“Macworld spoke with Apple’s iPod worldwide product marketing manager Danika Cleary as the company prepares to ship its new iPod mini in the US on Friday. iPod mini costs $249 in the US
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it�s the old half full/half empty argument…depends on how you look at it.
Real question is if mini-iPod steals sales from higher-capacity iPod or does mini-iPod expand Apple�s market…
i work at an apple store in the bay area cali, and let me tell you, this thing is going to be a smash success. we get tons of calls from people asking about the mini as well as people coming to the store looking for the mini. the demand is insane. while the mini is not OUT yet, we do have some ipodmini shells out on displaly. these things are sweet. if i didnt own a 15 gig already, i’d snatch a silver one in an instant
if the mini does steal market share from the original ipods then i guess the critics of the mini’s price were really wrong…. sure people could get a 15 gig ipod for $50 more but they decided to stick to the mini… apple’s bet that people will buy the product because of its form paid off
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> hope that doesn’t happen though… at least apple got the first part right… it wasn’t overpriced for the market… hope this model extends the market instead of leeching off its big sisters…..
What are the mac faithfull?
If the pricing is right then why do pundits comment that it will down over time?
Nobody doubts that the mini will do well, very very well. The point is though that it is still too expensive for what it is and it could have done phenominally well.
Any fool can overprice and item.
Yawn. You buy it or you don’t. I will. The Blue one looks good.
Reminds me something:
Blue and White.
John, what on earth is your problem? How are you determining that it’s still too expensive? Too expensive based on what? Competition? Nope. Component prices? Hardly, considering that these harddrives for cameras cost about twice as much, and that’s just the drive. Or is it just that you can’t afford it personally? Big deal. Neither can I at the moment., but I can’t call it overpriced just because I cant afford it. So please, do enlighten us!
John,
Prices always go down over time. Also, if you remember your economics classes, there is this little thing about supply and demand. If you can’t meet the demand, you might as well raise the price.
The ‘price’ was ‘right’ for the market at this moment. It leaves room for an adjustment during the summer Mac Expo. Once demand goes through the roof and costs of smaller hard drives goes down, we will finally see a $199 iPod Mini. And on top of that the storage will go from 4 to maybe 8 gigs and an iPod Mini for $199 with 8 gigs of sorage will take over the market with ease..and very fast. Until, of course, the Video iPod is released.
QUOTE OF THE DECADE:
“The Mac faithful do not generally understand retail”
So true, since “retail” implies competition. When you have to buy whatever Jobs squirts out, you’re shopping at the company store.
Video iPod with 5″ letterbox screen! $250.00 USD. Glasses with 1/2″ thick lenses so you can see the f__king movies extra.
I believe that the mini is the higher end ipod (after all, it does have an aluminum exterior, and not white plastic), just not the higher capacity one. It’s a bargain at $250. I’m sick of people saying Apple would sell tons more at $199. They’d sell even more at $150.
Not all of us need 15-40GB in a portable music player. I have a monster CD collection but have just over 1100 songs loaded into my iTunes. 1,000 songs is more than enough for most of us.
Well, something is right about the iPod mini. 100,000 units pre-ordered.
“Any fool can overprice and item.” – John
Maybe so, but it takes a genius to overprice an item and sell it like there’s no tomorrow.
The fact is, iPod mini is truly a new product in a lot of sense. Take the hard drive for example. Or the click wheel. It takes money to design this thing. It takes money to start an assembly line to produce this thing. When you don’t produce many, the parts are expensive. When things ramp up, prices go down. Simple economics.
Despite my joke above, iPod mini is not overpriced. Pricey, yes, but not overpriced or expensive. Some people don’t make this distinction, sometimes.
I think the “Mac faithful” comment was ignorant and insensitive, but I don’t have a huge problem with the pricing. Rio’s 1.5 GB Flash player is $199, making the mini look like a decent value with more than twice as much storage for $50 more.
Has this topic been firmly beaten into the ground yet or am I crazy? Who gives a cr*p? If people want a cheaper player they can always get one… I think I recently saw a 1986 Sony cassette tape Walkman w/ 5 band graphicEQ on Ebay for $50.00 (includes acid-wash jeans, original retail price $449.00). You see, there are are always options for the ridiculously foolish.
XP, what competition? from dull? where’s the competition to the iPod? Everything else is second class, at best on a really good day. Go download a patch, oh, and watch out for Bagle B and Netsky B, they’re looking for you!
tread, who cares what people use to listen to music? This ipod thing is a smokescreen for the big issue. Look at what apples gig is, selling underperforming computers that are too expensive or decent ones (finally) that are way too expensive. You are right, no competition, and what it got you is what you got…..a siphon from your pocket to apples.
I will take easy to avoid bugs over a ream job anyday.
” The point is though that it is still too expensive for what it is and it could have done phenominally well.”
John,
I strongly disagree with your assertion. Too expensive compared with what? Its flash-based rivals? Absolutely not. It’s more capable than most and actually costs less than several. I refer you to Ars Technica’s comparison.
