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http://www.macnn.com/articles/04/01/07/ipod.mini.pricing.too.high/

Analysts: iPod mini pricing too high?

updated 02:15 pm EST, Wed January 7, 2004

iPod mini pricing too high

The Washington Post notes some disappointing reactions to the iPod mini's pricing, with some analysts remarking on the (too) : "'With only $50 difference with the bigger one, why wouldn't I buy the bigger one?' Bob O'Donnell, director of personal technology at market research firm IDC, told the Los Angeles Times. 'You get four times the amount of music. The iPod Mini should have been more like $170.' O'Donnell said other MP3 player manufacturers will unveil players that cost less that $200 and hold more memory at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas."

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01/07, 02:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
Ipod mini

Is far to much money.
I think Apple may have a problem selling these little
fellas.
Though they have sold stuff on just style before..
Who knows

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01/07, 02:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
Perhaps the whole point

of the iPod mini is to sell more iPods. Why would someone who wants a $250 iPod mini not end up with a $300 iPod that stores over 3x as much music? I wouldn't be surprised if by Apple decreases the price of the base model iPod mini by an additional $50 by the 2004 Christmas season.

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01/07, 02:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Not a mini price

Apple,
The iPod mini costs TOO much! As the man said, for $50 more I can get a 15gb iPod. Drop the price to not a penny more than $199.

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01/07, 02:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
Way too high!

I have to agree with this guy. I have a 40gb iPod, and I was going to buy a mini for my son's 16th birthday. For $50 more, he's going to get the new 15gb iPod! Why would anyone pay $250 for 4gb when for $50 more they can get 15gb!!!

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01/07, 02:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
They'll probably lower

They will have to come down in price....If they were less then $200 I would have gotten one...but I think I'll look at the 15 GB instead.

Unfortunately they probably couldn't cut the price too much, I'm sure the Scroll wheel, screen, and hard disk are pretty high priced.

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01/07, 02:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
Price is good

That price is fine. You pay to have things mini. Think of cell phones; I paid double because my phone is smaller than the other (my provider only offers two phones with all the features I wanted). And the other one was colour, my phone is not.

Besides it's got a way nicer case and it has the armband, I know my room mate is getting one for working out. And I think I am going to get one to replace my original iPod.

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01/07, 02:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wrong target market...

Apple owns the $299+ market.

Apple is targeting the $199+ market. Remember the $199 market is just as large as the iPod market, even tho for $100 more then can join the iPod market. Now for $50 you can join the iPod market.

Apple will eventually lower the price. If Apple started them at $199, there would no way Apple could keep up with demand. And don't forget rev. A syndrome.

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01/07, 02:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
geez

I wasted $50 of my time just reading all of your bitching and complaining over $50

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01/07, 02:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
wrong

people said the same thing about the original ipod... who's going to pay $400 for a 5GB MP3 player, when i can buy a rio for $150... well apparently a lot of people.

and for everyone saying "but for $50 more i get 3 times the storage", well you're not the target market. you are computer literate people who understand the economics of things like dollars per megabyte. the ipod mini is targeted at the market that cares nothing for mega-whatsits and mp-thingy-mabobers. it's for the 16 year old girl who wants a cool pink mp3 player, or the business man who wants to take an audio book with him on a plane, or the entire country of japan.

the ipodmini is NOT a cheaper ipod, just like the imac is not a cheaper powermac, it's a different product for a different market segment and apple will sell a ton of them.

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01/07, 02:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
Price is fine

I am not getting one, but I bet that for a while, they will not be able sell the ones they can make. After production is up to speed, I bet they will drop the price to 199. Why give up any revenue when you are going to be catching up to a backorder anyway?

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01/07, 03:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple still wins...

"They will have to come down in price....If they were less then $200 I would have gotten one...but I think I'll look at the 15 GB instead. "

You are still buying one of Apple's products and even spending $50 more.

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01/07, 03:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple still wins:

Sorry, but they won't "win".

