Steve Jobs is preparing to hold a press conference [reality distortion field test] in London tomorrow regarding the launch of a new product line for Apple. Everyone’s money is on it being the 6th Generation iPod. The current sales of iPod have been on a decline in recent months and with the holiday shopping season right around the corner, Apple is bound to strike while the iron is hot. Countless forums/sites/blogs have suggested everything from an iPhone-inspired design to a somewhat evolved interpretation of the Nano that does away with the hard drive and replaces it with a large amount of flash memory and a much larger screen. There is, of course, the possibility that both rumors are true and they’re actually separate products which will be announced simultaneously.
I’ve had a few iPods and I know they’re not perfect. Apple isn’t perfect either, but the iPod’s simplicity is hard to overlook compared to competitors. They are definitely the 800 lb. gorilla in this segment, though I’d be lying if I said I haven’t found myself wondering whether the concept of market saturation applies to the iPod. Once the market is saturated enough, they bring on a redesign and engage the reality distortion field and presto … market saturation disappears as hundreds of thousands of people abandon their old iPod in favor of a new one, or at least it seems that way. I mean, how many other manufacturers have that kind of control over adoption of freshly-designed product? You ever heard any hype over the release of a redesigned Creative Zen, Toshiba Gigabeat, or an iRiver Whatchamacallit? I haven’t.
I doubt I’ll be replacing my 5G anytime soon, but I’m still anxious to see what the new one’s all about. Any speculation is welcome … though all speculation should be over by this time tomorrow. Who’s excited? Anyone? Anyone?
I’m curious to see what they come up with. I’ve thought off and on about replacing my Dell DJ with the 80GB iPod, but I wanted to see what the new generation has in store first.
The nano is already flash-based. But I’ve seen supposed leaked photos/promotional images from Apple, and it is redesigned. Not as tall, but wider, with a larger screen. Odds are, it will be a nano that does video playback.
This. A lot of people on the Apple rumor sites I frequent seem to want an iPod that also has access to the Web and e-mail and, well, everything the iPhone has except for a phone.
All I want is a widescreen, touchscreen iPod that will play my music, photos and videos.
Yeah, that sounds good. I don’t have an iPod yet, but I want one that does these things and has lots and lots of memory. 80GB at least. I don’t want it to be a phone. I already have one of those. If they could bring it in for under $350, that would be nice too because I don’t NEED an iPod, but I want one, and definitely won’t pay more than that.
I know, I was trying to suggest the possibility that the new regular model might emulate the wafer-thin design of the Nano, but in a larger, wider format, but since I think such a move would be considered under-delivering, I doubt it’ll be the regular model. That’s why I offered the idea that maybe the leaked photos are just one of the products being debuted (probably the new Nano). It’ll probably gain video playback as well, so the regular model is gonna have to add some “premium” new features that won’t be seen on Nano (i.e. Wi-Fi)
My suggestion was that they might be replacing the hard drive in the regular model with a flash memory setup, leaving the micro-drive behind completely. I’d imagine the Nano would move to the 5-15GB range, while the standard iPod would come with something in the range of 40-80GB, also memory-based. I’m probably way off in left field on the assumption that they’d charge less than market rate for current flash memory prices, but I’d imagine Apple is looking for ways to cut back on battery usage and the potential for defective hard drives, and a decrease in mechanical moving parts would certainly help. You can get 8GB and 16GB SecureDigital and CompactFlash cards now for $100-150, so the memory cost really isn’t out of the question for the price I’d expect them to charge if they package it properly.
Of course, it’s likely that all my speculation on memory-based solutions is probably premature and they’ll be sticking with hard drives, too.
I’m not an expert, but I think the kind of flash memory used in iPods (NAND Flash) is different from what you use in a SD or CompactFlash card. Basically, those two formats don’t work fast enough to effectively replace a hard drive. And an 80GB NAND flash iPod would cost so much that no one would buy it.
I am guessing that the prices will stay the same. Apple’s philosophy lately has been to increase features over time while maintaining the same price points.
I bought a 5G iPod the week they were announced, a couple of years ago, and mine’s starting to show it’s age. 60gb isn’t big enough, and I’m starting to see weird screen freezes and stutters (which could be the drive wearing out - lord knows I’ve run it hard enough). A widescreen would be really nice, since I’m doing a lot of videos on planes (although I just got a pair of MyVu video goggles). 100-160 gb would be really nice. Upping the RAM cache (regular RAM, not NAND RAM) to 1 or 2 gb would be really nice, since it would let the drive spin down for an entire 2 hour movie. Probably any combination of the above would prompt me to buy this week, AS LONG AS THE DOCK CONNECTOR DOES NOT CHANGE. Touch screen, wi-fi, Safari, would probably make me think it was the coolest thing I own.
I’ll be on the road during the keynote tomorrow (which I’m pretty sure is going to be at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, not London), but MacRumors will be pushing live updates via SMS; I’ll probably sign up for those in the morning.
It doesn’t even have to have a touchscreen to be an improvement. If it just had one of those hard, durable screens I’d eventually consider buying one. I’m really paranoid about my 5G screen, which is why it’s encased in silicone.
My ipod video recently broke. The mechanic says it’s the “logic board” whatever the hell that is. It was only 1.5 years old and I babied that thing. I’m not happy. But I’ve invested a small fortune on iTunes so the only choice is to buy another iPod.
Now I see that the 80 gb ipod video is selling at apple.com for $350. Target and Costco are both sold out, which I thought was odd. A new version explains that.
Now the question is do i fork out $350 for the 80 gb one or hold off for the new one? The problem with waiting for the new one is that I invested quite a bit of money on accessories and I’m afraid the new one won’t fit the battery charger, case, travel adapter, etc.
BTW, Amazon had 80 gb ipods for nearly $500. Apple.com has them for $350. I hope people do some price comparisons before they buy…
Electronics on Amazon seems to be a scam these days. I’d steer away from them on anything electronical, or anything that is reserved for their “preferred sellers.”
$589.62!!! That’s fucking bizarre. Notice that they’re actually being sold by a third-party dealer called Wall Street Photo. A few months ago they were being sold directly by Amazon and the price was lower than Apple’s.
I always buy Apple stuff on Amazon. It’s usually the best deal, since no one else has any discount at all (and Amazon has a few percent) and there’s no sales tax.
It is rather interesting that they have no stock of anything at the moment at Amazon themselves.
I’m on a live chat feed from the event and here’s some basic specs:
The new Nano will come in 4GB and 8GB versions priced at $150 and $200. The 4GB will only come in silver but the 8GB will come in several colors.
The new “iPod Touch” will come in, get this, 80GB and 160GB versions, and both are thinner than their 30/80GB predecessors. Supposedly one of them is only 8mm thick, which is even thinner than iPhone. Pricing remains on par with the 5G prices: $250 for 80GB and $350 for 160GB. Apparently they will come in either silver or black, no mention of white. The interface is apparently quite similar to the iPhone’s, but I haven’t seen it yet.
All of these are shipping now and should be available by the weekend, perhaps sooner, at Apple stores.
