Gee you'd think by now all the price sensitive folk here would have things figured out.
The harddrive is a NEW premium product. In six months expect a price drop and one additional member of the miniPod family, with a slightly larger drive capacity. Just in time for Xmas. Yes, Apple finally has a product that sells in droves over the holiday season. And yes, people will pay a premium price for tiny shiny things.
Exactly -- remember the initial price of the iPod? Hint: not $299.
Apple is maintaining their margins for an exciting, sleek new product... when the novelty wears off a bit, and (more importantly) the cost of the miniPod's HD comes down, they'll lower the price.
I see $199 being the magic number before they'll really take off, but I guess we'll see...
Yes, Apple has the market share, but it's this type of arrogance and pricing that has it's OS at 3-5 percent.
It's cool, it's sexy...but you want to own the market for years to come, lower the cost so that kids can at least save up their allowance to buy one. Get the kids hooked, and you'll have them when they get into adulthood.
I was really looking forward to this announcement and while the unit itself is good looking, I agree with the others on the price point. Steve made the comment its only 50 dollars more than the flash-based Rio, but its only 50 dollars more to a 15GB iPod....
I am paying 50 bucks less for a color body, 2/3 the size and 1/4 the space... I don't think so. Price drops to follow IMHO.
It is interesting to me that people are bitching about this price...the ****ing thing is amazing. It is what I have on my desk right now except waaaaay smaller. I bought the original iPod for $400 back in the day (plus tax) and I have 1,100 songs on it.
THIS THING COMES TWO YEARS LATER AND HOLDS THE SAME AMMOUNT OF MUSIC IN A SMALLER ENCLOSURE (WITH COLORS hehe) AND COSTS $150 LESS!!! I'm so on board with this, I think it will sell like hotcakes because it trounces other similarly priced players. Also, take into account that the reason some people are saying this about price is because we are comparing it to other iPods, for a moment look at the shitty 3rd party stuff and check out its price/performance. Apple hit a home run, a 500 foot homerun and I love it...even if it comes in Pink.
At first I thought this was the biggest ripoff Apple's ever done, considering you can get nearly 4 times the capacity for an extra 50 bucks, but then I looked at the size of the thing.
It's tiny. I mean, really, really tiny. I'm looking at my tiny Sony Ericsson T610 phone right now, and the iPod Mini is actually smaller than that. That's amazing.
But still, aside from not being ideal for jogging, is the regular iPod's size that much of an issue? Plus, I'm worried the iPod Mini will be too easy to just plain lose. My cell phone slides out of my pocket on a regular basis and if I were less attentive, I know I'd have left it over at friends' houses numerous times by now.
I won't worry too much though... I'm quite happy with my 15GB iPod.
This was made entirely for the Asian/Japanese markets.
Only people here with a lot of money would choose this over the 15 GB unit for only 50$ more.
The reason this is being sold is to cater to the Japanese market which likes smaller electronics(partially because of smaller hand sizes and just the smaller form factor the asian markets are accustomed to). This was made to battle Asian clones. Period.
You can say that about everything Apple or any other tech firm produces. All this whining reminds me of when the iPod first came out. "Its' just an mp3 player with a hard drive and it costs so much!" Well, did you see the sales chart have you read all the press? Sales are climbing and now they offer more choice and a greater range of prices. If you want a $99 iPod you can wait a few years while the rest of us have fun with our iPods.
Yes, Apple has the market share, but it's this type of arrogance and pricing that has it's OS at 3-5 percent.
I don't think price is even close to the first reason why Apple's marketshare is so low. I'll nominate: People use Windows at work or whatever, and don't even think of buying something different that they would have to learn how to use. Most people don't bother to find out that learning to use a Mac is easier than using a Windows machine that they already know how to use!
I'm not saying you can't argue with Apple's pricing... just don't blame their marketshare on it. Apple can't keep up with demand for the iPod at the current pricing, and their marketshare isn't suffering. Apple will need to start worrying about price competition when it looks as if anyone will be able to match Apple's user experience. The key for Apple is to maintain or improve the user experience while reducing prices in order to gain market dominance. When the portable MP3 and online music experience becomes synonymous with the iPod and iTMS, Apple won't have to worry about serious competition of the basis of price, because at that point people won't consider anything else -- just like Windows.
But yes, the mini could stand to be $50 cheaper... and soon please, Steve!
Let's see, me a consumer sees the ad for the mini ipod comparing it to the other $199 players. Oh my gosh, for only $50 more I can carry 940 more songs, must have.
As I enter the local Apple store to buy this astonishing new mini ipod to join the ranks of the stylish.
Sales rep comes over, "Good day, may I help you? You seem very interested in the stylish new mpg-3 killer the new mini ipod. Yes it is much much better than the competition, more songs, small and best of all has the Apple interface for cruising tunes."
