“Apple may be doing what the rest of the electronics industry has so far been unable to do: kill off the iPod,” Dan Warne writes for APC Magazine.
“Apple’s charismatic CEO Steve Jobs has announced he will sell the iPhone worldwide for $US199 — a move that he said would make the iPhone more affordable and therefore more able to compete for all mobile users’ business rather than just the high-end,” Warne writes.
“But Apple’s premium pricing of the first-generation iPhone was no mistake. Apple knew that if its most powerful iPod — the iPhone — was cheaper than other iPods, consumers would be confused and ultimately iPods would appear to be devalued,” Warne writes.
“An 8GB iPhone will, in fact, end up costing about the same amount as an iPod nano — a strategy that’s clearly designed to attack other smartphone companies, but may, along the way, kill off sales of the iPod,” Warne writes.
“Naturally, no-one’s game to suggest that the iPod will die-off altogether any time soon,” Warne writes. “There will always be a market for small iPod devices for jogging, leave-in-the-car iPods for car entertainment and so on. But it’s likely that the iPhone may become the replacement for many people’s iPod and mobile phone — bad news for other handset makers.”
More in the full article here.
“There will always be a market for small iPod devices for jogging, leave-in-the-car iPods…”
And don’t forget: “My First iPod” for toddlers.
No.
Not when there is the recurring monthly cost of phone service.
Not when people will do battle on a bus over it because it costs so much – even @ $199, that’s expensive.
Not when it does not work in the Great Republic of Vermont. (No ATT coverage.)
Hahahahaha!!
Kill off the iPod? With it’s HUGE storage capacity?
Dream on.
Apple REALLY screwed up with the iPod on only one thing…
Not making a Firewire/USB combination like they did for optical/analog audio in/out.
USB is GOD AWEFULLY SLOW compared to the old Firewire iPods.
We Buy premium Mac’s for their higher connection speed options and then can’t use it to fill large capacity iPods.
WTF APPLE????
“God Dam America!” Vote for Obama!
History has shown, the only thing capable of killing the iPod is another iPod. Kinda like the only person capable of beating up Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris… with an iPod.
“But it’s likely that the iPhone may become the replacement for many people’s iPod and mobile phone”
It’s LIKELY?? Move over, Miss Cleo. Dan Warne is quite the oracle.
I don’t think so…
When Apple cranks out an 80GB or 160GB iPhone, THEN the iPod will be dead. Even then, it’s a big Maybe.
I like having a separate audio device. I’d rather have an iPhone with a charged battery, than one with a dead battery that I wore down listening to music.
How about a hard drive based iPod touch, Apple?
And another thing…
Why do people write such idiotic articles? Isn’t there enough pointless drivel floating around without generating MORE?
why does there have to be a killer ? cant another device merely be an equally or more successful product ? (probably not no
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“An 8GB iPhone will, in fact, end up costing about the same amount as an iPod nano.” Uh, hardly, The Nano doesn’t incur monthly charges to be useful. The real question is how Apple will price the iPod Touch 2.0. (I’m holding out for a 16GB at $299.)
It doesn’t matter how much storage they eventually put into the iPhone. There will always be a huge market that doesn’t want to pay a monthly fee to listen to music, watch movies, etc. It would not matter if Apple opened up the iPhone to every cellular carrier.
You people are assuming that high capacity iPods are Apple’s best selling devices when in fact, it’s the lower capacity nano and Shuffle that are the best selling iPods. You also can’t dismiss the fact that the potential customer base for an iPhone is vastly greater than the one for the iPod. It’s only a matter of time before the iPod is effectively “killed” – by the iPhone.
gzero: so let me get this straight. You want to listen to 16 gigs of music, so you have to buy a $300 iPhone and then $80 plus a month for service (assuming you have it in your area)? Don’t see it happening. Then why not have rented music with your iPhone contract? There are plenty of people who do not want to be locked into a contract for iPod only features.
I’ve already dumped my iPods for my iPhone. Convenience wins. I’ve far too many songs to fit on any iPod so I’m used to making playlists. May not suit everybody but I think the article has a point.
