Thoughts on the Apple iPod announcements, where’s my $200 iPhone rebate check?
I’ve been following through the great live-blogging over at Engadget. Some interesting news which I’ll summarize in case you missed it and provide a thought or two in italics.
- Ringtones: Available for the iPhone direct through iTunes. $0.99 for a 30-second song selection. I’m less than thrilled here as you have to pay for the song first and then pay again for the ringtone. That’s lame in my book. You’re paying for the simplicity of the solution of course, but you’re also paying for the same content twice.
- iPod Shuffle: New colors. Nothing new here unless I missed it.
- iPod Nano: Shorter and with a QVGA screen for CoverFlow, video and game playback. Battery life: 24 hours of audio, five for video. 4 GB = $149, 8 GB = $199. It might get tiring to watch vids on this small screen; the pixel density appears very high but I have to see the screen dimensions to be sure. Kudos to Apple for stellar battery life and for reasonable 8 GB price over the 4 GB. I predict 8 GB units to outsell the 4 GB by a factor of 3 to 1.
- iPod Classic: Thinner and more storage. 80 GB = $249, 160 GB = $349. Unless you want to carry dozens of movies, 160 GB seems like overkill to me. Still, great battery life at 40 hours of audio and seven hours of video.
- iPod Touch: The iPhone without the phone. 8GB = $299, 16 GB = $399. WiFi and all other iPhone features minus the phone. Until I heard the final announcement of the show, I thought these prices would kill iPhone sales. Remember the $599 justification for the iPhone was it’s an iPod and a phone. If the iPod features are $299, is the phone part worth $300? No and you’ll see in a minute that Apple agrees.
- WiFi iTunes store: Purchase tracks directly on your iPod Touch or iPhone via WiFi. What took so long? When will the Zune have this? This could be a nail on the coffin of other online music retailers.
- Starbucks music: Walk in to a Starbucks with your iPod Touch or iPhone and you can buy the track that’s playing in the store over free WiFi. I don’t see a huge consumer benefit here; I would have rather heard about free WiFi in all Starbucks for these devices to browse with.
- iPhone price cut: 8 GB iPhone now $399. I’m all for risking more dollars as an early adopter, but this is a huge price cut. I’m running out to the mailbox now to see if my $200 iPhone rebate check is there. I suspect there will be many ticked off early adopters. $50…that I could swallow. 33% of what was paid recently? Not a great way to treat a customer.
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What about the 4GB? Did that drop to $299? Or drop all together? Also, what about the people who bought a 4gb for $499?
Mike, there was no mention of the 4GB iPhone, so I suspect it goes away. In fact, I just hit the Apple iPhone page tech specs and it shows 8 GB capacity only.
I was liking the iPod Classic updates, but I figured with that “name change” there was a new iPod (well HOPING) and all I have to say is that I AM IN LUST with the iPod Touch. I will be looking for the news on them shipping! I was hoping they were shipping already and would be in stores this weekend like the previous annoucements.
As for the Starbucks, I don’t frequent them (can’t stand coffee, even smell bothers me sometimes), but I have hung out in smiliar places for food (panera bread, atlanta bread company, etc) and never have I thought it would be cool to buy that song I just heard. I wonder if the “free access” in Starbucks is JUST to the WiFiStore or full WiFi.
as for the price reduction. I do agree that is a big hit so close to the first release. I know that in the future the iPod touch I am going to buy will be reduced when the next gen comes down the line, but that won’t (I HOPE) be in just a couple months.
I would seriously consider at least emailing Apple about that huge decrease and possible rebate, maybe even just a partial one. How long have you had it? with in 30 days? I would say it doesn’t hurt to try. worst they can do is say no, it’s not like they will charge you more for asking. well maybe his Jobness could get away with that :) LOL
I’ll still continue using the Sansa Connect. Wifi + subscription music is working for me.
I’m very surprised they added Wifi iTunes store. That’s huge. I wonder if they will be offering DRM-less tracks.
I agree about the price hit, seeing as I paid $499 for a 4GB iPhone just over 30 days ago. I emailed Steve (from my iPhone) asking for an iTunes store credit. We’ll see if I get a reply. :)
Head for the Apple or AT&T store and see if you can get your $200.
The Apple stores generally will swipe your credit card and give you the difference (unless you bought a 4GB, in which case you’d have to swap) if you bought the item in the past 14 days.
at&t generally gives you 30 days.
I’ve had an absolute blast hacking mine so I have no regrets at all. The general fawning and you-are-so-lucky’s have been icing on the cake.
I hit the live blog at Gizmodo and learned the 4GB is being discontinued but apparently any remaining stock is being sold at the $200 price cut. Rush down to your Apple Store while they last.
One more thing, despite my father’s mantra of “you snooze, you lose”, apparently patience is good too. I knew a price cut was inevitable, but this is certainly sooner and steeper than I expected. I guess the analysts were due to have one analysis turn true.
You thought the iPhone was worth $600 when you bought, and demonstrated by you actually buying…. get over it… The more of them that are out the there, the stronger the platform becomes.
The good news is that you can shop iTunes from your second home (aka Starbucks), I thought it was just the last 10 songs too but then they said you can do all of your iTunes from there.
That’s cool when I’m waiting around for someone, it’s easy to just say meet me at the starbucks at the corner of so and so street..