“Apple on Thursday cut prices across the board for its iPod Touch line, trimming the cost of the music players by as much as $100,” Ben Fox Rubin reports for CNET. “Its top-tier 64-gigabyte iPod Touch is now $299, down from $399. The 32-gigabyte version is now $249 from $299, and the 16-gigabyte model is $199 from $229. In the UK, the 64GB model’s new price is £249, while the 32GB now costs £199, and 16GB costs £159.”
“The tech giant also beefed up the lowest-tier 16GB version to be in parity with the 32GB and 64GB models, giving the 16GB device a new rear-facing camera and adding four new colors: pink, yellow, blue and (PRODUCT) Red — part of the broader (RED) campaign that raises money to combat AIDS,” Rubin reports. “The 16GB version previously only came with a front-facing camera and was available in silver and space gray.”
“While the iPod Touch isn’t close to being one of Apple’s big money-makers, it remains an option as a lower-priced, simpler device for games, media, and music,” Rubin reports. “Also, while iPod sales have been declining in recent years, the device continues to bring in billions of dollars in revenue for Apple. In fiscal 2013, Apple sold 26.4 million iPods and generated $4.4 billion in revenue.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple delivers iSight camera, multiple colors to most affordable iPod touch model – June 26, 2014
Just a short comment. Let me sell 4 billion dollars worth of anything and I’m happy. Nothing to sneeze at.
I take your point, but on the other hand, how happy would you be selling a $5B investment for $4B? Still happy? 🙂
If you were selling it to yourself and pocketing the difference, sure!
Are you an analyst? 🙂
Hey, those are fighting words! 🙂
But the R&D costs for the iPod touch have long, long, long since been recovered. Now they’re little more than de-specced iPhones always slightly behind the curve.
As such, they are now in a cash-cow phase and will be purchased to satisfy the needs of a wide variety of customers, not least in many business and healthcare roles where they can be used for things like accessing merchandising systems in retail and recording patient data.
In that area, the price cut makes it possible to out-compete other platforms on price, whilst Swift and the forthcoming iOS8 make it possible to beat those platforms on functionality, ease of development and performance.
So it’s a sound move all round.
It’s all good, mccfr, and that’s what I meant by telling Lou “I take your point.” I was just pointing out that as a blanket statement (“Let me sell 4 billion dollars worth of anything and I’m happy.”) it doesn’t tell you whether or not you’re going to make any money. We’re just having a little fun here. 🙂
Selling any iPod touch means there is a cost of goods sold, so even at “cash cow” stage $4B in revenue is not $4B in profit.
The iPod touch will be the AppleTV remote and gaming console in your home if you do not already have an iPhones or iPads. Think Different. Apple is about to take the leash off the company hobby.
Here come the flood of 3rd party apps for the AppleTV!
I hope you’re right. I’ve been hoping and wishing for the same sort of gold rush and flood of amazing apps for the AppleTV as there was for the iPhone and iPad. A new $200 AppleTV (with 64GB storage), a set of APIs for the Apple TV, with support for a special Bluetooth controller and/or an app for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch, and it becomes the next big console platform to compete with the big three. Inside of a year.
Crossing my fingers!
“The iPod touch will be the AppleTV remote and gaming console in your home if you do not already have an iPhones or iPads”
Nope.
While there may be some apps that utilize this, gaming on the Apple TV will only really happen with a real controller, which is why Apple already opened this up in iOS for the iPhone/iPad. One quick look at the Amazon Fire TV and it’s pretty clear that the very same controller (or one like it) is exactly what’s needed for games on the Apple TV.
Try this… try playing a game streamed via AirPlay to your Apple TV. Then try playing the same game on the Amazon Fire TV with a controller. It’s a huge difference. With streamed AirPlay you end up finding that it’s easier not to even look at the TV.
Sorry but you can’t win the console war with a poorly designed, uber expensive gaming controller and little to no gamer specific features.
You might make a decent casual gaming market but the coveted customers who really spend big money on games will be on one of your competitors platforms.
So, $50 for each increment of RAM. That’s much more reasonable than what Apple usually charges for RAM. I wonder how this will play out with the iPhone and iPad. I doubt Apple would reduce the price break increments from $100 to $50 for the iPhone and iPad. If they keep the $100 incremental price breaks, I would like to at least see more RAM. If they keep the same pricing AND keep the same RAM (16, 32, 64), I would find that rather disappointing.
Good points.
This is a smart move on Apple’s part. Think about it, for $100 more to get another 16GB is a much tougher decision than spending an extra $50. They will probably have more people spend $50 more to get 32GB, than the people that will save $50 to get the same 32GB. They will actually increase their revenues with this move.
Cut prices in the Summer sometimes means new models in the fall.
As a practical person, I use a $6 a month Nokia i-on-the-web cell phone and carry an iPod touch that I can use anywhere there is a wifi link, which, where I live, is almost everywhere. Who in their right mind would pay $60 to $90 a month to make an occasional phone call?
People who live outside such a wifi-rich locale… i.e. most people, I think. Without such wifi everywhere, I’m happy to pay that much each month for all the functions and resources I get… plus the occasional phone call.
It would seem Apple is moving some prices downmarket. The MacBook Air, the new iMac, now this, I wonder what’s next ?
I think this may be a temporary move to clear out inventory and parts for the existing A5 model. Then, in about three months, Apple releases a new model, at 32gb and 64gb, back at the old $299 and $399 price points. The new model uses the A7. Maybe it has a larger screen.
However, this new 16gb A5 model stays in the lineup, priced at $199. There’s nothing wrong with the A5. My iPad 2 has an A5, and it runs great with the latest software.
KILL THE IPOD CLASSIC hard drive base iPod for the love of god! Legacy. D.O.A. Jettison old technology like Apple has a history of.
If it’s profitable why ?
Three reasons; 1. Development and tooling costs are already paid, so the Classic has very high margins. 2. There are still some of us dinosaurs who want access to all our music all the time, even if we are out in the country or on the subway. 3. The Classic interface is much easier to use without looking, in a vehicle or with the device in your pocket.