“Though the iPod has seen better days, Apple is looking to get perhaps one last boost of revenue from the landmark device before putting it on the shelf of transcendent products that have are no longer so transcendent,” Chris Ciaccia writes for TheStreet. “Apple introduced a 16GB iPod Touch this week that comes in five different colors and features a new front-facing camera. This newest iPod model starts at $199. Apple is also selling a 32GB iPod Touch for $249, and 64GB model for $299. The company cut the prices of its iPod line with the 32GB and 64GB models being reduced by $50 each and the 16GB model being lowered by $30.”
“Apple has publicly acknowledged that the iPod is a product that no longer generates the interest or revenue that it once did,” Ciaccia writes. “With the iPod becoming less relevant, why would Apple devote engineering capacity to the product? One theory is that the new product helps to keep Apple’s digital ecosystem in tact [sic], especially for younger users. ‘It’s [iPod] not dead if you are an Apple household, and you have kids who are pre-cellphone age,’ said Hudson Square Research analyst Dan Ernst via email.”
“The iPod Touch is also seen as a device for users to be able to access the Internet, as well as be able to play music, without paying for a data plan,” Ciaccia writes. “It may not just be about tying people into the ecosystem, but helping out with what’s coming next, and maybe moving from them away from Android, stated one hedge fund analyst who declined to be named. ‘Maybe the iPod will tether somehow to the watch opening up possibilities to sell iWatches to people who for whatever reason are locked into Android for phone use.'”
Read more in the full article here.
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