“Is $249 a mass-market price tag for a portable music player? That’s the debate raging in consumer electronics circles after Apple Computer debuted its latest version of the iPod, which hit stores Feb. 20… some observers are concerned that Apple’s asking price for the Mini — which weighs 3.6 ounces and holds 1,000 songs — freezes out many casual music fans who otherwise would be interested in buying the device. ‘I’m disappointed with the price point,’ says a major-label technology executive who had hoped that pre-announcement rumors of a $100 retail price would prove to be true,” Brian Garrity reports for Billboard.
“Certainly, the price point is not stopping curious consumers from lining up to buy the latest iPod. Early demand for the Mini appears to be high, according to the company. Apple reports that it has already received more than 100,000 pre-orders for the product. ‘The response to the Mini iPod has been off the charts,’ Apple senior VP of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller said in a statement,” Garrity reports.
“Apple is not just comparing the Mini with the standard iPod in its marketing efforts. It is also positioning it as a better alternative to high-end, flash media-based products offered by companies like Digital Networks North America, maker of the Rio line of portable music players. Flash media is a removable storage media used in digital cameras and some MP3 players. Apple iPods, by contrast, are essentially portable computer hard drives. Flash players typically carry only a couple of hours of music, but they also are less expensive, costing $200 or less. Apple’s argument is that for consumers considering pricier flash-based devices, the Mini, which is of rival size and holds much more music, is only about $50 more,” Garrity reports.
Garrity reports, “‘They’ve priced themselves out of the market,’ Richard Bullwinkle, a senior product manager at Rio Audio, told Billboard in an interview earlier this year.”
Full article here.
Headline should be:
“RIO executive shows they still don’t get it.”
LOL!
They don’t get out much over there at RIO do they ? ;o)
Yeah right! That’s why their 1.5GB player is $199. Hmmm, 4GB for $249 or 1.5GB for $199. http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=219&cat=53
When you sell at Wal-Mart & K-Mart you have to market to the lowest common denominator. Rio can have the polyester & Chevy crowd.
Sour grapes. I could be biased, but it seems that every advertisement of a PC version of a music player makes a silent and subtle point that it is just a good as the �Real McCoy�, an iPod or a mini. If this were so where are the sales statistics to verify this assertion? All I ever read is opinion and insults. I have yet to see any hard, numerical data.
Funnily I have never seen any hype about the Rio player … At business school no-one talks about anything other than the iPod mini … A biased sample … maybe, but no doubt with-in a year apple will have a 1GB mini selling for around $150 – $200 and then we will see who is out of the market.
The bottom line is that Design matters, and people are willing to spend the extra bucks to buy not only greater capacity but also the best interface and product design.
Good luck Rio
Yep, that RIO executive is right, errrr… wait, I just bought my mini about 3 hours ago and I have never taken any portable music player seriously. There’s a reason why we don’t know anyone who owns a RIO product.
“Yeah right! That’s why their 1.5GB player is $199. Hmmm, 4GB for $249 or 1.5GB for $199. ”
This is the same argument for $15GB iPod vs. 4GB iPod Mini. I think the argument is better if you just say $199 for Rio player (blah!) vs. $249 for iPod mini with award winning design,interface and ease of use.
I think it’s inaccurate to assert that good design always wins, otherwise the world would be full of Mac users, and Microsoft would be a footnote, maybe still selling programming languages and educational software. (Remember that?)
It would be more accurate to say design matters in this market. Cool counts here, because cool counts to people who like music. Probably, what happened is Apple was first to market with a truly portable device that could hold most people’s entire MP3 collection. And since it’s Apple, it was elegant and well designed. It was storage capacity and size that brought them in. Remember, the HD-based leader at the time was the Nomad JukeBox, which was ugly, and had a terrible interface. Apple defined the market, and added elegance and coolness into the mix. And here we are. That doesn’t mean it will always work this way.
At any rate, I love my iPod. It is my constant companion. The fact that it is cool looking is icing on the whole-music-collection cake.
People can whine disappointments and wonder “why not?” all they like but by now (and for now) it seems obvious Apple simply is *not interested* in producing products catering to an overcrowded “bottom dweller/feeder” market and the iPod mini is yet another example of that.
Man I love this! It’s like hearing the pig squeal when it’s being put down!!!
ummmmm $499 ipods sell great so yeah, $249 is mass market too
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did he try one? i’d have paid $299 for the mini now that i’ve tried it.
meat of moose – I’m right with ya – same principle as the downloadable music beef I’ve had for months with the “others” – show us the hard numbers – which, since they’ve been so quiet, can only be interpreted as “dismal” and no where near the rate that iTMS has been doing. Can’t wait to hear how quickly Apple touts selling its 1 millionth iPod mini. Where will the Rio be? Tanning on a beach somewhere?
