“Toshiba on Monday announced in Japan that it’s increasing the song capacity of its Gigabeat line of hard drive-based digital audio players,” Richard Shim reports for CNET News. “The HDD Audio Player Gigabeat line will top out at 60 gigabytes and will be available before the end of the year in the country… The electronics company is one of the major suppliers for 1.8-inch drives used in many hard drive-based digital audio players, including Apple Computer’s iPod, which tops out at 40GB. Although Apple has in the past used larger-capacity drives from Toshiba, the Mac maker said in July that it had no imminent plans for a higher-capacity iPod.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Surely Apple has plans for a higher capacity 60GB iPod. Now, with Toshiba announcing a 60GB player, the only real question isn’t if, but when will Apple do so? With iPod demand so high, it will have to be when 60GB drives are in sufficient quantity for Apple to be able to keep up with the orders.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Apple smartly holds back 60GB iPod debut – July 19, 2004
US ipod 40g at $399… so the new one will be $499
(Yes that’s what I expect, as it’s a further discount of $/GB)
4GB=249= 62.25
20GB=299=14.95
40GB=399=9.975
60GB=499=8.316
Finally a $499 machine from Apple..
Then again.. $500 for a music player.. they shouldn’t release that until they include some form of direct to TV displaying.. so you can plug your iPod into your TV and, using the TV display, navigate and select which movie or whatever you want to play…
No brainer huh?
You could plug your iPod into your TV and leave it on random, play one of your playlists (though the TV speakers, etc) and, of course, play one of the movies you have on your iPod..
Of course, this would piggyback on the success of the filesharing networks..
“But Steve Jobs..”
Yes, I know.. Steve Jobs doesn’t like the filesharing networks. And as head of Pixar, he certainly doesn’t like free movies…
So Apple won’t release this capability until there’s an iMovie Store (also by Apple, so as to prop up Paul McCartney
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> )…
What would kick ass would be..
Wait for it..
Simultaneous releasing for DRM’d movies.
You pay about 8 bucks to watch a movie ONE TIME that came out in theatres THAT DAY.. or wait a few months and get it at a discounted rate..
Problem is.. it would be too easy to film, and then put on the filesharing networks..
Where do we go from here, guys?
Has anyone used one of these Gigabeat players ? Are they any good ? I need at least 60gig capacity. I’ll give Apple until say, april next year. If I havn’t heard anything, I might get one of these.
Great Post Mike. That is right along the lines of what I was thinking. Why couldn’t they just wait until a movie has hit the video rental shops before they put it on the iMovie Store? That would work.
The big problem will be download times. I wonder if Apple maybe will introduce a new codec (that will become the standard) that will cut down on download times. If they have the iPod just play this codec that would eliminate the filesharing networks issues, wouldn’t it?
Jack..
I thought it would be a real draw, that’s all…
Otherwise, you’re competing with DVD rentals.. I’d much rather rent a DVD than deal w DL times if Apple’s selling these things…
Anyway, my point being.. you could offer a 8$ ‘rental’ and then when the movie’s released on DVD, the price would drop to about 1.99.. very competitive
Again… what’s stopping someone from paying 8 bucks and then, from the comfort of their own home.. filming and putting on P2P.. so yeah.. not likely…
As it is.. it seems redundant.. may as well get a dvd.
Hell, you can order it from amazon if you wanna buy it..
hey MDN.. put the link up.. this story isn’t on the main page..
new codec…
h.264 perhaps.
don’t care
even if people tried to switch to mac in droves, apple couldn’t deliever
look at their history of supply and demand
so whats the use of saying switch
when i couldn’t get a mac i wanted cuz the reseller didn’t have it?
basically ipod sales would be higher now if only supply could be kept up
60 gig eh, what the point – that is way more music than most folks will need.
As to the video stuff, its all rubish. Just look at M$.
Have you ever heard of ramping up production??
I’m tired of hearing how Apple wouldn’t be able to supply any new-coming switchers. I think Apple is smart enough to know what needs to be done. If they could predict an increase in demand, then they can increase their supply to match.
To make it sound like Apple wouldn’t so anything about increased demand is just stupid.
Referring to: The Man – X
I think since it is Toshiba that makes this 60gb microdrive, and Toshiba makes a digital music player this drive is used in, Toshiba will make sure their digital music player demands are met first before Apple ever receives theirs. Toshiba can have bragging rights to the only 60gb player out there, for a while at least.