Sales rep continues,"Before you make a decision, might I show this 15 gigabite iPod. For ONLY $50 more it holds an astonishing bazillion songs, you can partition the hard drive to hold back up computer data or system software, you know, just in case you may wish to run disc utilities to repair your desktop. Imagine 7.5 X's the storage, extra utility, you just can't go wrong with this. ALL FOR ONLY $50 more".
I say Apple positioned this mini ipod exactly where they wanted it. Seems like Apple's marketing is in overdrive.
Look at the SE T610 sales figures in the US to see why this statement is full of crap. Americans like small too.
Acccording to Japanese sources the Ipod sales figures are quite low because of the large form factor. So Americans obviously don't like small quite as much as Asians now do they.
Its evolution instead of revolution. I also think that when it drops $70-100, it will sell in real numbers. BUT - I do not see many people buying this as a replacement for a current iPod. I'm still on a 2-year old 5gigger, which is fine. Maybe in a few years time, when you can get a cheaper version with ~15 gigs storage, I'll buy, but only if there are versions of the microphone and digital media reader that work with it (note: the iPod mini does NOT work with the current versions of these products)
These are totally different products. the iPod Mini goes after the flash market. It's like comparing $/ghz with Mac vs PC.
But the iPod mini is not a flash player, it still has a hard drive.
I still find it more fragile than a flash based player. Some people, some who have had hard drives die on them, will still be reluctant to buy them and use them in extreme conditions. One benefit of flash players over hard drive players is that the flash can take a beating/bumps/scrapes and keep chugging along. There are no moving parts. (Not counting the scroll wheel) If I encounter those conditions I would use a flash player instead of my iPod.
Yup, when it gets either cheaper or bigger capacity I'll even get one. And a Mic. When production scales up and Flash gets cheaper this year, the price will drop probably by 50% or more.
One thing: Apple is getting retarded again with proprietary connections. ADC is dumb. So is the "Dock". What the crap is the reason for the iPod "Dock?" It makes charging a little more convenient but a real pain if you forget your Dock and go anywhere. A regular FireWire port added would be peachy.
Apple is going to own the MP3 player market in 3 months. Mark my words. Steve was right, the high end flash player is now owned by the iPod mini. What the iPod did for the hard drive market the mini is going to do for the high end flash market. Compared to other iPods this isn't the greatest deal, but compared to a $199 flash player there is no question which is better.
Well done Apple, soon your market share will be 60%.
THIS THING COMES TWO YEARS LATER AND HOLDS THE SAME AMMOUNT OF MUSIC IN A SMALLER ENCLOSURE (WITH COLORS hehe) AND COSTS $150 LESS!!!
Yes, in a vacuum $249 isn't unreasonable. But it's not in a vacuum; the 15 GB model is only $50 more, so I don't see why anybody would buy the mini. Yeah, it's tiny and cute, but so was the Cube.
Comments
Originally posted by cowerd
Gee you'd think by now all the price sensitive folk here would have things figured out.
The harddrive is a NEW premium product. In six months expect a price drop and one additional member of the miniPod family, with a slightly larger drive capacity. Just in time for Xmas. Yes, Apple finally has a product that sells in droves over the holiday season. And yes, people will pay a premium price for tiny shiny things.
Exactly -- remember the initial price of the iPod? Hint: not $299.
Apple is maintaining their margins for an exciting, sleek new product... when the novelty wears off a bit, and (more importantly) the cost of the miniPod's HD comes down, they'll lower the price.
I see $199 being the magic number before they'll really take off, but I guess we'll see...
...in the back of your mind...
YOU KNOW YOU STILL WANT ONE!
Yes, Apple has the market share, but it's this type of arrogance and pricing that has it's OS at 3-5 percent.
It's cool, it's sexy...but you want to own the market for years to come, lower the cost so that kids can at least save up their allowance to buy one. Get the kids hooked, and you'll have them when they get into adulthood.
Originally posted by Powerdoc
5 colors : pink, green, blue, gold and alu.
Where's purple?!?
I am paying 50 bucks less for a color body, 2/3 the size and 1/4 the space... I don't think so. Price drops to follow IMHO.
THIS THING COMES TWO YEARS LATER AND HOLDS THE SAME AMMOUNT OF MUSIC IN A SMALLER ENCLOSURE (WITH COLORS hehe) AND COSTS $150 LESS!!! I'm so on board with this, I think it will sell like hotcakes because it trounces other similarly priced players. Also, take into account that the reason some people are saying this about price is because we are comparing it to other iPods, for a moment look at the shitty 3rd party stuff and check out its price/performance. Apple hit a home run, a 500 foot homerun and I love it...even if it comes in Pink.
It's tiny. I mean, really, really tiny. I'm looking at my tiny Sony Ericsson T610 phone right now, and the iPod Mini is actually smaller than that. That's amazing.
But still, aside from not being ideal for jogging, is the regular iPod's size that much of an issue? Plus, I'm worried the iPod Mini will be too easy to just plain lose. My cell phone slides out of my pocket on a regular basis and if I were less attentive, I know I'd have left it over at friends' houses numerous times by now.
I won't worry too much though... I'm quite happy with my 15GB iPod.
