Apple adjusts iPod touch, nano, classic prices ahead of event

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 67
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anthonydavis31 View Post


    Now the store has been taken down...



    Oh no!

    Great first post- thanks for the heads up! Welcome.
  • Reply 42 of 67
    The UK store has just closed for updating. It will be iteresting to see what prices they come back with.



    I use a Classic to store my music so if a 64gb is not forthcoming I may just buy a cheaper 'older' model for video/photos/internet.
  • Reply 43 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aduzik View Post


    This makes perfect sense if reports of production problems are true. Who would buy an iPod at full price today knowing that a much better iPod is going to be available in a month or so? If it's also true that the entire iPod line has been discontinued, as some retailers have reported, this also supports the notion that there is a production delay.



    I really don't see Apple keeping the current lineup and adding all-new models. It would be very un-Apple to sell a fancy new iPod touch with a camera (and maybe the processor from the 3GS?) for $20 more than an otherwise identical iPod without one.



    On the other hand, if the new product is more of a departure from current Touch models than is being anticipated, it makes sense that the old versions would linger on. It is far more likely that were Apple to add a camera, a better processor, etc. to the existing form factor, the expected approach would be to hold the line on pricing and count on better performance to sustain sales. On the other hand, more substantial form-factor changes, in the order of the Touch compared to the Classic, would warrant the new model sold alongside the old one. 1 p.m. Eastern can't come fast enough.
  • Reply 44 of 67
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rmm21 View Post


    Anyone else think it funny how direct price comparisons are made between the old Ipod Touch and the new Zune HD?



    I hope Apple releases OLED Ipods at today's event or they will face some serious competition with Microsoft's soon to be released offering. The HD playback and the screen on the Zune HD will put some serious hurt in the Apple portable camp if they don't upgrade today. Apple makes incredibly high quality stuff but OLED displays are the future.



    ZUNE has audio HD play back

    and if they gave away the zune it still would not touch the pod family. The zune is a worldwide joke
  • Reply 45 of 67
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by noexpectations View Post


    This is going to be a very boring event if all there is are new iPods w/cameras.



    Ok, how about Apple takes all those 10" touch screens they supposedly bought and make a home media client. Sort of an AppleTV for the kitchen, bedroom, wherever. Doesn't have to be super thin or portable, so cheaper to build than a touch. Sort of like a digital photo frame form factor. Tabletop or wall mountable. Access shared iTunes libraries with coverflow. Dashboard widgets for weather, recipes, etc. Home automation companies can make control widgets.



    Totally making that up...but maybe...just something for you to get excited about before the inevitable let down.
  • Reply 46 of 67
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brucep View Post


    ZUNE has audio HD play back

    and if they gave away the zune it still would not touch the pod family. The zune is a worldwide joke



    Actually, while the Zune does not have an HD display, I think it can output HD video for display on a TV. And of course it can scale down and play that HD video on it's own display. The advantage is that you don't need to download both an SD and HD version of your videos like you do with iTunes. HD for your computer and AppleTV and SD for your portable devices.



    And I do think it would be a nice feature addition to the touch (and iPhone). It would solve the portability problem with iTunes movies. I can buy or rent a DVD and take it to my friend's house for movie night. I can't do that with iTunes HD content. It's strictly tied to my computer and can't leave the house. If I could load it to my touch and plug it into my friend's HDTV, that would be a plus in my book. Of course, Apple would charge $99 for the adaptor cable.
  • Reply 47 of 67
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wiggin View Post


    Actually, while the Zune does not have an HD display, I think it can output HD video for display on a TV. And of course it can scale down and play that HD video on it's own display. The advantage is that you don't need to download both an SD and HD version of your videos like you do with iTunes. HD for your computer and AppleTV and SD for your portable devices.



    And I do think it would be a nice feature addition to the touch (and iPhone). It would solve the portability problem with iTunes movies. I can buy or rent a DVD and take it to my friend's house for movie night. I can't do that with iTunes HD content. It's strictly tied to my computer and can't leave the house. If I could load it to my touch and plug it into my friend's HDTV, that would be a plus in my book. Of course, Apple would charge $99 for the adaptor cable.



    Off topic question: Why is it that when you buy a SD movie from iTunes , it will play back on computer, Apple TV , or portable devices. Yet a Quicktime movie can only be converted to 1 of the 3 formats and they are incompatible with each other?
  • Reply 48 of 67
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hattig View Post


    Sucks if you bought one recently, especially the 32GB ... This lends credence to the rumour that the new iPods will be slightly delayed. ... Either that, or Apple want a firesale of existing iPods to clear the way for the new iPods. ...



