[Spacko]

That picture screams rob me rob me judging by how ipods are nowadays.

Although in Hong Kong people do that with their playres and phones everywhere and nothing happens there strangly.

 

[Taphil]

I haven't gone shopping for flash mp3 players since the original iPod came out

, but....aren't there mp3 players out there with the same storage capacity, similar size, AND come with a display selling at the same price? Even if some of them are slightly larger, double the volume would still make it small. Shuffle/random is nothing new, I'm pretty sure most players can do it. I think drag/drop is good enough with other players, so the management with iTunes doesn't seem too compelling.

I wonder how well it'll sell. No predictions made here.

 

[IstariAsuka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx And remember everyone, a year ago we Head-Fiers all said the iPod mini wouldn't sell well.

Yeah, but at least the mini is usable! You know, it has a screen and stuff!

Of course, this'll probably sell like hotcakes too...

 

[philodox]

Wow, stuff like this makes me feel better about dropping ~$500 on a custom coloured 20GB 4th gen iPod for my wife.

With this useless memory card based player weighing in at ~$150 it makes my money look well spent by comparison.

I mean, my wife's iPod is at least 4 times better than this POS. Probably more like 40 times better.

 

[Vault]

You know what.. I actually think Apple will kick it in with the Shuffle:

1. Most people aren't fanatical like us, who demand huge disk drives to store their music. Have a look at the ads. Focused on the sporty types who want a pretty decent ammount of music for a workout/bikeride/jog, whatever.

2. Looks pretty bomb proof to me - hazzard a guess any mums or dads would be more than willing to stump up the cash for an "entry level" MP3 player that their sprogs can skate/throw/take to school and generally abuse without the fear of destroying it.

3. I would have thought this was aimed pretty squarely at current users of iPods too. Here is a "throwaway" version of your iPod for those times you just want something to huck around.

I know everyone is going on about the lack of a screen and the storage size, but for everyday stuff, you would be hard pressed to need more than about 1-2 hours worth of music for a commute every day.

Just my 2c

 

[Spacko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taphil I haven't gone shopping for flash mp3 players since the original iPod came out , but....aren't there mp3 players out there with the same storage capacity, similar size, AND come with a display selling at the same price? Even if some of them are slightly larger, double the volume would still make it small. Shuffle/random is nothing new, I'm pretty sure most players can do it. I think drag/drop is good enough with other players, so the management with iTunes doesn't seem too compelling. I wonder how well it'll sell. No predictions made here.

Oh abosolutly, there are other players out for a little over the 149$ that you can get which have several other functions such as fm radio, voice recording and a screen

.

I believe it is all down to advertisements now, show an ipod shuffle advert every 30 minutes on the popular channels and people will think that it is the only flash player out there. im sure this is how some people see ipods. Iriver are virtually unknown by most people. Remember it has "IPOD" in its name.

I believe that it will sell well because it looks sporty hence people will be drawn in by it for running, etc BUT mainly because of the paragraph above.

 

[PFRfan]

After thinking about my earlier thread...

Apple moves a lot of DAPs because they've been making very good DAPs. This one is not a good one as a stand-alone product, but their sheer momentum may make it successful. It is clearly beat out of the box by a bunch of devices that have been in market for a couple of years. BUT - it's Apple, and no doubt a bunch of 12 year olds will be getting them for birthdays because Grandma read "iPod" on the label and something cheap on the price tag.

And don't underestimate the iTunes factor. I don't like it all that much, and only use it to keep my wife's mini up to date, but a WHOLE bunch of people don't know how to use Windows Explorer, have no idea where the files they ripped are, etc. iTunes (like MusicMatch & others) integrates it for the masses. I'm not saying it does a great job, but it's easy, and this thing will be a part of it.

 

[abitdeef]

You gotta be joking , this is NOT the way to enter the flash market

 

[NeoPoe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PFRfan After thinking about my earlier thread... Apple moves a lot of DAPs because they've been making very good DAPs. This one is not a good one as a stand-alone product, but their sheer momentum may make it successful. It is clearly beat out of the box by a bunch of devices that have been in market for a couple of years. BUT - it's Apple, and no doubt a bunch of 12 year olds will be getting them for birthdays because Grandma read "iPod" on the label and something cheap on the price tag. And don't underestimate the iTunes factor. I don't like it all that much, and only use it to keep my wife's mini up to date, but a WHOLE bunch of people don't know how to use Windows Explorer, have no idea where the files they ripped are, etc. iTunes (like MusicMatch & others) integrates it for the masses. I'm not saying it does a great job, but it's easy, and this thing will be a part of it.

Exactly, it's all about the momentum. Keep in mind that the flash player will be geered towards a completely different market: newbies and sports-people. The shuffle concept really intrigues me and I was really surprised that Apple would've steered that way... I don't know, I think that, iTunes or not, it'll succeed.

$99 for 512 mb just sounds great

 

[carvj]

I suspect the iPod Shuffle will sell very well, simply based on the fact that people can now buy an iPod for under $100. It's that simple. Until today, you needed to drop $249 for an iPod, which meant it was still out of reach for many consumers.

It may not have the most features, and it may not be the best flash player out there, but people said the same thing about the original iPod.

I think this is a brilliant move by Apple. An entry level player to get people into the "iPod Family." I bet it works -- look for Apple's market share to increase once again.

 

[Orestes]

iPod shuffle

"Spend more time shuffling through your music than actually llistening to it."

 

[Spankypoo]

Hasn't anyone learned to stop predicting the flop of the iPod? This'll sell.

 

[chadbang]

Got to hand it to Apple. They know how to launch a product and turn it into something exciting. Well, the stickpod is sort of coo (I admire it sleekness. Very "2001: A Space Odyssey" in it's minimalism), but the new mini imac is what's tickling my fancy today

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

http://www.apple.com/macmini/design.html

"Most low-cost PC manufacturers slap together Frankenstein machines by hacking away features from the high end (of three years ago, anyway) and putting the warmed-over parts in ill-fitting cheap plastic boxes. They don’t really have a choice, since they don’t design any of the parts, from operating system to motherboard. That’s why most budget PC cases seem to be littered with a mish-mash of uncoordinated stickers from every component vendor on the planet."

Ain't it the truth?


Amazing. Apple does it again with the coolest computer on the planet. But don't drop it on the way home!

 

[traficante]

If it would have a display and FM tuner I would have bought one. I would even pay $50-75 more if it did.

 

[MartinJ]

I prefer this one