The Apple Announcement
Sarah Perez on September 5th, 2007
So, here’s the scoop on today’s big Apple announcement. Everyone said it would be new iPods. Was everyone right? Yes they were.
Here’s the news, straight from CrunchGear:
- You can make your own ringtones right in iTunes from over 500,000 participating iTMS songs. The cost will be 99 cents.
- The new version of iTMS is available tonight. Ringtones coming next week.
- The new iPod Shuffle will be available in maroon, silver, purple, teal, & light green for $79 (1GB). Ships today.
- New iPod nano plays video. 320 by 240 pixels, 204 ppi. Coverflow. 3 games come with it. (Vortex, Sudoku, and…) 4 GB nano ($149) is going to come in silver & the 8 GB nano ($199) will be available in all colors. Ships today.
- New iPods. iPod "Classic." Sizes: 160GB for $360 and 80GB for $249. Available today.
- AHHH!!! BRAND-NEW iPOD!! iPOD TOUCH brings the tech of the iPhone to the iPod! 8 mm thick. Touchscreen! Yay! Photo browsing. Coverflow. Turning the iPod makes it go widescreen - just like iPhone. Built-in WiFi. 802.11b/g. Safari browser. Google and Yahoo search built-in. YouTube built-in, too. 22 hours audio playback, 5 hours video playback. 3.5 inch widescreen display. Who needs the phone part? ha ha ha!! PRICES: 8GB for $299 and 16GB for $399. Not available for a few weeks. WHAT?? Noooo….
- Wi-Fi Music Store. Free previews over Wi-Fi and download straight to your iPod. Sync your downloaded tunes by to iTunes. O - M - G! You can buy tunes, full albums, or iPod Touch apps over Wi-Fi, same as "real" iTMS.
- More insanity: When you’re near a Starbucks with Wi-Fi, you automatically you get a 5th button on the iPod Touch. The iPod can pick up what song they are playing in the store, and you then have the option to buy it. No HotSpot requirements to download tunes at Starbucks(but you would still need a HotSpot account for surfing the web over Wi-Fi.) iPhone will get this feature too, later this month.
- Details on the Starbucks deal: The 10 previous songs played in Starbucks can be displayed in the itunes Wi-Fi music store. New York and Seattle will see it on October 2nd. 600 stores on the 2nd. Nov 7 San Fran Bay Area. Feb 08 in Los Angeles. Chicago in March. 25% of all stores by then. End of 2008 - Most metro areas covered & by 2009 all the stores will be covered. The deal took them years to make and years to roll it out.
- The 4GB iphone is being discontinued. The 8GB iphone is now only $399. Suckers.
- Nothing was said about the Beatles. I guess they are still a no-show for iTunes.
Follow the conversation at YackTrack!
I hope this doesn’t set the Leopard release date back…
Not to be the wet blanket here, but…
Doesn’t it seem silly to offer the 16GB Touch at the same price as the 8GB iPhone? Seems to me that the Touch needed to be priced at $199 and $249.
WiFi isn’t everywhere yet. So it’s not as if you can surf constantly like you can with the iPhone.
At $399, someone like me with much more than even 16 GB of media would choose the iPhone over the Touch. If I have to prune the media that I can take with me, why not get the phone features and (near) continuous access? Plus I can then carry just one device instead of two. I just don’t get that pricing.
Now, if they had stuffed FOUR 8 GB flash chips in the thing and made it around 30 GB in capacity then they’d have a hit. Sure, that would drop battery life quite a bit. But I’ve got to think that most people would be happy with 8+ hours of audio playback.
Plus anytime the WiFi is on, that’ll drain the battery too.
To summarize, underwhelmed.
I disagree, Jeff: On the face of it, it doesn’t seem silly to me to offer the Touch and the iPhone at the same price. The units are basically the same, with the Touch having double the memory, but the iPhone having a phone.
However, your concerns about the memory are right on. Let’s face it, 16 GB is not enough space for a dedicated media player. I have a 30 gig 5G iPod, and the thing is full. My guess is that we’ll see a 30 GB version of the Touch early next year, probably with Bluetooth included as well.
Whenever I’m thinking about buying a new gadget, my first question is always “when should I buy?” No matter when I actually fork over the cash, there will always an upgrade right around the corner. By the time we hit February, there will be three more features I want in my iPod Touch, only those will be slated for release right before the 2008 holiday shopping season. Eventually, you have to dive into the pool.
In the end, I wanted Apple to produce an iPhone without the phone. They’ve done that. While it’s not ideal for me (because of the limited memory), I think the product itself seems like a winner.
So, to summarize: Expectations met but not exceeded.
Joe, as usual, I wasn’t as articulate at saying what I wanted to say. Which is something along the lines of, “why this capacity and price?”
I have a 30G 5th Gen as well; and while it’s not overflowing it would be a pain to go to something with 16G of storage. Which makes me think that if was in the market for a new iSomething that I’d be hard pressed to buy the Touch when I can get the iPhone for the same price. And either way I have to prune my media. So I might as well go with one less device on me. And I’m wondering how many other people will come to that same conclusion. And what impact that will have on Touch sales. And then, does Apple care?
I’ve read that Apple is always concerned with cannibalism within their product lines. And I just think that by pricing the 8G Phone the same as the 16G Touch they’re risking that - one way or the other. Especially when I think that they could have put 32G of flash in the top line Touch for the same MSRP.
I understand the consumer decision. I just don’t get the business decision.
It’s funny, but I see it exactly the opposite way: Will the Touch kill the iPhone? Personally, I was not planning on a buying an iPhone anytime soon — if ever. I have Sprint currently and have no desire to jump to AT&T for the honor of owning an 8GB media player that also makes phone calls. However, I’m very interested in the Touch because it has many of the same features as the iPhone without the phone. (Namely the touchscreen and the Wi-Fi.) As a “fairly typical” Apple customer (which, demographically speaking I probably am: 31, male, not married, no kids, owns a Powerbook and an iPod, spends disposable income on electronics, etc.), the Touch appeals to me far more than the iPhone. So the question for me is, can the Touch exist without cannibalizing the iPhone market? Only time will tell on this one. After a few years of upgrades to both they may diverge as products. Or maybe they’ll be seen as essentially the same device with slightly different functionality? Or, maybe the iPhone will go the way of the Apple Hi-Fi? I kind of doubt that last one, though.
But, again, I TOTALLY AGREE that the Touch is expensive for only 16GB of memory. If it was a 30 GB player I already would have ordered one. Now, I’m thinking I’ll wait until after Christmas and see if there’s a memory upgrade.
Oh, and Jeff: You seem pretty articulate to me, man.