Apple Releases New Touch Screen iPod

JSM writes to tell us that Apple released a new version of their popular iPod music player today that boasts, among other things, an iPhone-like touch screen and Wi-Fi capabilities. "The iPod Touch will feature the Safari Internet browser and, like the iPhone, play YouTube videos. Apple also announced a new version of its iTunes music store that will allow users to buy songs wirelessly. iTunes will also sell customizable 99-cent ringtones for the iPhone."

Re:argh

[psychicsword]

I have one thing to say... Gmail

Will it be able to run the same 3rd party apps....

[Joe The Dragon]

Will it be able to run the same 3rd party apps as the iphone?

AAPL down 3.5%

[roaddemon]

Interesting that Apple shares are down 3.5% with this news. Was there a financial disclosure, or were investors expecting something different?

Changes the Web

[Lally Singh]

Now we'll start seeing a real mobile web.

How many hands is this new iPod going to go into? How many of them will start really doing mobile web browsing as a day-to-day activity? Mobile facebook is digital crack, that you can't leave at your home or in your laptop now.

Man I wish these things had GPS...

Not impressed with the new Fat Nano

[bogie]

Way to ruin the Nano Apple. It was in no way a good idea to bloat the Nano so we could have video on it. Honestly, most of us simply don't want to watch video on a 2" screen. We wanted a cheaper Nano with more memory.

Nice job on the other ipods though. Hacked Ipodtouch + Skype = Goodness? Boy would that put a stick in Apple's craw.

Best comment heard so far regarding the Nano: "Does it do the truffle shuffle?"

Direct competitor to the nokia N800

[dgerman]

Now we have a direct competitor to the N800, and the "Touch" is actually cheaper (at least in Canada) than the N800.

I am not suggesting a "Touch" will have an open platform, ready for hacking. But for the regular folk, who just
want Wifi, and an agenda/calendar, the Touch will be enough. Wifi, in my opinion, is the killer app for those who
don't want a cell phone (yes, we exist) but want an agenda. Others will prefer to continue to use a phone as a phone
and get an ipod for its wifi. The greymarket of iphones being shipped overseas (even before the hacks) are evidence
that there is a market for this.

Also, I own a N800 and an Ipod video, and in my opinion the sound quality of the N800 is lower than the ipod. But that is just my opinion.

--dmg

Have they started with the subsidizing?

[hypermanng]

That truly is a steep drop in price. Have their supply and production costs dropped that much, or are they sacrificing margin in the expectation of recovering it in subscription fees? I tend to suspect the latter, which amounts to subsidized pricing.

Of course, it's also possible that they inflated the initial sale price a little to allow for the steep drop. This would seem like a good way to make a little extra money and reinforce the exclusivity of iPhone ownership, but dropping the price now has to piss off existing customers, who must feel like they've been had.

Skype that!

[EccentricAnomaly]

I bet Apple plans on keeping VOIP on the IPodtouch as a threat to keep ATT in line on the iPhone.

iPhone is selling very bad..

[traveller604]

There's no way they'd otherwise drop the price of it by 33% less than 70 days after launch.

Re:Boned and cool

[JoeFromPhilly]

$599 to $399 price drop in 2 months - EXTREMELY BONED

I don't think the type of people who spend $599 on a phone are all that worried about it, though. Not that I'd know...

I am very happy with my iPhone

[dhamsaic]

If you are going to feel sorry for iPhone owners, do it because of the price drop today - Apple's way of saying "fuck you" to early adopters.

Don't feel sorry for the million of us that have iPhones, though. They have combined a number of features we have been clamoring for and have done a damn good job of it. Honestly, the phone part of the iPhone is its best part. It is still the best phone I have ever used, even without features I used to rely on - such as the excellent voice dialing of the Motorola E815, Bluetooth synchronization, etc. To be quite honest, the iPod part of the iPhone is where it falls down - not able to manually manage music, not able to create new playlists even though there is a software keyboard, etc. SMS and calling features are pretty awesome.

This is exactly what I've been waiting for.

[jbarr]

Having been a VERY long-time PalmOS PDA user (since the USR Pilot 1000), the prospect of a decent Apple PDA-like device very much anticipated. Palm PDA's were revolutionary, but their technological drive forward has long been stalled. This "phoneless iPhone" could prove to be a HUGE seller. My main desire for this type of device is simply because it is NOT a phone. Historically, my company has provided a phone to their specifications, and I never had a choice in the matter, so I've had to take a pass on all of the latest and greatest "convergence" devices because of the integrated phones. Now that the phone has been removed, this looks like an EXCELLENT opportunity for a new, more modern replacement to my old PalmOS PDA's. My only question is will there be third-party apps to enhance it?

