“I’ve been using an iPod mini for a few weeks�Apple lent me a gold one, the least popular of the five metallic colors, which also include silver, pink, blue, and green�and I prefer its smaller size compared with the iPod I normally carry. Its 80-CD capacity is sufficient for my listening preferences; I can always refresh the play lists by syncing with my Mac. Even so, I wouldn’t buy the mini because, for $50 more, I could buy the $299 entry-level iPod, which isn’t much bigger physically and yet has more than triple the capacity�15 gigabytes, vs. the mini’s four,” Peter Lewis writes for Fortune.
“Market researchers say there’s a magic difference between a price of $199 and $249; the former is an impulse buy, the latter a considered decision. If Apple had sold the mini for $199, my impulse would be, it’s small, it’s cool, it’s colorful, it’s all I really need; I’ll buy it, and my wife probably won’t scold me. At $249, however, the purchase decision goes like this: I can get a much better value by spending a little more for a lot more music,” Lewis writes. “In the case of the iPod mini, less is not more.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Do you really think Steve Jobs cares whether you buy a mini or an iPod as long as you buy from Apple? Perhaps they priced the mini in such a way as to drive iPod sales for the time being until production ramps up?
These people always start from the wrong place. Suppose you have $208 to spend and you say, for $42 more (to keep the same ratio as when going from 250 to 300), just look at what I could get! This is a net gain of one new sale that Apple wouldn’t get otherwise. The person with $250 to start with is going to be a sale anyway regardless of whether they spend another $50, and I am sure Apple just loves the conclusion that this writer came to!
Fine, then by all means, he needs to buy the 15GB model then. So what is the big damn deal with these reviewers anyway? Over 100,000 people so far already have chosen to go with the mini instead and that doesn’t mean they’re wrong either. It’s called “choice” and last time I checked, that is a good thing. As MDN so rightly said, Apple and Steve Jobs doesn’t give a damn which he picks, as long as it’s an iPod. They’re getting the sale either way and no matter which you go with it is all good to them.
No matter how many tunes it holds, you can only listen to 1 tune at a time, 140 or so per battery charge. Besides, the mini is all about females, joggers and health club nuts. Apparently Peter doesn’t fall into any of these catagories.
wait, wait, wait…100,000 early adapters does not a successful product make.
Wait a few months and see if sales rise for both the mini
AND for the full-size ipod.
If both drop…not good news.
If full size drops and mini goes up or vice-versa then not good news It means one is cannibalizing sales from the other.
It’s all I ever hear, mini vs iPod, iPod vs mini. Just pick one, shut up, and listen to the music, for Pete’s sake. With all these infernal articles about iPods and minis, minis and iPods you would think these were the only 2 choices in the world.
I don’t have an ipod or ipod mini. Too expensive. If the mini was under $200 I’d probably buy it. After all it’s a toy. I’ll wait for them to go sub $200 if they don’t I won’t have an ipod. I have a few friends who feel the same, some who don’t and would have bought one at any price.
The fence sitters are still sitting on the fence for $249. I’ll wait and see…
<<wait, wait, wait…100,000 early adapters does not a successful product make>>
Well, maybe and maybe not, but 100,000+ buyers is a damn sight better than anything that Creative, Dell or Samsung (Napster) are seeing in a 6 week time period that’s for certain. They’d kill for those sales numbers, so I’d say Apple is doing just fine thank you!
meat of moose, there are other choices?
The next iPod MUST have integral voice recording capability. It simply MUST.
Steve Jobs…. are you hearing? Please Please Please.
I will purchase 26 – one for every staff member…. but only if it allows us to dump our Sony digital recorders.
treadlightly you got the choice of bending over and taking a wanna ba mp3 play right in the but when it fails or buy an ipod and not worrying about it.
i beleive thats what moose meat was saying. or hes mad beacause hes a pc loving troll.
Glick7! Just get the damn voice recording attachmenta and buy the 26 ipods! Stop bitching already!