    I don't think any of these reasons are necessarily true. You're putting a negative spin on a price drop when there are other reasons that could be at work. In any case I think you always have ten days to exchange something when the price drops on an Apple product.



    This is a good thing for the consumer and a good thing for "the show" they are going to have later today, so why can't that simply be the reason? Most consumers of Apple products don't know there is an event today or that new products are going to be announced, it's only the keeners like us that are in that group. This way, instead of buying an iPOd and finding out in the media the very next day that a new one came out, at least the end user can tell themselves that they got the old one at a reduced price if they don't want to bother returning it.



    Secondly, I have always found the talk about prices at Apple's events to be kind of crass and off-topic for the event. When they start flashing the prices on the screen and the audience starts cheering it reminds me more of one of those tacky commercials where they are selling food processors or a trip to the county fair.



    The event is really about product design and engineering in software and hardware IMO. Keeping those tacky "reveals" of the prices out of the picture would be fine by me.
  • Reply 49 of 67
    Zune HD will be for sale with OLED display, in just 6 days...



    It would be really weak if Apple doesn't beat their main competitor, Microsoft, on this technological 'next thing'.



    Bare in mind, Apple has put 0.5 Billion! US$ into LG's OLED development around a year ago, and LG are already producing the new 15" OLED that will likely be seen in an updated MacBook Pro soon.



    The current display on iPod Touch and iPhone is crap, the contrast, colors and viewing angle sucks big time.



    People who has never seen the quality difference between LCD (and iTouch's is a quite bad LCD) and OLED might not see this as an important feature, but trust me, when people see the new Zune HD next to an iTouch they will understand.



    OLED is without a doubt the future, and Apple already bet $ 500.000.000 on it! Let's see if they got something out of the investment by now..



    Neeper
  • Reply 50 of 67
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dudley View Post


    It does have the slightly crappy side effect that the ipod touch 32gb now costs more £s than it does $s despite a 1.6 exchange rate.



    Although some (but by no means all) of that difference is accounted for by the £ prices already including VAT. Is the temporarily reduced rate of 15% (down from 17.5%) still in effect in the UK, Dudley?



    In the US prices are always expressed exclusive of sales tax, which is then added at the time of sale at a rate dependent on state/locality. US sales taxes are generally in the 5-8% area, although a few places (e.g. New Hampshire) have none, and some major metro areas have higher rates after state and city/county taxes are combined.
  • Reply 51 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by teckstud View Post


    Oh no!

    Great first post- thanks for the heads up! Welcome.



    Be nice teckstud. Not everyone is sadly glued to the internet like you are Mr. 4000+ poster.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brucep View Post


    ZUNE has audio HD play back

    and if they gave away the zune it still would not touch the pod family. The zune is a worldwide joke



    The preview reviews for the Zune HD have been highly positive. The thing is a beast for video with Tegra inside. Nothing current as of yet from Apple compares.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Neeper View Post


    Zune HD will be for sale with OLED display, in just 6 days...



    The current display on iPod Touch and iPhone is crap, the contrast, colors and viewing angle sucks big time.



    People who has never seen the quality difference between LCD (and iTouch's is a quite bad LCD) and OLED might not see this as an important feature, but trust me, when people see the new Zune HD next to an iTouch they will understand.



    OLED is without a doubt the future, and Apple already bet $ 500.000.000 on it! Let's see if they got something out of the investment by now..



    Neeper



    I see Apple releasing a larger screen Ipod Touch today with some additional boring bumps in specs across the line. I'm crossing my fingers for OLED though. Neeper was right in saying the present Touch screen is just barely decent.



    Of course i'd rather have a Tablet!
  • Reply 52 of 67
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by teckstud View Post


    Off topic question: Why is it that when you buy a SD movie from iTunes , it will play back on computer, Apple TV , or portable devices. Yet a Quicktime movie can only be converted to 1 of the 3 formats and they are incompatible with each other?



    They aren't strictly incompatible with each other. The settings to get a "universal" format that will play on all devices can be confusing, but it is possible to convert your QuickTime files to a format that will play everywhere. There are utilities you can download that can help with the process (don't ask me which ones, I use a Mac mini for my HTPC and it can play anything I throw at it).



