¤ jetless heights

+ Wed, February 23

The Monthly iPod Update

It’s been a month since the iPod shuffle came out, and that’s much too long for Apple to go without generating a metric assload of press off their little white wünderboxes.  “More iPods!” Steve exclaims.

I see one very solid thing and one kinda …crappy thing about today’s update.  They very good thing is that starting at the $100 pricemark, there’s an iPod every $50 and no obvious product cannibalization occurring.  This is very intelligent marketing and it really opens the product up to an enormous range of people.  From $100 to $350, you’ve got your choice of an mp3 player ranging in capacity from 512mb to 30gb and that’s a very major thing.  At the very high end, you can step up the cost $100 and pick up a massive 60gb player.  Based on my library size, that’s about 43 days of non-stop music.

If you ask me, this was a very conscious effort on Apple’s part.  The question is, how do you finagle the devices into the price points without taking losses by underselling?  According to Apple, you take out all the extras.  Nowadays, there’s no iPod that comes with a dock or a case.  Firewire cables are missing from every model updated today (though they all have USB2 cables) and indeed, the iPod mini doesn’t have an AC adapter anymore.  Yes, you can still buy all of these from Apple later, but keep in mind, when I bought my iPod in May of 2003 I got a case, dock, cable set, headphones and even the little headphone remote.  Then again, I paid $150 more than today’s 30gb player and I didn’t get a color screen or 15 hours of music playback.

I don’t view these accessory shortcomings as too much of a detraction.  The USB2 cable is as fine as the Firewire cable, the iPod case Apple makes is wholly inaccessible and the dock, well, you have to admit that a dock is simply an expensive nicety for any device.  If this is what it takes to get these players at the sweet price points they’re at now, so be it.  I expect the $200 4gb player and the $350 color-screen 30gb iPod to sell insanely well over the next few months.  Better than ever, in fact.

(And, for what it’s worth, you can find the older iPod photo’s for $120 off in the Apple rebates section.  40gb player, color screen, 15 hour battery life with a dock and case for only $479.  Not too shabby for you close-eyed readers.)

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