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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/10/29/osopinion:.how/

OSOpinion: How valuable is the iPod?

updated 04:00 pm EST, Mon October 29, 2001

 
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OSOpinion has posted a piece titled "How Valuable is Apple's New iPod?" Author Khan Klatt says that Apple has "its finger on its customers' collective pulse," with the new device, and "Apple customers show they are willing to pay more for value." Klatt also explores the concern that Apple's iPod may go the way of the cube, and predicts future storage upgrades.


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  1. roehlstation

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

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    10/29, 04:11pm | report spam | Reply |

    Research People

    The author states,
    "The problem is easily remedied, however. The easiest answer is to upgrade the iPod to a 10GB or 20GB model while retaining its existing price. This will most likely happen at some time in the future due to product price fluctuation. The same price that Apple paid for a 2GB drive last year buys a 5GB hard drive today."

    Well, Duh we all know that, but that is what Apple did, they put the biggest drive in the iPod that they could. 5GB is the highest capacity 1.8" drive you can put in their device. You cannot fit a 2.5" 20 GB drive into a 2.4" wide device, it just doesn't fit. Oh Sure Apple could have made the iPod bigger, but they would have had to give up on a 10 hour battery. Because the 2.5" drive would drain that battery in half the time. Once Fuji develops a 10 GB 1.8" drive I am sure Apple will follow suit assuming the price isn't any more outrageous.

  1. mlowe

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    10/29, 04:23pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    This article is a right

    This guy hit it right on the head. The iPod is overpriced. I took a survey of every Mac user in our company and no-one is willing to shell out $400 in this economy for a device that they already have a solution for. An MP3 player is not something new. Apple has made a great product, no doubt, but that doesn't make it possible for everyone to own one. But we don't need to debate here, the sales numbers will come in, and they will be extremely low, just like the cube. Hopefully this time they won't wait 6 months for the burners to cool before the correct their huge blunder.

  1. ColdCuts

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    Joined: Oct 2010

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    10/29, 04:46pm | report spam | Reply |

    Bad info

    He states "My own research shows that the retail price difference between a 5GB laptop hard drive, and a 10GB model is only US$40."

    Bzzt. We aren't talking 3.5" drives here, these are 1.8". Even if a 10 GB drive where available, the *difference* would not be only $40.

    Doesn't surprise me the tech company he was a CTO of is defunct.

  1. noverflow

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    Joined: Aug 2001

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    10/29, 04:56pm | report spam | Reply |

    1.8in

    have you ever looked at prices for a 1.8in 5gb drive?? it alone is $400 concidering everything the ipod is actually a good price. i just think that people are not willing to pay this much for technology.

  1. bryan.falchuk

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    10/29, 05:03pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    NFN

    This is further proof of how TERRIBLE NFN is...they write c*** articles, and don't check their facts. Yes, the iPod is costly, but I still jumped on it. I travel to Asia regularly, take the train to work, and this thing will totally make my day. My CD player sucks batteries and skips, and it only plays 1 CD...I would kill to get something this small that has this much capacity. True, the Nomad JukeBox is up to 20 GB, but it's HUGE and SO HEAVY...I want a little thing to put in my pocket like a Rio 800. And, look at the per MB cost...the iPod is cheap as h*** compared to the Rio 800 or the 600. The Rio 800 w/ 384 MB of RAM is...gasp...$460!

    A Rio 800 at 64 MB of RAM is $219.95, or $3.44 per MB. The iPod (5 x 1024 MB + 32 RAM) is $399 or $.08 per MB. Come on, folks...this is not as terribly priced as you think...add in the FireWire connectivity, and the value gets even better.

    Sure, it's expensive, but let's try to keep some facts straight, and keep the extremely high level of tech packed into this little thing when berating Apple. NFN stories of such low quality have no place being listed on MacNN.

  1. Chris Hutcheson

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Oct 2000

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    10/29, 05:11pm | report spam | Reply |

    1.8in

    " i just think that people are not willing to pay this much for technology."

    No, I think they're not willing to pay this much for a glorified walkman.

  1. Joined:

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    10/29, 05:40pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    You sir, are no Walkman

    Actually lots of people paid more than this for an un-glorified Walkman back in the day. The difference is that that wasn't just a new consumer product, but a basically new concept (wandering around listening to the recorded music of your choice). Since prices have dropped by an order of magnitude across the whole spectrum of such devices since then, and a portable MP3 player isn't anything fundamentally new (just an incrementally improved restatement of something you could already do), U$400 is indeed too much even for the geewhiz-money-to-burn crowd.

    Well except for that person a couple of posts up, but who are you gonna believe, me or some s****** who posts their opinions to MacNN?

  1. \0

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    10/29, 06:28pm | report spam | Reply | delete

    From a PC User

    An iPod preview at IGN. http://gear.ign.com/articles/307608p1.html
    It starts "Days like today make me wish I were a Mac user."

    And continues "The iPod itself isn't so much a revolutionary development as it is a perfect (or very close) product ... the iPod has a 5GB hard drive. MP3 fans probably know that portable jukeboxes are widely available in much larger configurations, i.e. Nomad's 30GB model. But a theme of practicality runs through the iPod, and 5GB is ample space for a strong majority of computer users. Plus, internal memory alone does not a player make."

    He goes on to make points about the speed of firewire, using it as an external drive, easu of use of iTunes etc.

    There are two groups of people knocking the iPod: PC trolls on Mac boards, and some Mac users. the former I can understand because its their job, but not the latter, especially for the weak reasons given. Those who are praising the iPod are just as likely to be Mac reviewers as PC reviewers.

    The iPod is not overpriced. It might be more costly than what YOU (and me) can afford at the moment, but for what it is, what goes into it and its potential, it is definitely not overpriced.

    But what do I care: I just bought a new motorbike :-)

  1. roehlstation

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    Joined: Aug 2001

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    10/29, 07:14pm | report spam | Reply |

    It wasn't until....

    ...the announcement of the iPod that I knew what it was I wanted for Christmas. After all I already have a G4 PowerBook, and a 21" studio display to go along with it, and with the amount of software I have, I thought I was pretty much covered. But when they announced the iPod I said, "there it is" and when they announced the price I winced only briefly, because look at what you get for that. For me it is the perfect solution to my music listening woes. My Rio 600 was fine, but with 32MB or flash memory I could only fit about 8 songs on the thing and for $150 I could double my capacity to 64 MB and put 16 songs on it. But the iPod will hold my entire collection and with the speed and real convienience of Emmy award winning Firewire. Yeah $400 might be a bit for what people see as a gadget, but hey, my Palm Vx wasn't that much less expensive and well, that copy of AutoCAD I have running on Virtual PC was $3500.

  1. mr100percent

    Forum Regular

    Joined: Dec 1999

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    10/29, 08:10pm | report spam | Reply |

    of course

    in 6-9 months when there are new drives, there WILL be an upgrade, maybe even colors. OR the price will drop.

    One or the other. I wouldn't expect both in 9 months.

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