I have my iPhone in my pocket with the tunes and films I want to watch, and my 60GB iPod classic in my car loaded with my music.
I also have a shuffle for cycling and jogging, and I bought a nano for no particular reason other than it looks cool, and I love iPods.
So I don’t think the iPod is ready to die just yet.
If I had to choose one, it’d be my iPhone – best phone ever.
of course the ipod will disapeear because all functionality (5 MP camera, gps, mp3/video-player, handheld games) will end up in one convergence device soon. this convergence threat was the reason apple was developing the iphone in the first place. in a few years the iphone will have many form factors and price-points (like the ipod today) and you will be able to buy it unsubsidized (or much lower with a contract) and use it on any network prepaid. dont want the monthly fees? leave the phone-capability off and use it as an ipod (and wifi-ichat-games-itunes-video-player-whatever) device.
Seems to me he’s forgetting that the iPhone doesn’t cost $199. The hardware does, but the now required service makes it cost far more than the base price and far more than any iPod. Sure, initially the iPhone is as cheap or cheaper but toss in a two-year agreement on that and we have a device that won’t cannibalize the non-contract iPod.
Parents will certainly not by an iPhone instead a iPod to their kids!
There’s certainly, yet, a large market for music-only devices.
No the iphone will not kill off the ipod.
Next story
Ever try to scrub through a song on an iPhone? It sucks! Until they fix that, my iPhone will never replace my iPod.
“dont want the monthly fees? leave the phone-capability off and use it as an ipod (and wifi-ichat-games-itunes-video-player-whatever) device.” – ralph from berlin
Nice idea, very nice one. But this would be a very expensive iPod Touch since you would have to pay for the phone capabilities even if you don’t use it. You should give the customers just what they need, not increasing the price to give them all just in case some day they might want to use this or that option.
iPod Touch is here to stay. It will simply evolve as a plateform of choice for who wants a very powerful and portable media/entertainment/game device. And like the article points out “There will always be a market for small iPod devices for jogging, leave-in-the-car iPods for car entertainment and so on.”
@Randy,
1. I live in Germany, where at least 90% of the country has 3G
2. I personally never need to carry more than 4 gigs of music with me at any given time, since I’m a big fan of smart playlists, and i will never listen to that much music anyway
3. The service plan with T-Mobile in Germany is indeed crap compared to plans in other European countries, but it’s far better than the plans most US cell phone users get, since general all calls within the T-Mobile network are free, all incoming calls are free (unlike US where you have to pay for incoming and outgoing calls. That’s just crazy!), access to over 8000 Wi-Fi hotspots is free.
4. I like the convenience of having mostly everything in one device, and since I – like most people – carry my cell phone and iPod with me at all times, the notion of killing two birds with one stone is appealing to me.
I’ve already dumped my iPods and Sony Ericsson mobile phone for an iPhone last summer. I had no need for a regular iPod or touch since the iPhone does the same things they do anyway. I do still have an iPod shuffle though for working out, doing yard work, etc.
Right now, I can pay $199 and no recurring monthly fee for an 8GB iPod nano. Or I can pay (well, in a couple weeks) $199 plus $75 a month for an 8GB iPhone 3G.
Given that my current cell phone is a $25 prepaid cell that I wind up paying about $7 a month for minutes for, because I use fewer than 10 minutes a month, how is the iPhone *ever* going to be a better deal?
“Kill” is the wrong word, “cannibalize” is more appropriate.
AAPL will sell more of the higher margin product and will consequently make more money for its shareholders.
Who cares which column in the ledger gets the $$$? Its all in the same company.
Well, I think the article has an interesting perspective, but it’s unlikely the iPod will disappear (ebay? Amazon? Resellers…). It’s more likely that future iPods will take cues from the Touch, moving beyond the glossy white appearance and click wheel functionality.
However, Apple’s 3G iPhone ad has the best line ever…
“The only phone that can beat the iPhone… the NEW iPhone 3G!”