Re:the first iPod I'm impressed with

[DrXym]

Now if it were hackable or allowed 3rd party apps such as Skype we might be talking. As is, I don't see what's to get too excited about.

Re:The bigger story of the day..

[ralphthemagician]

And they will.

The thing is, Apple didn't cut the price of the iPhone by $200. No chance in hell. Maybe $50-$100. The rest of that price cut is coming from AT&T, in the form of subsidy, because the iPhone is selling well. This is exactly what I expected. Don't be surprised if you see another $100 price drop before/after Christmas (assuming Apple allows it, as it could hurt other iPod sales--but as long as the margins are the same, it shouldn't matter to them). There's really no minimum on how low these things can go. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a $199 iPhone 9 months from now. You have to remember, AT&T is getting $1,700 from you. They have no problem throwing down a few hundred. They've sold almost 1m iPhones, so 1-in-30 people in the US. I can see that becoming 1-in-10 or better in another 18 months as long as Apple takes AT&T's money.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:AAPL down 3.5%

[toQDuj]

trust the Street to correctly identify the source of any apple-stock-related hiccups. They've been a wonderfully anti-apple enterprise. Almost like the Register, except that the latter doesn't actually put so much anti-apple spin on the news bar a negative comment here or there.

Re:Boned and cool

[Fahrvergnuugen]

If my math is right, the new nano is just 2% bigger than the previous nano, yet has a 25% bigger screen.

gPhone pre-emptive strike?

[twoboxen]

With this aggressive drop in iPhone pricing so soon, you wonder if apple is trying to grab as much of the market as possible before a (yes, VERY rumored) gPhone announcement.

Re:Changes the Web

[AKAImBatman]

pretty much everybody who brings a laptop to Starbucks...

...and purchases the songs playing on the Muzak system.

Being able to purchase Starbucks music on your iPod/iPhone has to be the daftest feature ever. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was nifty!

What about the OS requirements?

[cellocgw]

Apple's web page says 10.4.8 for the iPodClassic and 10.4.10 for the iPodTouch. I'm still very happy w/ 10.3.9 on my old iMac G4 at home, and would rather not have to shell out $$ for 10.4.x .
Can anyone point me to some info as to what functionality I'll lose if I don't upgrade my OS (not to mention upgrading iTunes itself)?
Funny how WindowsXP+SP2 is sufficient for all the new iPods but on Apple's own OS I would have to buy an upgrade. Grrrr....

Re:The bigger story of the day..

[BewireNomali]

My math isn't strong. 1 in 30 you say?

Streaming to Airport Express?

[klez23]

With WiFi, I naturally assumed that it would stream to an Airport Express. But I haven't found anything about that on Apple's site, or anywhere else. Anyone?

I don't need another web browser or built-in itunes, but streaming would be real nice.

p

Re:wrong name

[Cadallin]

Nope, it's nowhere near as flexible as a Newton. No expansion capabilities (all the Newtons had PCMCIA slots). You're stuck with a (way too small) 8 or 16GB of memory. Hacking will alleviate the limitations of the OS and built-in software, but that storage is just too small. I'd prefer the 160GB classic myself (no less than 10x the amount of space! for $150 less?), while the 1" diagonal is significant, in my opinion, it's not worth it. The iPod touch couldn't hold what's on my (years old!) 3G iPod.

Personally, I'm rooting for intel to Deliver the goods with their "Mobile Internet Devices" Those things DO have the potential to be an "iPod Newton," if they're open enough, and have and SDHC slot or two, they have the potential to be pretty awesome, in my opinion. Note "potential," the prototypes look pretty crap, and the power issues will probably kill battery life until the 45nm die shrink arrives next year, I just hope the platform survives long enough, and manages to hit their target price range ($500-$600) I'd pay that for a device with a 600mhz Pentium 3 with a 5" screen, enough ram, and two 2SDHC slots. Those SDHC cards provide enough flexibility to let you carry around 40+GB of media.

touch ipod....meh

[thrashee]

