MacDailyNews Take: Apple didn’t lower their standards, they just lowered their price by passing lower component costs [flash memory] along to the consumer. The iPod shuffle is the same quality as before: excellent.
“There’s no doubt the US giant is one of the coolest companies in the tech sphere. It makes products that look good and have you salivating over them,” Weinberg writes. “Who else could have produced the ultra-thin MacBook Air?”
Weinberg asks, “But by pricing the 1GB Shuffle so cheap, are Apple not in danger of making themselves far too popular for their own good?”
“Why would anyone want a 1GB Shuffle anyway, when you can buy a 2GB for just £10 [US$20] more? The simple solution would have been to discontinue the one-gig and replace it with the affordable two-gig [US$69], thus retaining the premium price around the Apple brand,” Weinberg writes.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
“apple’s expensive”
“apple’s too cheap”
make up your dam mind!
Gave one of these to the ex — who’s now smitten with Apple products and may get a laptop next time she’s in NY.
Anyway the guy here echoes the ‘expensive Apple’ FUD — I’ve found over the years that properly spec’d purchases show Apple to be at least competitive, and mostly a biut cheaper.
Mid you, that’s pro level I’m talking not cheapo off the back of a truck Dell level stuff.
How dumb are the tech writers? Have you seen comparabe 1GB players? They are maybe $20-25, so the 1GB shuffle still appears overpriced. I bet the 1GB flash market probably won’t exist much longer.
MattyG is right.
Apple must clear 1GB Shuffles from the channel before they discontinue it. How better to do with control Apple cuts the prices. Retailers cut the price 1GB Shuffles sell sell sell.
Microsoft works like this: Here’s an extra 500,000 Zunes per store move them at cost or loss we’ll pay you a spiff of $4900.00 per hundred not returned to us for restocking. We don’t want them back so, give them away we don’t care.
The 1 gig shuffle, now at $50 smakeroos, is the ideal collar clip unit for audiobooks, a few of your favorite albums, and some documents/resumes/presentations. Extremely ideal.
My original 512 white shuffle has saved my tail on numerous occasions. Libraries can now buy the new shuffle cheap and load audiobooks on them and rent the whole unit out. This little tiny unit is a treadmill users dream, as it doesn’t have to go on an arm wrap…just clip it anywhere you desire.
The imagination is the limit for so many quick uses. It will also save your iPod for more important stuff.
I am still waiting on Apple to incorporate the whole shuffle into a slightly bigger set of headphones themselves. A whole new market will erupt.
First they bitch Apple’s stuff is too expensive.
Now they bitch Apple’s stuff is too inexpensive.
Some just like to bitch about Apple.
Someone needs to explain the phrase “far too popular for their own good” and how this relates to selling a product. It’s not like they can’t make a zillion of the iPod Shuffles, so what’s too popular?
I understand the writer’s point, but it only makes sense if Apple is lowering its quality to make a $50 Shuffle. It isn’t, so his point does not make sense. Of course, I did wonder why Apple didn’t just drop the 1Gig Shuffle and keep the $70 price point, but for those kids in school, making it $20 cheaper, is significant. g;e wise it’s huge. And, as others have noted, it allows people, like my brother, to give $50 Shuffles away to family members for Xmas, without thinking too hard on gifts to buy. He gave us all a 1st-Gen Shuffle a few years ago, that I still have.
At the lower price, I might just buy one for travel, mowing the grass, etc. I was not willing to spend $79 (like the one that I got for my wife last year), but I just might spend $49.
The shuffle is a very nice device – small, well-focused, good battery life.
Someone above was spot on.
They are just emptying the inventory for 1GB.
It will be discontinued soon…
The whole point of the shuffle is not having sizable chunk of your music with you:
It’s about having a audio player that affords high-quality playback, at an inexpensive [nearly throwaway] price point so that you needn’t worry about losing or damaging it very much.
It’s about having a device where you can sync the last day or two of your favorite podcasts, so you don’t have to listen to the audio morass that is AM/FM radio these days on your commute to/from work.