For $50 more you can have 11 more gigs, but that is still to pricey.

Your logic is flawed, and so is Steve Job's.

Here is the proper price structure for the presentation given.

iPod mini : $199.00

iPod 15 gb: $299.00
and so on.

Take a smaller profit margin or miniscule one in order to
trounce the competition, and then break out the newer shelved
technology that is in the pipe. We all know he has some serious
stuff in the pipe too.

It isn't Rocket Surgery.
:O)

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01/07, 03:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
Cube = iPod mini?

Will it suffer the same fate?

Both are technically amazing for how small they are.

Both are/were over priced for the big picture.

The iPod mini should have been a 2 gig for $150. They would have sold millions and attracted more people to it's larger brother the iPod.

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01/07, 03:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
huh ?

what heck is rev. A syndrome.

this doesnt apply really...

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01/07, 03:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple Lays An Egg

As someone who was at the Keynote, let me say that when Steve announced the $249 price, he got the second coldest reception I've ever heard - the first being the original announcement of .Mac for $99 when you could hear the crickets chirping in the background.

The brief John Mayer concert notwithstanding, the keynote wasn't worth the wait in line and the time it took to deliver it. I should have slept in.

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01/07, 03:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
Still no flash mem.player

I am so upset about this ipod mini. I thought it was the answer I was looking for for working out. I CAN'T use my damn ipod because the thing skips too much & is too heavy for long runs (13+ miles). With the rumors of the mini I thought my prayers had been answered but NOOOO, this thing is still disk based!. GRRR. Come on apple, I'll take a ONE gig flash memory-based ipod mini for exercising. Please! That's all I need. Help me throw away my rio.

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01/07, 03:22pm | report spam | close Reply |
"Egg"

I watched it on the internet and saw for myself the chilly response
to the price of the mini iPod.

I thought to myself, what a kick in the teeth! I was primed to get
out there and order my $99 or $150 mini iPod, and BAM!

That sucks.
It sucks to be poor that is.
If I could count out 250 clams like it was lunch money, that would
be my next purchase, but seeing as I'm on the other side of the
tracks. Oh well.

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01/07, 03:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
not unreasonable

I'm hearing the exact same complaints as when the original iPod came out. (I was one of the complainers.) Boy do we look stupid now. I guess people really did pay $400 for a MP3 player, and after paying that myself, I saw why.

Chances are I'll get a mini. Why? Mostly because the buttons are back where they should be, by the wheel. (And even more novel, *under* the wheel.) And it's tiny. Only problem is my wife will steal it immediately.

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01/07, 03:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
too much!

I was yelling at my computer while watching the keynote, "that price is too high steve!"

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01/07, 03:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
Price

It'll be down to $199 by March, and probably $149 by the summer. And then, it'll sell like hotcakes. I shall patiently wait before buying one for my daughter. ;)

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01/07, 03:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: geez

Don't tell us it took you 10 hours to read these posts!

Seriously though, $250 IS too high. At $200 even if Apple had to take a small loss on each unit it would be better than allowing the competition to run them over with hordes of "more-bang-for-the-buck" units. In general, value is what consumers look for...why else would there be more Win boxen than Mac boxen?

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01/07, 03:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
"re: geez"

Very funny!
I was going to say, it couldn't have taken him/her two days to read these posts.

$199 = 4gb mini iPod
$99 = 2gb mini iPod

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01/07, 03:53pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: "re: geez"

"I was going to say, it couldn't have taken him/her two days to read these posts.

$199 = 4gb mini iPod
$99 = 2gb mini iPod"

How can Apple afford to make money off of those? Expecially considering 2gb disks are $349 retail - I doubt Apple is getting a deal so good that their price of the disk + all the other components is less than $99. I'd bet that without any disk at all it costs more than $99 to make one of those.

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01/07, 03:56pm | report spam | close Reply |
Tell the Truth

Since I bought my first Mac (512KE) Apple has NEVER offered ANY product cheaper than what they could SQUEEZE out of the market.
Pink Pods - Yeah right - all I wanted was a faster G5 I could work on over the Winter. No Sale.

