“Merrill Lynch said Apple Computer will likely introduce two new offshoots of its popular iPod MP3 player by the first half of 2005. ‘We believe Apple could introduce a flash memory-based iPod in the first quarter of 2005,’ it said. ‘The new iPod would signal a departure from the thinking that an iPod should hold all a person’s songs. We estimate that Apple might be able to charge $149 for a 256 MB (60 song) unit. We think Apple could quickly become a significant player in the fragmented $2.6 billion flash MP3 market,'” Forbes reports.
“The research firm said iPod sales (2 million units) comprised 23% of total revenue last quarter. ‘We look for 2.7 million to be sold during the Christmas quarter, a potentially conservative estimate given that Hewlett-Packard only took 120,000 units last quarter and component provider Synaptics expressed a strong outlook.’ In addition, Merrill Lynch said a photo iPod may be released in the near future. ‘Since iPods are already being used as portable hard drives (HDDs) for files, we believe a Photo iPod is likely to be announced, perhaps in the first half of next year,’ the firm said,” Forbes reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: More bad news for Microsoft and their quest to litter the world’s hard drives with Windows Media Audio files. Oh, happy day!
i went quick to get this first post… so quick i took steroids!
ho hum…
nothing new…
Anyone else think Jobs/Wozniak ticket would win the election?
Or does Gates/Ballmer have a better chance?
“and all the peasants rejoiced”
huh, Ben Johnson, eh? Go Canada go??
i would vote for bush before sjobs! f’ing maniacal nut. he’d make stalin look laizze-faire. Let him torture apple employees in the way shiney plastics are to look, not run the country. I could see him hirning Hugo Boss to design our uniforms and there was only one other guy I know that was that nutty.
“Wahooooo…(cough, cough)…ahemm…(out of breath)…wowww….I’ve got seven words for ya…I-LOVE-ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-BUFFET’S…”
I don’t know why they’re expecting only 2.7 million iPods sold. I’m expecting AT LEAST 3.5 million iPods sold during the holiday quarter.
Why would anyone pay $149 for a 256MB flash based iPod instead of $249 for a 4GB mini that holds 16x more music? These stupid rumors make no sense at all…
[If I may offer a rewrite…]
INT – DAY – THE GENERIC CONVENTION CENTER
Bomber shoots out from behind a logo adorned curtain, (stage right).
He runs around like a ‘roid raging maniac – to music his non-ipod-owning son would hate.
He circles the stage a few times bellowing – till he’s spent, then staggers to the microphone.
Bomber: Waaaahhooooo…(cough, cough) …huuue-uhhhh!
Bomber: (out of breath) …whoa-ho-kay. Okay. (shouting) I’ve got seven words for ya! I-HATE-MACS, BUT-LOVE-BIG MACS! Yaaaaahh!
BTW, Ben Johnson WAS a Canadian.
He got caught using the dope. (3 times!)
Now he’s a Jamaican again (even tho’ he’s living in Canada).
–
http://www.tv.cbc.ca/witness/doping/dopben.htm
No way would Apple sell 256 MB flash based iPods. Steve said with the introduction of the mini that he believes that 4 GB is what it takes to bring your music library with you. Bringing your music library with you – or at least a big chunk of it – is what the iPod is all about. No way would Apple compromise on this fundamental idea of the iPod.
I’m thinking of the possibility of Apple introducing a 4 GB flash based iPod mini. Can Apple do that for $249? Probably not. If only, then I will buy that mini in a heartbeat.
Woohoo! Last Post!
nope
It all ends here.
JF.. right.. they can work hard to cut costs and bring prices down accross the board.. but don’t expect the definition of the ipod to change to (cool I’ve got 70 songs on here..)
Is it too late to request my 60GB iPod BEFORE Christmas? I really don’t want to wait till 2005 (especially since “the first quarter of 2005” really means shipping in June.)
JRB: while I agree with you on the flash capacity issue, for a lot of folks it is simply a matter of price. They do really want an Apple product but they simply aren’t going to shell out more than $150 dollars for any mp3 product. I want a 60GB so I can have may entire collection with me plus a little room to grow into, but not everyone has that luxuary. For many, they are just look for the price point that they are willing to pay. Capacity becomes a secondary issue.
I would spend far to much time having to reload any flash-based product. I can live with a 12 hour battery on the top of the line iPod in exchange for being able to effortlessly listen to whatever I am in the mood for without having to go to my computer and download it and rearrange playlists to get it on a smaller capacity player.
Anyway, like you, I like to get a decent bang for my buck!
WHOOHOOO Last post
What about one where you plug in your own flash memory. You could buy 256mb or buy it without memory and add your own, at your own speed.
I wonder how much it would cost for an “iPod” with just a memory slot.
Potentially it could “grow” with the user and his finances, price of memory, etc. and you could have multiple flash cards.
….we believe a Photo iPod is likely to be announced, perhaps in the first half of next year,’ the firm said,” Forbes reports….
What? I thought this was possibly being anounced this week or next ? You mean I have to wait till mid next year ? Oh geeze.
Woohoo!! Real last post. Groovy.
Yah, baby, YAH!
I am so sorry. Yours wasn’t last post…
Anybody who has 60GB worth of music must have stole it! I mean, who would spend $15,000 to purchase that much music?!?
Now our Portable Media Center devices will have 60GB plus, but none our our customers will be thieves. Anybody stupid enough to dish out $500+ for a piece of shit running our software must also be gullible enough to spend good money on DVD movies, wait an hour to rip it and transfer it to the PMC device so they can watch it on a 3″ screen!
None of our customers would even think about downloading a movie off the net without paying for it. That would just be unthinkable. Oh, and yeah, you could load this thing up with just mp3s like an iPod, but why would you want to do that when you could keep a couple of movies on there instead? You could watch them over and over again. I use mine for watching Porn in public washroom stalls. I get so much use out of it, we’re gonna change our slogan to: Microsoft Windows: Where do you want to get off today?
Movie’s aint like music. You can only watch Star Wars/Matrix/LOTR whatever so many times till you’re sick of it. A catchy song however never gets boring. Unless of course you play the same one song on repeat over and over…
Porn? yeah it’s cute but even that gets a bit samey after a while.
“$149 for a 256 MB (60 song) unit”
I have serious doubts Apple would stoop so low as to release something as cheesy as a cheap flash device. It has been done already by all the wanna-be iPod killers, you know, the ones sitting in the dump while the owners go out to buy a real MP3 player (iPod).
To Steve Ballmer : You must be one lost old yuppie! You never take the time to listen to the consumer. I used to own an independent music store and i have alot more than 60 gigs of music. All legal you fucking ass hole. People like you that insult people like me (without knowing what you are talking about) Make me sick, and it’s reflected in your companies products. Why don’t you get back into bed (bill’s getting lownley) and earn your paycheck. If it wasn’t fot bill’s marketing idea of preloading the os on others systems at the retail level. you would probably be a greater at wallmart