Don’t get too worked up about this article. The guy’s just taking potshots because he’s worried, they all are. Apple’s enormous success with the iPod in terms of to-die-for brand recognition, engineering and interface has them circling the wagons in terror. Cupertino is eating their lunch with the iPod, and now an arguably cooler, and better-engineered gadget than the original ‘Pod is carving away at the flash-based segment of the market. The truth is that the mini is an excellent value compared to flash-based players, so they have to spread some FUD (read bullshit) to slow the erosion. It’s the same story as with Buymusic.com (remember them?) and Napster vs iTMS.
“did he try one? i’d have paid $299 for the mini now that i’ve tried it.”
Mac Beth,
Don’t start with the geeks in this thread. Make sure you keep the observations strictly about music! Thanks for the laughs the other day, my sides still hurt!
Why would one expect the competition to say otherwise?
Not only does the iPod Mini have them worried, it has them confused. They couldn’t make an iPod Mini if they tried. Because if they hired good designers and hardware people, and programmers, etc., they couldn’t RECOGNIZE when they had something good, or bad, or anything.
I guarantee you that 75% of the people who buy iPods now are doing it because it has been determined, decided, LOCKED IN that iPods are cool. So it’s what the the people are buying.
5% of consumers for any target demographic audience decide what the rest of the group buys. But most people FACING a decision as to what looks good or bad, or is elegant or klunky, without someone to TELL them really have no idea. As a creative person who presents ‘ideas’ to clients I have discovered that most clients are only comfortable approving something that has already been determined ‘to work’.
The Apple 1984 commercial was universally panned by the Apple Board of Directors as a disaster. But that commercial has been voted by the advertising community as the best commercial ever, and in hindsight everyone ‘knows’ it was great. So, the people who make the other mp3 players would have a hard time matching the ‘look and feel’ of the iPod, because there is an excellent chance that they would not recognize a ‘good’ mp3 player from a ‘bad’ one.
They are eunuchs in a harem. They know how it’s done, they see it done every day, but they cannot do it themselves. But somewhere, SOMEONE with good taste is probably working on an iPod killer. But then the battle will be harder to fight than now. Because they will be selling against an iPod World. An iTunes World. An ITMS World. An iPod Peripherals World. Whatever happens, it is going to be very interesting. Because the iPod is like a black hole, or a super collapsed star with tremendous gravity that bends and warps the fabric of the techno-universe, and with it the fate of Apple and the rest of computer industry, for a long time.
david vesey
p.s. Some people will counter with, ‘if coolness lifted the iPod, why not the Mac’? The answer is that iPod is under $500, a psychological ceiling for electronic gadgets like digital cameras and DVD players, etc. The Macintosh has always been a bit steeper than most people wanted to go, regardless of the value.
And you DON’T wear your Mac on your belt or on a lanyard.
Imagine the shame of showing up in public with a Rio, when all your friends had iPods?
Shit. My morning coffee isn’t helping. It is not safe to go to sleep. You never know what Americans can do. Like open their mouth. Apple out of the market? What is this guy thinking. Apple is the market. I need more coffee.
I’m sorry, I just find it hilarious that the exec from Rio is named “Bullwinkle”.
“Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a stupid misinformed quote outta my hat!”
“Again?”
David: Thanks for the good read!
mrandre,
Good point. I was just trying to point out that some of us reject the price/gigabyte argument in the iPod vs. iPod mini debate. It would be hypocritical of us to turn around and used the exact same argument against Rio.
Complaints continue to arise about the price of the iPod mini which is obviously a very appealing product because of its size, style, quality, etc. My question to the naysayers is this ” How much would it cost another company to make an equivalent product as the iPod mini?” By ‘equivalent’ I mean ‘equivalent’ not a cheap knockoff. If the answer is that it can not be done for less than Apple charges then there is no substance to the complaints.
Well then, Mr Bullwinkle, if Apple have priced themselves out of the market, you have nothing to worry about, do you?
Ipod is way way too expensive, period. Mini, Maxi, whatever. Eventually prices will see some sense – but I expect it wont be Apple leading the price charge as usual.
When you can’t tout yer own, slam the other guy. Sorta like George Bush’s strategy.
Geee, that 1.5GB Rio Nitrus for $200 is such a great deal compared to a $250 4GB Apple iPod mini.