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01/07, 04:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
What I don't get...

...is that some are saying that the $249 price is fine and justifiable because of the miniaturization which does (legitimately) cost more.

But why not put a 4GBish hard drive into a full-sized iPod and get it down to the $199 price point or less? You have the smaller hard drive, but you don't eat the costs of miniaturization.

I think the answer is clear: Apple doesn't even *want* to compete in the space under $200. And that's fine as a business decision if it makes sense for them. But it also means that the iPods don't make financial sense for *me*.

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01/07, 04:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
smaller costs more

Think how amazing it is that they have taken all that an iPod can do and squeezed it into a smaller and lighter design. The fact that it holds less is negligible. It is so, so easy to hook it up to iTunes... why can't people just update their iPod music selections more often??

Sure, the iPod mini costs more than some other miniature players, but the price is right.

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01/07, 04:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Tell the Truth

Guy, you really need to get a clue. If you've been with the Mac for as long as you say you have, then you're probably sophisticated enough to realize that Apple isn't introducing Power Macs at Macworlds anymore. They usually come out in February.

The price of the miniPod is indeed too high, but maybe it will spur some additional sales of the 15GB from those who are saying they may as well pay the extra $50. Hopefully Apple learned its lesson from the cube (although, judging from this pricing I'm not too sure they have). Perhaps the mini is just being positioned with PDP (peak demand pricing). The one thing to be concerned about is that the mini may get a reputation for being overpriced, and that would spell its doom. Apple has to drop the price soon, or else it will truly deserve to be called an iPod cube.

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01/07, 04:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: what i don't get

then quit your 'itchen about them and move on.

Thank you and have a nice day.

*relaxes with my ipod*

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01/07, 04:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
Should have been $100

Once again- Apple is missing the opportunity to introduce people to a real interface improvement- and get them into iTunes and to buy downloads from the store.
This should have been a 1GB RAM based unit, even smaller, and more power-efficient.
Apple still needs a pizza box computer- no monitor, under $700 as a way to get in the door- and this is another example of a blown opportunity.
I think Steve saw BMW's success with the Mini- and fell in love with the idea.

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01/07, 04:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
Price and all

Seriously though, $250 IS too high. At $200 even if Apple had to take a small loss on each unit it would be better than allowing the competition to run them over with hordes of "more-bang-for-the-buck" units. In general, value is what consumers look for...why else would there be more Win boxen than Mac boxen?

Why would taking a loss be a good thing? They make their money from iPod sales, not ITMS sales. Selling it for a loss isn't somehow going to earn them the money in the long run.

As for the price, sure, you could get a larger device with more storage for $50, but what if I don't have any use or need for more storage? Should I just waste the $50 on something I'll never use? I guess you all think everyone should get a dual 2.0 G5 because its only 500 more than the 1.8s?

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01/07, 04:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Price and all

>>>As for the price, sure, you could get a larger device with more storage for $50, but what if I don't have any use or need for more storage? Should I just waste the $50 on something I'll never use? I guess you all think everyone should get a dual 2.0 G5 because its only 500 more than the 1.8s?

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01/07, 04:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
I agree.

I think $250 is too high as well. Once people are spending that they see they can get the normal iPod or worse, something like the Philips or Dell Digital Jukebox for not much more. 4gb of flash memory alone is around $250.

I have a theory that there is no miniPod. It is just a paper tiger to entice people who don't want to shell out $300 to buy the normal iPod. "Okay. My budget is 200. Ohh cool! Apple has an iPod that is $250. I guess i can get that. But wait, for only $50 more i can get 15GB!"

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01/07, 04:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
Price. . .Price. . .Price

Where in the world do they come up with the pricing matrix? This is going to be another iMac fiasco. Some dumbass needs to . . . never mind this is Apple doing the Jobs thing.