Here’s a pic of it BTW, docked no,less:
http://www.dapreview.net/comment.php?comment.news.511
we are starting to get up there in capacity for the ipods, im not sure much more will be functional after the next few gig bumps. i suppose you could encode you music at a higher bit rate but still 60 gigs is a lot of music to need in your pocket. im sure there are some people who NEED it though
iTMS subcription and .Mac sub.
Apple already has a revenue stream with the dot.mac subscriptions. at $99/year, thats $21 cheaper than other subscription models at $9.95-$20/month. And far less than cable, phone or cable modem (which can be $40-$80). If they were to add Apple Lossless Subscription to the .Mac system they could have several pricing layers. Something like this:
Annually
Standard .Mac (same features as today plus PC compatablity for sync of addresses, bookmarks, mail, virus software, etc.) (can buy movies through iTMS on PC/MAC without subscription (pending windowz security fixes)) $60
.Mac with iTMS-S (music subscription) $120
this is mac only (will windows ever be secure enough?)
later next year (also mac only)
.Mac with iTMS-S plus iTV on .Mac Subscription $240
.Mac with iTMS-S plus Feature Film Subscription $240
and the .Mac ultimate package
.Mac with iTMS-S plus iTV on .Mac + Movie Subscription $340
along with the new subscription system they introduce the video component to iTMS. Purchase movies individually or buy the subscription with .Mac.
You see the brilliance is that the .Mac subscription is the base for each level. At $60 (down from $99) more current mac users will want it’s current features. At $120 the extra $20 is easy to swallow for current .Mac users when you can listen away. You can still buy all the songs you really like. And some artists can keep some songs as album only or singles only and out of the subscription system except that you link to iTMS and can buy it. PC users can’t use the Music Subscription part. Not initially at least. This would be good incentive for PC users to switch to a Mac. Security heaven and totally awesome features and immense media options all in one fell swoop. Buy a Mac!
As they work with Motorola they can make the whole system mobile with a high speed phone able serve up the music and link to wi-fi systems and sync to iPod. With .Mac being only for the Mac OS this is good reason to buy a mac. Of course it can’t be PC compatible at introduction and time will tell if Microsoft can secure their Windows OS well enough to include PC compatibility. “Windows is not secure enough to allow the operating system to have access” would be powerful and well founded press fodder for Apple.
the movie and tv subscriptions parts will be coming soon. the price I’m guessing at, but if they can beat cable on price and offer more than NetFlix with near instant gratification and more content and just the content you want. With Music, TV, Movies, and Library of Congress access, and Physical Collection Management.
The consumer Mac is becoming all 64bit. Wintels are behind on this, and they may not be able to handle the compression tehcnologies for the video stuff until they get there.
Moving movies to iPod/phones with mobile high speed internet access providing your TV/Movie feeds, and you could see $1200/year (same as basic cable with cable modem internet) and maybe more if they offer the iPhonePod and all the internet bandwidth and Music and TV and Movies (and dare I say an interactive library that could pull from the library of congress and include audio (also audio conversion for all text) and Video and Links to other good online resources) Of course you plug into an Apple Cinema Display or TV (through an adapter) to watch the video in all its high definition glory.
Apple needs to merge iTunes with a system for keeping track of and managing your physical collection. Use the iSight to scan the UPC Bar Codes of your store bought items to enter them into the library. Or sell a rechargeable bluetooth laser scanner (with 200 item memory for when the computer isn’t near) for added speed and convenience (maybe this is bulit into the iPod). Could work for books, VHS, DVD, CD’s, LP’s, Etc… Could expand into total home inventory. And tie it to a Personal Finance Application while your at it. You’re house burns down while your on vacation…no problem, you have a complete inventory stored on your iPod (and dot.mac) you just beam it to your insurance agent and… boom … there is your check. But you gotta get a mac!
iChat for windows.. bring all your contacts on your ipod.. Community integration in iTunes..
MSN Messenger will have it.. IM integration is a no-brainer…
The MS windows version of iTunes 5 should have it integrated.. because otherwise Win lemming will be wondering why they dont have the awesome iChat VideoConferencing.
well I want my iPod to play DVD audio files so 60gig is way to small for me
How about a portable media center from apple maybe iPort with a larger screen which uses Toshiba’s new 60 gb hard disk for 499$.I think it will surely be a hit
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