It’s about having your favorite workout music on a device where if it takes a tumble it’ll still probably work and if it doesn’t it costs about the same as a pair of shoes to replace.
It’s about having a device that’s small enough to clip to a shirt collar, pant pocket [or for the ladies] a purse strap, that you can throw the latest CD you bought [if you still buy physical media] and not have to put the original at risk of damage.
It about having a place to put that file you’re working on at work or at the library so you will have access to it at home [and vice-versa]. [some of the thumb USB adaptors rock!].
Lastly, a shuffle is all about having a device that is just good enough that you don’t have to put your more expensive Nano, 5G, Classic, Touch or iPhone on display and at risk of damage/theft.
It’s a case of “if it dies, it DIES… And I go and buy a new one for $30 less or with twice the capacity for $10 cheaper!
$49 means that Junior can buy one [or another one] a week earlier. $49 means more “no brainer” stocking stuffers sold. $69 means some folks will opt for having twice the capacity for 1 $20 bill [and sales tax] more.
It’s win win… Wish they’d double the RAM and cut prices on the 3G Nano’s! I’d love to get a 16 or 32g Nano + Video. With the added video features, the Nano’s could use more RAM.
— Hano
Apple is obviously just blowing out their old inventory to clear the shelves prior to the next model announcement.
At $49, you’ve got a solid product competing against plastic (Zen Stone). Given the choice, I’d guess most people would go for an iPod. KingMel – go for it, that’s exactly what I use my for.
so lets see…
if you lower the price, you lower your standards.
thus Vista is incredible software. look at the price.
for $49, it is almost an impulse buy at the register. and who is going to buy one and then when they decide to upgrade to a screen choose a non-ipod? nobody.
heck at this price it is almost like the joke about joke dealers. first hit is free…..
well said Hano…..
How do you get rid of the 1GB stock when you bring out the new and improved 2 GB Shuffle?
You discount the old stock and sell till they are gone. Then you announce they have been discontinued.
Some people are sooo stupid.
These Price Points are what I except for 2008.
Flash Memory Models
iPod Shuffle (1gb, 2gb) 49, 69
iPod Nano (8gb) 149
iPod Touch (16gb, 32gb) 299, 399
Hard Drive
iPod Classic (80gb, 160gb)
Apple doesn’t even have to add new models. It would be a great way to phase them out until new iPods are announced.
The iPod shuffle is almost a disposable item. People load 200 or so of their favorite songs and clip it on to go for a run or to the gym.
At $49, it costs less than your fancy Nike’s. If it wears out, no big deal. Go get another one. Or keep a few on hand, filled with a different set of favorites or in different colors. At $49, it becomes part of your outfit… an accessory. And Apple will start selling them more and more to people who already have another iPod.
If the digital media player market is getting “saturated,” it seems like a smart move.
Apple have sold about 150 million ipods. This is ‘market saturation’?
There are 7 billion people on the planet – seems to me the market can go a bit further yet….
For a company that makes such GREAT products, they sure attract a lot of stupid ‘pundits’.
Hey Mike K can read.
Actually, a 1 GB shuffle is just as good as a 2 GB shuffle.
1. The battery runs out (12 hours) before you run out of 1 GB of music (16 hours).
2. The shuffle is unique among iPods in that it will randomly download songs from a playlist that’s larger than the shuffle’s capacity.
3. While charging the shuffle, you can also download a new batch of music, at random. I use a playlist about 6 GB in size that’s especially suited for running, which is mainly when I use the shuffle.
4. The randomness is important because random play is the best way to employ the shuffle, which is screenless. A random ordering of randomly selected music — sounds like my life.
Wal-mart will sell you the equivalent of the old Nano (not shuffle, nano) for $29.95 now.
Sure the Apple product is nicer, but for many people it’s not worth 5 times the price or $120 more.
So the shuffle at $49 is super premium pricing for what you get.