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01/07, 04:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
ugh

People want and pay for small things. What does a Mini from BMW run? $23k? It's tiny. For the same price you can get a Ford Taurus... which one would you get? I rest my case.

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01/07, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: ugh

"People want and pay for small things. What does a Mini from BMW run? $23k? It's tiny. For the same price you can get a Ford Taurus... which one would you get? I rest my case. "

nevermind that the line above is a bad analogy... but it's also wrong, a MINI from BMW starts at 16k.

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01/07, 04:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
not that simple

15GB ipod=no case, no dock bigger and heavier

mini pod, =belt case, dock ,smaller and lighter you have to see it to appreciate how much.

people will buy this for the portablity of it which is what apple appears to be after since they compared it to a rio

That said they would sell all they could make at $179. It's not such a slam dunk at$249

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01/07, 05:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
As a former Cube owner...

(and I still miss my Cube sometimes), I must admit that the iPod mini has the same sort of feel about it... just a bit too little for a bit too much. The standard iPod is expensive, but justifiable (at least in my mind) based on all of its merits. The iPod mini, however, offers one new merit (reduced size)... but it also gives up one merit of the traditional iPod (storage capacity). At $229 it would do Ok, at $199 it would do very well, at $249 I think it's just enough to discourage most folks. Just my two cents...

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01/07, 05:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
you guys don't get it

It's the same price as a 256mb Rio. So, what would you buy, the 256mb Rio or the 4 gig iPod? Oh wait, look here, for only $50 I can get a bigger iPod!!

The mini is priced to wipe out smaller competition. It does that. AND, it's a temptation to buy the next iPod up for only $50 more. So Apple is not only GRABBING the cheap b******* who wanted to only spend $250 on an MP3 player, but it may convince them to spend $50 to get a bigger iPod.

They are fricking geniuses!! If the deal is bad, get the bigger iPod! I'd personally rather have the mini, it's smaller size, its HD (I have less then 1 gig of music) and it's price.

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01/07, 05:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
Flash not HD

Flash RAM is much more costly per MB than hard drive space and a number of articles have erroneously stated that the mini uses a hard drive when it is, in fact, a Flash RAM-based player.

To compare it to the hard drive based iPod on a cost basis is fallacious. In order to properly compare the two, all of the differences, including the improved resistance to vibration and acceleration loads need to be considered.

If the particular potential purchaser does not need the specific merits of a flash player, then the hard drive based model is a better choice, for that specific individual; but to presume that no one has a use for those qualities is quite a presumption.

The mini is for people who wanted a flash player. It's a different market segment. Please stop making over-simplified assumptions that they are the same type of device.

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01/07, 05:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Price and all

[i]Why would taking a loss be a good thing? They make their money from iPod sales, not ITMS sales. Selling it for a loss isn't somehow going to earn them the money in the long run.[/i]

For one, selling more units increases mindshare. And two, the miniPod model should be about flooding the market with attractively priced, high-value music players that support the AAC format. IIRC, currently there are no other mainstream players that support AAC...iTMS files are AAC encoded. With that kind of "tying" Apple has an opportunity to litterally dominate the market from the bottom up. But the only way to attract budget-minded buyers (not poor, money conscious) is to offer a unit that allows them to get in without "breaking the bank."

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01/07, 05:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Flash not HD

This was taken from Apple's site:

Capacity
4GB, 15GB, 20GB or 40GB hard disk drive

Where did you see it listed as having flash RAM?

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01/07, 05:39pm | report spam | close Reply |
bad idea jeans

Two points that sum up why the room went SILENT after the price for the mini was announced:

1) I have NEVER met anyone who has said, "Man, if the iPod was just smaller, I'd get one." The ONLY complaints anyone in the press or the public has had about the iPod since it was introduced centered around the price. (Hint: it's too high for most people.) Making it smaller is of little to no incentive, I'm sorry.

