New iPod mini, 5th gen iPod rumors

[yyoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oneeyedhobbit I dunno, I'm hard pressed to call a slightly bigger hard drive and perhaps a slightly tweaked scroll wheel innovation, particularly when it knocks the price point up in a big way.

Huh? The price is not going to go up on the mini because of a 1 gig increase and a scroll wheel tweak. It's more likely the price might go down. Virtually every generation of iPod has been priced less than the previous, gigabyte for gigabtye. When Apple went from the 3rd to the 4th gen, they knocked a full $100 off their prices. The only bump up we saw was with the iPod photo, which added an entirely new set of functionality.

Think about it. You can buy a 40 gig iPod photo (or a 40 gig iPod regular AND an iPod Shuffle) today for the same price as the original 5 gig iPod from just three years ago.

P.S. If Apple really wanted to squeeze the competition, they'd come out with a 5 gig iPod mini for $225 retail next month. It'd probably hurt their bottom line in the short term, but it'd absolutely destroy the competition and boost Apple's profits in the long term.

 

[Rumz]

If they finally manage gapless in this next version, and they change the design as suggested, I may really be tempted

But somehow I have a hard time seeing apple ditching the iconized white iPod... then again, the Mini was a hotter gift item this last Christmas, so maybe it's paving the way for the makeover of the regular sized iPod. We'll see...

 

[Beethovenian]

A change of color to silver would be nice. I find the current kitchen look of Apple got tired. It was kind of cool in the beginning, something different, but now there's too much white. And gapless would make it a real contender, though I'm skeptical about its chances.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yyoo The iPod mini has a smaller, more desireable 1" HDD and that's not going to change, and the bigger iPods already have 1.8" HDDs. I think the article was just pointing out that higher capacity and thinner 1.8" HDDs are on the horizon (1.8" is, of course, the diameter of the drive, not its thickness).

I think Heminder's comment was about how Sony uses a 1.8" HDD, which of course offers a much bigger capacity, and still manages to make the player very close in size to the iPod mini. Sure, the 1" HDD would be more desireable, but it doesn't have 20GB. And imagine how tiny a 1" HDD player could be if manufactured by Sony.

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beethovenian imagine how tiny a 1" HDD player could be if manufactured by Sony.

It'd be as thin as the MZ-E10 and half as tall as the mini but just as wide

Available in 8 colours!

HD1 = 2 colours
HD2 = 3 colours
HD3 = 5 colours
"HD4" = 8 colours

My logic is, they added 1 colour from gen 1 to gen two, and 2 colours from gen 2 to gen 3, so they'd add 3 colours from gen 3 to gen 4

 

[strohmie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D-EJ915 My logic is, they added 1 colour from gen 1 to gen two, and 2 colours from gen 2 to gen 3, so they'd add 3 colours from gen 3 to gen 4

How Fibonacci of you (them).

 

[IstariAsuka]

Here's my prediction.

The 5G and Mini2 will be released relatively close to each other.
The Mini2 will be 8GB.
The 5G will be 40/60/80GB. The 40 will be non-photo only, the 60 non-photo or photo, and the 80 photo only.

So the lineup will look like this, pricewise:
$100: Shuffle 512
$150: Shuffle 1024
$250: Mini2
$300: 40GB non-photo
$400: 60GB non-photo
$500: 60GB photo
$600: 80GB photo

I predict 8GB for the mini2 instead of 10 because I don't think Apple would want the Mini taking *all* their 5G sales away. Also, this would maintain the same size gap between the Mini2 and 5G as there is between the Mini and the 4G (5x).

The Mini2 will be slightly less thick and lighter than the current mini, but height and width will remain the same.

An equalizer will be added into these products, but not gapless.

What do you guys think?

 

[stevesurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IstariAsuka Here's my prediction. The Mini2 will be 8GB.

There may be a possibility that Apple is already shipping 5GB Seagate Drives in the Mini with special firmware to only access 4GB of free space. Check this thread out:
http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthr...5&pagenumber=7

 

[IstariAsuka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevesurf There may be a possibility that Apple is already shipping 5GB Seagate Drives in the Mini with special firmware to only access 4GB of free space. Check this thread out: http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthr...5&pagenumber=7

After reading that thread I agree that those are 5GB Seagate microdrives. All the Seagate HDDs I have in my computer and my dad's (total of 3) all have the "ST" as the beginning of their model names. As far as I know Seagate doesn't produce a 4GB 1" drive. Thus, these Minis must have 5GB Seagates...

So I suppose it'll only have 5GB, which is disappointing. Especially since others will release 8 and 10GB micro players within half a year (and 6GB players about the same time) of this new 5GB Mini. Double the space of the Mini in the same size factor is much more compelling than the current 25% more.

Maybe the smallest 5G won't be 40GB, like a predicted. I guess they'll have to maintain a 20GB version.

 

[gerG]

Dear Apple, please oh please add optical digital output to one of the next units. That is the feature that I am in most need of.


gerG

 

[easypeasy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG Dear Apple, please oh please add optical digital output to one of the next units. That is the feature that I am in most need of. gerG

I don't think Apple would do that, but at least providing the option of a digital output dock would be well appreciated.