“It’s a bargain at $250. I’m sick of people saying Apple would sell tons more at $199. They’d sell even more at $150.”
Well said b. Sorry about our little tiff last night, especially as it was based on a misunderstanding. Hope you have a good day.
Hey, I bet there’d be a lot more beemers on the road if they sold them for 50 bucks a pop. Does that mean they’re overpriced? (okay, personally, I wouldn’t pay the extra for a bmw, but that’s more a matter of different values than price)
Btw, treadlightly. Why are you talking to the deluded idiot? You trying to analyse him?
I wish Apple would create a 120GB iPod. That way I can take my music and files anywhere, transfer video and images from my digital camera and video camera, and for the fun of it! = )
How about xServe Raid? 3.5Tera? Include one APC UPS and there you go. Battery life depends wich UPS you choose
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Rop=is me.
That was a typo
The iPod Mini will partly take sales from the full iPod (which doesn’t actually harm Apple: the Mini’s long-term success will be good for them), and will partly sell to people who wouldn’t have gotten anything until the iPod caught their eye.
And it will partly sell to people who would have spent $330 on 120 songs:
http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/ifp-595t.asp
Or worse yet, $450 on 240 songs:
http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/ifp-599t.asp
Apparently it’s the size that makes people buy those. And the Mini is smaller and much easier to use. A better music player by far, with a different set of non-music features than iRiver has.
Hey Bo’ster, I try to at least give ’em a chance at being reasonable (you never know, might turn into a switcher someday). XP chose to prove to be an unreasonable troll, so I’m back with you now.
Making my points is unreasonable? Rolling out the virus issue and the ancient and hackneyed BMW thing is childish. We are talking price and competition. There aren’t any clones so you guys have one expensive source for COMPUTERS. BMW has competition, all the overpriced euro crap on wheels you can think of.
Who can switch to apple when the cheap stuff is slow and the fast stuff costs too much? Not an informed buyer, unless “informed” by this herd.
Simple points, I would think simple people could get it without having to drag out the same old kneejerk responses. Heavy on the Jerk. Have a nice life buying substandard equipment while apple makes a mint off ya. Suckers.
Mr. XP,
I, like you, use XP. I, like you, don’t own a Mac. XP is the best Wintel OS there has ever been. I’m not on a network so the updates and patches don’t cause me problems. For the first time ever I have a really stable PC. Now that I have one I desperately want a Mac. Why? Because when I used to have to do everything by command line to make it work I needed to win: I never looked elsewhere. When she crashed every day it must be my fault: I never looked elsewhere. It is like a girlfriend you don’t fancy: you spend years worrying why you can’t make it work, then you meet someone who turns your stomach inside out with the lust, and you realise – your girlfriend is ugly. XP works, viral and security problems aside(big aside), but she sure is ugly.
I bought an iPod. The Apple lovers on this site will be glad to know that this act got me to look at Macs more closely. Anyone who thinks capacity, speed, and price are the only criteria is narrow. Who on this site would take a ten bedroom house in Gdansk over a four bedroomed apartment in Manhattan?
Hopefully within six months I will have a powerbook – and when I have the money I will come back here and ask people who, unlike me, know how Macs work; which should I buy?
As a follow up – if Longhorn is as stable as OSX, will lots of IT guys be out of jobs? If so, will the IT guys that purchase still have to recommend Windows to keep their jobs, or will they be able to pick the one they actually like? Maybe a stable MS OS would actually lose them money. Just a thought.
Jackson – You are going to LOVE your Apple laptop! I’m ecstatic with my G3 iBook. Good luck savin’ up, it is well worth the wait and hard earned money! Cheers!
Jackson,
My family (brothers and sister and our kids included) have among us a Blueberry iBook, five 12″ G3 iBooks, two 14″ G3 iBooks, one 14″ G4 iBook, three 12″ PowerBooks, two 15″ Titanium PowerBooks and three 15″ Al Powerbooks. Including eMacs, iMacs and G4 towers, that’s a grand total of 27 Macs in my clan, as well as 13 iPods. The Blueberry shows its age obviously (although it’s as tough as nails), but the iBooks and PowerBooks are each and every one wonderful machines. In terms of the best balance of price, performance and battery life, as well as wireless reception, I’d have to say that the iBook G4 is the best portable on the market. If you want something more powerful with a larger monitor, my 15″ Al PowerBook is the best portable ever, with the finest keyboard available on any computer, period. I’ve never used a 17″ PowerBook for an extended period, but after handling one at the Apple Store in Miami, I find it just too big for my tastes. The “wow” factor is quite considerable though, and the monitor is amazing. Hope this helps somewhat. No matter what you decide, you’re going to be very happy with your new machine.
Apple should give me a commission; they all switched from PC’s within the last two years after seeing my experiences with OS X, and I wish they would post their “Switcher” stories. Maybe not. After they moved to Macs and OS X, they’ve all had some embarrassingly harsh things to say about Windows and Microsoft.