“Perhaps they priced the mini in such a way as to drive iPod sales for the time being until production ramps up?”
So the standard MDN argument that the pricing was “genius”, and perfectlly placed to compete with flash players is no longer compelling?
So what he’s saying is that he’s going to buy something that’s a worse form factor and has more than three times the capacity he needs AND he’s going to spend an extra $50 for the privilege ?
Madness.
If I had to replace my 5GB iPod, I’d struggle to choose. I’d either get the mini or the 40GB. I can fill the 40GB, but I’m perfectly happy with the song capacity of the 5GB. The form factor of the mini is pretty compelling though.
If I used a gym or ran rather than cycling a swimming, I think the mini would be the definite choice.
Why don’t they carp about the price of the $200 mp3 players that only have 256MB of storage? I guess they have to have something to b*tch about. I’m going to the Apple Store for my first iPod, a Silver Mini, tomorrow.
please! no integrated voice recorder. i distrust anything small that records. there will be a backlash like with camera phones. and for those people who say that for $50 more they can get a 15GB iPod, why stop there when for just $200 more than that, you can get 40 with dock and case? people have different needs. thats why there are different products.
Those of us who already own a Mini and are loving the hell out of it can only read some of these clueless comments and laugh.
The thing is FANTASTIC! I haven’t even touched my 40gb since the Mini arrived. It is SO much cooler than the regular iPOD and the click wheel is a far better control surface. From now on, the only time I am going to take the 40 out is when I am going on a long road trip or on an extended vacation where I want to have access to my entire 37 gigs of music.
I feel sorry for those who can’t afford a measly $50.00 more than the also-ran players with a 10th the storage space and not even close to the build quality. If you bothered to do a little research you would discover that the mini costs close to that magic $200 to produce, so if you are expecting a product that is flying off the shelves to be lowered to dealer cost anytime soon, you are living in a dream world.
Must suck to be you. ;o)
ok Peter, send it over! gold is fine i guess!
He is just upset that he did not get the pink one 🙁
I would. Then again the blue one looks nice.
GAAAAHH!! Can we please stop discussing “For $50 more…” It has been beaten to death and as the launch proved, there is a market for iPod mini even at that price point. I am getting really sick of this. I don’t even know why I am in this thread…. I must be masochistic. I bet you 3 million minis later, people will still say “For $50 more… ” For some reason, megabytes takes over megahertz as the buzzword.
BTW, Beth, did you finally get your pink iPod yet?
I think these ‘anylysts’ are missing the point.
the mini is not targeted at people with $250-300 to spend. It is target at people who have $200 to spend, who think, “well, for $200 i could get a crap box 128mb flash based MP3 player, OR for just $50 more, i could get a 4gb mini.. but, theres no way i am spending an extra $100 to get the 15gb model..”
I don’t care what the price is on mini relative to 15GB. I have 30GB at home and mini for travel. I am the person most likely to buy mini. I have bought into iPod, iTunes, etc. I travel and mini is perfect. 30GB sits at home in dock or is taken on long trips. Is there anything else out there that is as cool, as functional, and fits with system you already have? If you love market leading iPod, I think not! Cheap is usually more expensive down the road. Napster will be out of biz sooner or later. What is cooler than mini? No gadget I know of and I have them all! You miss the point with mini if you only care about GB and low price.
“iPod mini? For $50 more I’ll take a 15GB iPod instead”
You can keep your $50.00. I’ll take one for free!
This reviewer is right on the mark. It’s $50 too much or 11GB too little, take your pick. Apple needs to drop the price to $199 and early-adopters or not, it will take off.
Got your “pinkie” one here….yeeeeeeeAAAAHHHH!
Perspective, perspective, perspective.
It was only a short while ago that the pundits were calling the entry-level iPod too expensive a player, period. Now that the iPod mini is out and about, the $299 player is a bargain.
Go figure.