $69 ($269 for the ed price). I know I'd chip in a buck if it were good enough.

eugene

Apple would probably go down to $200-250, but not too much past that. The 5 GB iPod is currently the worst deal out of the bunch.



$100 more get you 5 GB, $40 remote and a $40 case...marked up of course, but still

$100 on top of that gets you another 10 GB.



Still, Apple isn't in the business of selling bargain basement mp3 players. SonicBlue is currently trying to sell a 192 MB Rio 900 for $250.

nebagakid

Any time is a good time for a 100 dollar price drop... and doing that to the iPod would make it one of the most popular electronic (number wise) in the industry



it is great, and everyone wants it, Mac and Windows users alike <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

thegelding

i too would love to see a price drop as i plan to buy two at christmas....but remember that this is not a printer that companies sell at either no profit or at a loss because they make their money off ink sales....once apple sells an iPod they make no more money off it, so they have to make their cash on the initial sell....what i would love to see them do is price the mac version at 20 to 30 bucks less than the windows version...sort of as both a thank you to mac users and as an extra incentive for window users to "switch"...g



window version--5 gig 279, 10 gig 379, 20 gig 479

mac version--- 5 gig 249, 10 gig 349, 20 gig 449

edu price---same as mac price or 5% less....

satchmo

Well, maybe $200 is an extreme. Perhaps as some have suggested, $249.



Gelding, the $20 price difference you suggest is not enough. Make the Mac version at least $50 less to lure PC users to our side.

matsu

The mac only iPod held its course for a while 'cause it was drool worthy and there weren't any real alternatives. People would (and did) pay for it. Now it's on the PC too, and all those PC early adopters/techno-fetishists will have to pay for it too, for at least one x-mas season before it drops.



Then there's the drive size dillemma. Apple probably doesn't get 5GB drives for half the price of 10GB. 10Gb is probably the sweet spot right now, and given the touch wheel, thinness, ear-buds and case, Apple may be tempted to drop the 5GB model altogether, drop the ten and twenty down a rung on the price ladder and intro a new 30-40GB version on the top end.



Personally, I think a 199 iPod would sell like mad, particularly if they added a tuner to it. For my own selfish needs, if it had a voice recorder on it, I'd have one already, maybe two. I'm just not sure if Apple is interested in doing any of those things with the iPod.



One way to go, would be to put the HDD in a PC-card carrier like <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezine/cart_mobilphile1.htm"; target="_blank">this offering from Toshiba</a>. Then you could buy bigger HDD down the line and use the old one as a back-up in your notebook, or, heaven forbid the disk should fail, you could change it with minimal effort. One problem is that PC-card HDD's tend to cost as much as iPods anyway. Grrr...



[ 10-10-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>

groverat

I require gigabytes, not megabytes. I have 40 gigs of mp3s, most of it at 320VBR. 128MB will not suffice.



5g would be fine, 10 better and 20 even better than that.

spindler

"I doubt we'll see this, but perhaps a discount will be forth coming in a "buy a mac, get $100 off an iPod promo". "



Let's look at what happened with the iPod in the past. Apple introduced it and kept it Mac only and it did not convince people to buy a PC because of it. Apple only sold like 60,000 in a quarter and I doubt that more than 10,000 bought a Mac just to use it.



Then Apple DID have a $100 off promo. It was $399 normally and $299 if you bought it with a Mac. Sales of the iPod did not go up for that quarter, so the $100 off did nothing to convince PC users. So Apple realized there was no reason to keep it PC only. Maybe when PC users use the iPod it will make them a little more interested in trying a Mac in the future.



So there is really nothing at all for Apple to gain by making the Mac version $30 cheaper. It's not going to convince a PC user to buy a Mac. Apple wants to make money like everyone else. They have no reason at all to sell the iPod for cheap because marketshare doesn't really matter in this case.



When you buy a pint of Ben and Jerry's it costs more because it's better and they can charge a higher price. The same thing holds with the iPod. Apple needs to put more billions in the bank to be able to do the R&D to make new products. Products like the Cube obvious risk losses. If they can make the profits that analysts suggest, they can take $200 million more and put it into R&D.

thegelding

yes, but the mac version has been out longer....so apple should be charging a higher price for the windows version for a while as the pc/windows people that really want an iPod will still buy one at the higher price (just like mac people had to buy at a higher price for some time)...they should be cutting the price on the mac side as they try to get more people to buy them...so i stand by the numbers above (except that maybe the windows version should stay 299, 399, 499 awhile to suck some money from those suckas)...g



window version--5 gig 279, 10 gig 379, 20 gig 479

mac version--- 5 gig 249, 10 gig 349, 20 gig 449

ast3r3x

[quote]Originally posted by thegelding:

<strong>yes, but the mac version has been out longer....so apple should be charging a higher price for the windows version for a while as the pc/windows people that really want an iPod will still buy one at the higher price (just like mac people had to buy at a higher price for some time)...they should be cutting the price on the mac side as they try to get more people to buy them...so i stand by the numbers above (except that maybe the windows version should stay 299, 399, 499 awhile to suck some money from those suckas)...g



window version--5 gig 279, 10 gig 379, 20 gig 479

mac version--- 5 gig 249, 10 gig 349, 20 gig 449</strong><hr></blockquote>



isn't the mac and windows version the same t hing, jsut with the drive formatted different and software to talk to the iPod? its the same HW, so price wouldn't change...199 for the 5GB would be amazing, and it would sell great, but apple might not get the profits they are looking for, 249 sounds more likly and will probably be announced at MWSF...but if a new model is introduced then the 5gb will almost most def be 199...becuase 10gb is the sweet spot like previously said...so if it movies to 20gb being the spot, then 199 is possible

matsu

Actually, I think the differences are even less than that. I don't know how accurate this is, but I read somewhere that the HDD formatting is the same, just the software bundle and the firewire connector differ (as many PC's don't send power over firewire.)

thegelding

yes, but even if they are the same to make, one is old and one is new....charging more for a windows version (or hopefully charging less for the mac version) is normal for a "new" product...and the iPod is new for windows users....you charge a premium to "i gotta be the first" types and then drop the price later to expand you market...if they charge a bit more to the pc people, they can charge less to the mac people and still make their profit...g

robo

Yeah.. i've wanted an iPod for a while, but couldn't quite convince myself that it was worth $300 plus.



However, you can get refurbished 5GB models now for under $240 (just got one from Zones for $239).



It's a good deal, i think.



But Apple really could drop the price some more. I'm certain that the 5GB model is costing them less than $100 to produce.. a 100% markup to $200 would not be too shabby, even for Apple



-robo

satchmo

[quote]Originally posted by robo:

<strong>



However, you can get refurbished 5GB models now for under $240 (just got one from Zones for $239).



It's a good deal, i think.



-robo</strong><hr></blockquote>



Hey Robo, thanks for the heads up. I went to MacZone and they mention that it's a package that someone has returned. Did you get one and if so, what sort of condition was it in?



I've never tried the Zones, are they reputable?



thanks