2) Steve-o, for next time, don't go on and on about targeting the $99-$199 MP3 player market and then unveil a $249 product. It doesn't work that way. If you can't afford anything more than $199 for a Rio, you sure as s*** aren't going to buy something for $249. I don't care how cute and shiny it is. Of course you can get something better if you pay $50 or $100 more for something - but it doesn't mean most people are going to.

It's so frustrating to see Apple so quickly go back to the same tactics that keep them on only 7% of the world's desktops and laps. The iPod is a mass-market product, and it's doing great. This is the wrong time to get arrogant and start making something as assinine as what was unveiled yesterday.

I predict it will die a quick death if it doesn't drop to $199 by the end of Q1 2004.

And, for those keeping score, there IS a hard drive in the iPod mini, not Flash RAM.

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01/07, 05:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Flash not HD

"...a number of articles have erroneously stated that the mini uses a hard drive when it is, in fact, a Flash RAM-based player..."

from apple's tech specs of the ipod...:

Capacity
4GB, 15GB, 20GB or 40GB hard disk drive(1)
Holds 1,000, 3,700, 5,000 or 10,000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC format(2)
Stores data via FireWire or USB 2.0(3) hard drive

it seems to me that it IS a hard drive and not flash based... also steve mentioned the skip protection on the iPod mini as 25 minutes, if it was indeed 4GB of flash memory the skip protection wouldn't even be an issue since it wouldn't skip at all...

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01/07, 05:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
26452.778193 yen

If the conversion in Calculator in MacOS X 10.3.2 is correct the mini will go for around 26452.778193 yen..

Why am I wasting your time w/ this info?

Because Japan/asia is the obvious target market here - Hello Kitty Pink is a dead giveaway here folks...

Think if this mini as the PowerBook 2400 (Orig. available in asia only) People complained about the 2400 not being available in the US, so after awhile the little beauty became available here in the US.. Heh, and many complained that the KB was too small and it was too expensive etc... But it was the best sub notebook Apple made before the dual-usb iBook.

All Apple has done here is make the iPod mini available worldwide from the get-go to avoid the *itching about it only being available in asia, the mini's obvious target market. It's the size of a business card for Christ's sakes!!! Take a business card and try to imagine what Ive did to design the mini.

Yes, $249 is prob too expensive to make it a runaway hit here in the States... As an Apple shareholder, sure I�m alittle concerned... a 2GB mini for $199 may have been a better bet. But I'm positive the 4GB mini will go like crazy in asian markets. This will be fun to watch :-)

Take deep breaths.. relax.

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01/07, 05:41pm | report spam | close Reply |
RE2: Flash not HD

BTW don't you think the miniPod would have longer battery life than the HD players if it used Flash RAM?

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01/07, 05:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
Shattered expectations

"I thought to myself, what a kick in the teeth! I was primed to get
out there and order my $99 or $150 mini iPod, and BAM!"

This illustates well the problems caused by the rumor sites. No one had any reason to expect ANYTHING from Apple. The rumors have been consistantly crazy: a $99 mini iPod??? Holy Moses, what do people think the components cost?

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01/07, 06:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Thank You

I've been holding off buying a iPod because of price and Apple kept releasing newer ones a few months later. When I read that Apple will be releasing scaled down version, I figured ok, now is the time to get one. But I was sadly disappointed about the price. I did the math also in regards to the extra 50 bucks (15 gig iPod.) It's a shame about the market Apple will be losing out on...

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01/07, 06:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
biggest success ever.

Once Apple has command of the $250 to $500 player market,
they'll expand down into $200 to $500 space. This way it's a fight on just one front.

It they came out with the rumored $100 player, Apple would have competition
from above and below, plus they'd still be fighting the $100 to $300 players with
the current iPod. That's three strong competitors nipping at them from different directions.

The mini is mostly about gaining and holding market share,
not to satisfy the "I want a $100 iPod" crowd (at this time).
They are moving the price both downward and widely as well.
They'll sell tons of these things, the most popular product ever in Apple "unit" sales.

Absolutely Huge.