[edited to correct punctuation]
Only people here with a lot of money would choose this over the 15 GB unit for only 50$ more.
The reason this is being sold is to cater to the Japanese market which likes smaller electronics(partially because of smaller hand sizes and just the smaller form factor the asian markets are accustomed to). This was made to battle Asian clones. Period.
Originally posted by imanta
[B Price drops to follow IMHO. [/B]
You can say that about everything Apple or any other tech firm produces. All this whining reminds me of when the iPod first came out. "Its' just an mp3 player with a hard drive and it costs so much!" Well, did you see the sales chart have you read all the press? Sales are climbing and now they offer more choice and a greater range of prices. If you want a $99 iPod you can wait a few years while the rest of us have fun with our iPods.
Originally posted by CosmoNut
I'll admit it's sexy, but WAAAAYYYYY overpriced!
Price per gigabyte:
iPod 40GB: $12.48
iPod 20GB: $19.95
iPod 15GB: $19.93
iPod mini: $62.25!!!
If iPod mini were $199: $49.75/Gb
If iPod mini were $149: $37.25/Gb
If iPod mini were $129: $32.25/Gb
1. They should have left the bottom iPod at 10Gb.
2. This is the most blatantly overpriced Apple product I've ever seen.
I'm glad I'd never want that small of storage, because I'd never pay that price.
These are totally different products. the iPod Mini goes after the flash market. It's like comparing $/ghz with Mac vs PC.
Originally posted by satchmo
Yes, Apple has the market share, but it's this type of arrogance and pricing that has it's OS at 3-5 percent.
I don't think price is even close to the first reason why Apple's marketshare is so low. I'll nominate: People use Windows at work or whatever, and don't even think of buying something different that they would have to learn how to use. Most people don't bother to find out that learning to use a Mac is easier than using a Windows machine that they already know how to use!
I'm not saying you can't argue with Apple's pricing... just don't blame their marketshare on it. Apple can't keep up with demand for the iPod at the current pricing, and their marketshare isn't suffering. Apple will need to start worrying about price competition when it looks as if anyone will be able to match Apple's user experience. The key for Apple is to maintain or improve the user experience while reducing prices in order to gain market dominance. When the portable MP3 and online music experience becomes synonymous with the iPod and iTMS, Apple won't have to worry about serious competition of the basis of price, because at that point people won't consider anything else -- just like Windows.
But yes, the mini could stand to be $50 cheaper... and soon please, Steve!
As I enter the local Apple store to buy this astonishing new mini ipod to join the ranks of the stylish.
Sales rep comes over, "Good day, may I help you? You seem very interested in the stylish new mpg-3 killer the new mini ipod. Yes it is much much better than the competition, more songs, small and best of all has the Apple interface for cruising tunes."
Sales rep continues,"Before you make a decision, might I show this 15 gigabite iPod. For ONLY $50 more it holds an astonishing bazillion songs, you can partition the hard drive to hold back up computer data or system software, you know, just in case you may wish to run disc utilities to repair your desktop. Imagine 7.5 X's the storage, extra utility, you just can't go wrong with this. ALL FOR ONLY $50 more".
I say Apple positioned this mini ipod exactly where they wanted it. Seems like Apple's marketing is in overdrive.
Originally posted by tonton
Look at the SE T610 sales figures in the US to see why this statement is full of crap. Americans like small too.
Acccording to Japanese sources the Ipod sales figures are quite low because of the large form factor. So Americans obviously don't like small quite as much as Asians now do they.
David
Originally posted by Nebrie
These are totally different products. the iPod Mini goes after the flash market. It's like comparing $/ghz with Mac vs PC.
But the iPod mini is not a flash player, it still has a hard drive.
I still find it more fragile than a flash based player. Some people, some who have had hard drives die on them, will still be reluctant to buy them and use them in extreme conditions. One benefit of flash players over hard drive players is that the flash can take a beating/bumps/scrapes and keep chugging along. There are no moving parts. (Not counting the scroll wheel) If I encounter those conditions I would use a flash player instead of my iPod.
Yup, when it gets either cheaper or bigger capacity I'll even get one. And a Mic. When production scales up and Flash gets cheaper this year, the price will drop probably by 50% or more.
One thing: Apple is getting retarded again with proprietary connections. ADC is dumb. So is the "Dock". What the crap is the reason for the iPod "Dock?" It makes charging a little more convenient but a real pain if you forget your Dock and go anywhere. A regular FireWire port added would be peachy.
Well done Apple, soon your market share will be 60%.
Originally posted by Messiahtosh
THIS THING COMES TWO YEARS LATER AND HOLDS THE SAME AMMOUNT OF MUSIC IN A SMALLER ENCLOSURE (WITH COLORS hehe) AND COSTS $150 LESS!!!
Yes, in a vacuum $249 isn't unreasonable. But it's not in a vacuum; the 15 GB model is only $50 more, so I don't see why anybody would buy the mini. Yeah, it's tiny and cute, but so was the Cube.