Why iPod Mini is a smart move for Apple 730
Ample Dave writes "Ars Technica has an analytical article up right now that looks at Apple's strategy with the (many would say overpriced) iPod Mini. I have to admit that I bought into the rumors of a dirt cheap iPod Jr., and thus was very disappointed when the real price of $250 was announced, but this article changed my mind. It leads me to wonder about Apple's other pricing games. You an see this kind of thing with the eMac and iMac, too."
Re:typo? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:typo? (Score:3, Informative)
When you are expecting lower prices, you expect lower specs.
I got a 512mb player for $165 (Score:3, Informative)
Have you tried running with an iPod? (Score:5, Informative)
Runs just fine (Score:2, Informative)
I'm not sure what you are basing this on. It doesn't skip - I run with mine (short distances: 2-3 miles) without any skipping issues. It is a little large/heavy to wear comfortably on a waistband or arm band, though. The iPod Mini ought to cover the size issue nicely.
Re:Why not a Flash iPod? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Still Don't like it (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And why it's not (Score:2, Informative)
1) iPod
2) iPod Mini
3) There's no #3
While WMA is licensed to car stereo manufacturers, TV makers, digital player makers and so on, and today there's literally a "suitcase" of devices supporting Microsoft's DRM.
Re:Still Don't like it (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Accessories: where the money is. (Score:3, Informative)
You didn't RTA. Here's all the specs. (Score:5, Informative)
Manufacturer | Model | Price(USD) | Capacity
Apple | iPod Mini | 249 | 4.0 GB
Creative | MuVo2 | 299/199 | 4.0 GB
Rio | Nitrus | 249 | 4.0 GB
iRiver | iGP-100 | 249 | 1.5 GB
Rio | Nitrus | 199 | 1.5 GB
Sony | NW-MS70D Network Walkman | 299 | 256MB
iRiver | iFP-195T | 299 | 512 MB
Creative | Muvo TX | 269 | 512 MB
DigitalWay | MPIO FY-200 | 249 | 512 MB
Rio | Chiba | 199 | 256 MB
iRock! | iRock! 860 | 149 | 256 MB
The iPod Mini gives you sixteen times the storage of a Rio Chiba, for $50 more. Or eight times the storage of the Network Walkman, for $50 LESS. Of course, a chintzy no-name player is gonna be a lot cheaper, but you get what you pay for, and in its class, the MiPod is a pretty freakin' good deal - sort of the Phaeton of small players.
Re:Accessories: where the money is. (Score:5, Informative)
Sometimes it pays to not be blindly loyal to a particular brand. I was shocked at how much extra stuff was in the box.
Re:This article is 100% right. (Score:4, Informative)
I disagree. Everyone I know who actually can spell MP3 and rip MP3s has a lot more than 4 gigs. I personally am at 93 gigs in my collection right now...
You are a geek with geek friends. You are reading a geek site. You are not typical. I'm not insulting you, I'm also a geek with (mostly) geek friends who is replying to someone on a geek site.
The point is that very few people have 93 gigs of music. Most people don't have 4 gigs of music and those that do probably don't need to put their entire collection in their iPod mini. This product is aimed at the mainstream and you are simply outside of that.
Re:Hmm (Score:5, Informative)
Zen: 4.4 by 3 by 0.86 inches
iPod: 4.1 by 2.4 by 0.62 inches
iPod Mini: 3.6 by 2.0 by 0.5 inches
Weight:
Zen: 7.9 ounces
iPod: 5.6 ounces
iPod Mini: 3.6 ounces
Yes, you might be able to find more storage in the Zen, but size is the issue here. Further, I think anyone can see that the iPod's design is far more intuitive. The Zen is a great product, and I drool over the price tag. However, the iPod can not be discarded as an overpriced player. Expensive, perhaps, but there are reasons.
doesnt really compare competitors (Score:2, Informative)
RCA Lyra Jukebox (40gb) : $260
Rio Karma (20Gb, ogg support, ethernet) : $267
Samsung Napster (20GB,line-in,fm transmitter) : $260
Dell Digital Jukebox (15gb) : $249
(source: cnet.com)
and of course we could go on and on. 4GB for $250 that *actually sells* for $250 is absurd. competitors are judged by the price at which it can be purchased *and* features. going by MSRP alone is pointless, especially in apples case.