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01/07, 06:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
We don't know

We do not yet know if $249 is too expensive ot not. It is easy for us to sit here and compare specs and say that "for only $50 more I get more music" as if that was the only thing consumer base their purchase on.

Wait until we see the minis in the store, hold it in our hands, look and feel the new form factor. It is there and then the decisions will be made. And many buyers will never fill up 4 GB anyway. Just remember how astronomic the original 5 GB iPod felt when it came out...

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01/07, 07:56pm | report spam | close Reply |
Flash or HD matter??

Personally I don't care if they puts liquid based gel powered by a gigawatt gerbil inside to store my 1000 songs... and the 25 minute buffer... come on people, I bet many of those complainers haven't jogged more than 25 minutes in the past 10 years... oh wait, unless there was a new release at McD's lol :) just had to

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01/07, 08:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
The Screwed Up

There will 129 trendy joggers who will buy this product. The rest will either get 15GB iPod or go with the competition! This product does NOT address the targeted market. This is so freaking obvious. What the h*** is going on over there? I addresses the same market as the 15GB iPod does. It needs to be at most $189.99. Lowering price in Q2 is a terrible strategy since the product would have lost it's wow factor by then and surely copied by the competion.

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01/07, 09:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
joggers...

it doesn't even address joggers really, 25 minute skip protection wouldn't be enough for runners...

re: Flash or HD matter??
"Personally I don't care if they puts liquid based gel powered by a gigawatt gerbil inside to store my 1000 songs..."

the issue was brought up because some poster had misunderstood, and said flash memory is many times more expensive per GB than hard drive space (which is true) so that was one reason why the iPod mini is so much more per GB than a standard iPod.

but the iPod mini is HD based and not flash based...

i don't really care, i think it's too expensive for myself, and certainly was disappointed when steve announced 249... time will tell whether they have another cube on their hands or not...

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01/07, 10:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
Price is in-line

The iPod-Mini uses a 1 inch Hitachi hard drive. The only other MP3 player is the Rio Nitrus. Please see the press release here.

http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/company/press.asp?ID=599

The Rio Nitrus 4GB will begin shipping in January and will be available through Rioaudio.com, and all major retail outlets in the U.S. The estimated U.S. street price is $249.

On a side note Real-Player will soon support AAC !

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01/08, 03:36am | report spam | close Reply |
bah

bah, its perfect. maybe not for you, personally, but nobody cares about you except you and your mom.

i want one. gold. it'll be my new mp3-playa-bling-bling.

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01/08, 03:39am | report spam | close Reply |
bah

its perfect. maybe not for you, personally, but nobody cares about you personally except you and your mom.

i want one. gold. it's my new mp3-playa-bling-bling.

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01/08, 08:05am | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Flash or HD matter??

I will be running a 26-mile marathon this sunday and would love to have a mini ipod on my hip. FLASH MATTERS! I've tried HD-based ipods and they simply skip too much and are too big/ heavy (trust me you feel every extra ounce after 15 miles). I bought a rio and maxed out the memory 512mb with an SD card. For $150 bucks! The mini ipod is all fashion and no substance. I'll take my Rio.

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iPod mini vs other iPods

it seems apple wants the iPod mini to be competition for other small MP3 players and doesnt even consider it as being so close to price as the 15GB model. Its like having two Cars both with similar capabilities but one is marketed to a Hipper Sporty crowd.

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01/08, 09:56am | report spam | close Reply |
same complaints?

Yeah, those are the same complaints as the original iPod, but with the original you had a LOT more people coming out in support of it, and you really got the sense that Apple was on the verge of something big.

With the miniCube, er, I mean iPod Mini, everyone I've asked and all of the reviews I'm reading are about 98% "too expensive" -- the miniCube's supporters are few and far between...

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01/08, 10:23am | report spam | close Reply |
count me out

No dock. No remote. Crappy buds. This is nothing but a fanboy player.

The price is too high. Period.

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Analysts: iPod mini pricing too high?

updated 02:15 pm EST, Wed January 7, 2004

iPod mini pricing too high

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