    I can see limiting the codec and resolutions supported on portable devices. They have limited processing power and the chips that support the decoding of video may only support a subset of the QuickTime codecs (namely MPEG4 and h.264). However, there is no excuse for Apple to not support the entire set of QT codecs on AppleTV. I shouldn't have to convert any of my QT files to play on what is essentially a low-powered Mac. If it plays in iTunes/QT, it should play on AppleTV without conversion.
  • Reply 53 of 67
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Neeper View Post


    OLED is without a doubt the future.



    OLED has been the technology of the future for several years now, and at its present rate of commercialization may always be.
  • Reply 54 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by teckstud View Post


    Looks like a slick attempt to pre-empt any MS Zune talking points regarding pricing.



    If Apple was pricing iPods to counter any competitor, let alone Microsoft, that would be even more weird.



    And yeah, SGSStateStudent, I realize the hypothetical Touch Classic is probably never going to happen. But, whatever.
  • Reply 55 of 67
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rmm21 View Post


    Be nice teckstud. Not everyone is sadly glued to the internet like you are Mr. 4000+ poster.




    I wasn't nice?

    It is your post that isn't.

    I can't help it if you can't multitask. 4000+ is nothing for 2 years worth.

    And besides who's counting? They could hide that count for all I care.
  • Reply 56 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Carmissimo View Post


    On the other hand, if the new product is more of a departure from current Touch models than is being anticipated, it makes sense that the old versions would linger on. It is far more likely that were Apple to add a camera, a better processor, etc. to the existing form factor, the expected approach would be to hold the line on pricing and count on better performance to sustain sales. On the other hand, more substantial form-factor changes, in the order of the Touch compared to the Classic, would warrant the new model sold alongside the old one. 1 p.m. Eastern can't come fast enough.



    I can see them selling a 16/32/64 GB iPod touch + New Features! at $229/$299/$399 -- but not alongside the 8/16/32 GB iPod touch (w/o New Features!) at $189/$249/$279. I really don't see them interspersing less featureful models with new, more featureful models at similar price points. All of Apple's other pricing is cumulative within a product line -- if you spend $100 more, you get all the features of the cheaper model plus something else (c.f. iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS).



    I think this would be confusing from a pricing/features perspective, and I just don't see Apple doing it. Steve Jobs famously took a hatchet to the Mac product line when he came back for exactly this reason. I think the iPod price cuts are temporary. A big part of why Apple keeps their new products secret is purely pragmatic: if you knew for certain that a new model was coming, you'd wait to buy that, or you'd buy the existing model at a discount, but we all know how Apple feels about putting anything on sale. I think manufacturing issues may have forced their hand in this case and that these are sale prices, but Apple won't call them sale prices.
  • Reply 57 of 67
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wiggin View Post


    However, there is no excuse for Apple to not support the entire set of QT codecs on AppleTV. I shouldn't have to convert any of my QT files to play on what is essentially a low-powered Mac. If it plays in iTunes/QT, it should play on AppleTV without conversion.



    That's exactly what I was thinking. I thought for sure that Quicktime 10 would have adressed this issue more than the fancy newlook. I went to convert a movie the other night and saw the 3 options and I still can't believe it. I don't want to make 2 versions- 1 for iPhone/Pod and 1 for ATV.
  • Reply 58 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by teckstud View Post


    I wasn't nice?

    It is your post that isn't.

    I can't help it if you can't multitask. 4000+ is nothing.

    And besides who's counting? They could hide that count for all I care.



    Trust me. You really should care.
  • Reply 59 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NeilM View Post


    Although some (but by no means all) of that difference is accounted for by the £ prices already including VAT. Is the temporarily reduced rate of 15% (down from 17.5%) still in effect in the UK, Dudley?



    In the US prices are always expressed exclusive of sales tax, which is then added at the time of sale at a rate dependent on state/locality. US sales taxes are generally in the 5-8% area, although a few places (e.g. New Hampshire) have none, and some major metro areas have higher rates after state and city/county taxes are combined.



    Oh I know all that but it used to be £283 vs $399, which is ~$450 or so.



    Now it's £283 vs $279, which is just silly
  • Reply 60 of 67
    teckstudteckstud Posts: 6,476member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by isaidso View Post


    Trust me. You really should care.



    Well, you obviously apppear to enjoy reading them and commenting on them.



    4,000 post over 2 years equals roughly 40 posts per week or 8 per work day. That's hardly excessive.

    Peace.
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