Re:Marketing by confusion - its not solid state (Score:2, Informative)
The iPod (and I assume the mini) has something like 20 minutes worth of shock protection. It does not play from the disk, it buffers the songs in memory and plays from there. This also increases battery life quite a bit, since the disk isn't constantly spinning.
You could make the iPod skip if you put it in a paint mixer or something, but if it skips while you're jogging, it should be sent in for repair. That or you jog really badly
Re:Still Don't like it (Score:4, Informative)
Riiiiiiiight.
The iPod Mini is not all about price per gigabyte. It's about a good amount of storage (WAY more than a flash player) in a very light package. The iPod itself is a bit heavy still for jogging. Best you can do is put it on your belt and it flops around enough to pull nylon jogging shorts (hello, Dolphin
Re:Have you tried running with an iPod? (Score:4, Informative)
Contrary to popular belief, the smaller the hard drive the more resistant it is to damage due to shock. On a smaller drive the arm that the head is mounted on is shorter. A shorter arm has less give in it (try bending a piece of paperclip 2 inches long and a piece of paperclip 0.5 inches long) and thus the arm will be less likely to bend enough to crash into the hard drive's media.
The newest of these small drives have shock ratings on the order of 200 G while they are operating and 1500 G while the heads are parked.
Re:Have you tried running with an iPod? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Still Don't like it (Score:3, Informative)
I used my 20GB original iPod with the touch wheel (you know the one I mean) for just about everything for a while. I used it in the car, in the living room, in my bedroom and on the move. It's very sturdy in terms of taking knocks, sure, and especially so with a carry case. However, the constant inserting and removing of headphones and various 3.5mm-to-whatever cables took its toll in about 6 months. It developed some serious noise in the left channel, and eventually went quiet altogether. To be fair this isn't Apple's fault, but a design flaw common to 3.5mm headphone sockets.
On a more positive note, I found it didn't do badly against a CD player twice its price in my main hifi, which was a pleasant surprise. For most of the time it was working, I rarely touched a CD. And having a huge amount of music while walking around was great.
If I can't fix my iPod at some point, I'll probably end up buying one of those baby iPods. I have about 12 gigs of mp3s at the moment. I'd be quite happy to have, say 2gb of playlists of music that I can't live without, and often want to listen to on a whim, and the rest be a floating list of randomness. I can't say I gain a whole lot from being able to walk around with track 8 of some godawful CD I bought 6 years ago around with me.
not_cub
Re:Accessories: where the money is. (Score:2, Informative)
Just fine. It actually has tactile feed back, so I don't have to listen to clicking while I queue up my next song.
How well does it integrate with your computer's music management tools?
I just drag and drop files onto it, easy as pie.
Does it also work as an address book?
Nope, it would make a crappy address book, why bother? You can read text files on it though, so you could have a read-only type.
A hard drive?
It's a standard USB mass storage device.
Does it have Firewire as well?
It has USB 2.0. Firewire would be pointless. USB is present on more computers, and on ANY computer with a firewire port. The USB 2.0 interface can already go faster than any drive inside an mp3 player can keep up with.
Re:Still Don't like it (Score:4, Informative)
One bit of advice that might save you some money: get some contact cleaner (that really spendy stuff you get in hi-fi and electronic repair stores.) It is very likely that a thin layer of crud and/or oxydization has developed at the exact point on the headphone jack where it comes in contact with the plug. you might not even see it easilly if it's only big enough to hold the channel barely far enough to prevent a solid connection.
Brush some of that cleaning solvent on the jack contacts (you may need take it apart to do this, but it's obviously out of warranty anyway or you could have this fixed for free), and while you are at it, clean the plugs that you usually use with it.
9 times out of 10 a good cleaning is all that really needs to be done to repair unreliable headphone jacks, noisy volume control knobs, unresponsive VU meters, etc.
Re:Still Don't like it (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Most reports miss the market (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not replying to toot my own horn, but I started making $300/mo. when I was 12 managing an accounts receivable database in FileMaker Pro. Legally. When I was 16 I started consulting and was making several thousand a year which I used to buy "gadgets".
Maybe those teenage girls aren't so stupid, hm?