At first, I was impressed with the demos of the new touch ipod. wifi integration? Built-in web browser? Slick touch-screen interface? And then, the nagging little details began to surface: 16 gig max capacity? My current 80 gig ipod is roomy indeed, and while it's not maxed out, any less than that, I'd be cutting it close. But wait--the new ipod is using USB flash drives...so logically, Apple will produce separate drives that you can swap out to easily mitigate the miserly space restrictions....right? Wrong. Let's not forget, people, these are the same devices with which you, the consumer, are not trusted to simply replace the battery. Swapping the drive? In your dreams. Second, since it has wifi, that means I don't need to plug in a USB cable to sync my ipod, right? Wrong. Of course, you can *purchase* new music over the ether, but something as insane as wirelessly syncing your library? You want the Brooklyn Bridge thrown in too? Finally, integration with Starbuck's. I love it when companies team together like this. Waltz into one of the 4 neighborhood Starbuck's and neato! A shiny new icon appears on your ipod! Guess what! It's called forced advertising. The best part is, thousands of people will consider this an indispensable "feature". Because, you know, when you're hopping yourself up on caffeine, you absolutely MUST have access to a music store. Once again I'm reminded of how indulgent we're becoming with our personal technology. As if cellphones weren't bad enough--people just couldn't live without being able to call Johnny up to discuss the latest gossip at any given moment--now we're going to have to tolerate folks who will absolutely *implode* if they can't check on the latest inane video uploaded to YouTube.

Rockbox

[Windcatcher]

Hear, hear. I'm running Rockbox on my 5.5G. Absolutely love it.

Wish the iPod Touch had a microphone

[erl]

The iPod Touch with a microphone as a VoIP WLAN phone would have been sweet.

"Buy on rumor. Sell on news"

[winkydink]

Apple is only of many poster children of this expression.

Re:I'm disappointed...

[Mia'cova]

I think the big reason is they don't want the ipod to eat into iphone sales. An iphone with a hard drive would be too big. No one wants that fat of a phone. But if you had to pick between a phone of your choice + 160 gb ipod touch or just an 8gb iphone, a lot of people would probably skip the iphone. Right now, the iphone actually gives you functionality you can't get anywhere else (though some would argue this all day long..). After all, Apple makes a good bit of change off the contracts. I think it was what? $8 / month comes back to them from contracts. So if they put something out that will steal iphone subscribers, it had damn well better make up that $192 in another way. So in short, a classic HD based ipod with the touch interface doesn't make business sense right now.

Re:iTouch = loss of functionality?

[w3woody]

My bet: Apple will release an API which allows third-party development for the iPod Touch and the iPhone, sometime in the next six months.

Re:4GB iPhone on sale for $299

[Ertman]

Most (good) credit cards have a 60-90 day price protection policy. Check into it, you might be able to get some cash by filling out a form and sending in some receipts.

Neat, but way too mouch for too little

[Pitr]

So it's $50 more for one 10th the storage of the regular ipod. Hmmm... nope, I don't think so. You have all this video ability in this device, but not enough space to really make use of it, and it costs MORE than a similar device with 10x the storage. I expect a premium, but not that big a premium.

Then again, this is an apple product, so I guess it's par for the course.

Still no Bluetooth A2DP

[davonshire]

From my best and latest information gathering about the
new Ipod Touch. You will still be tethered to the new
Apple wonder via headphone wires.

How does a company that is so tech savvy and audio rich,
miss this feature? A number of cell phones sport A2DP
Profile. Which basically allows you to use bluetooth
stereo headphones to listen in excellent audio quality
to your music or movies and not have to be strangled
by a cord.

Either someone is making a mint off the little headphones,
Apple is saving such a cool feature for a software update.
(only for the current Iphones.) Or Another still yet to be
released Ipod is coming that has bluetooth and A2DP.
It's also possible that Apple hasn't the money or skills
to bring A2DP to it's products. Who'd a thunk it?

iPod Classic + Leopard -- Time Machine??

[bionicpill]

With an iPod that has more HD space than my MacBook is apple going to make it possible for you to use the iPod as your backup device for the new Time Machine Feature in Leopard?

Re:This is exactly what I've been waiting for.

[gyepi]

You mentioned text editing, quick question: can you also use the iPhone together with a bluetooth keyboard, say with a Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard? Thanks!

Re:This is exactly what I've been waiting for.

[cbhacking]

No microphone. Sorry for mentioning again what's been commented on earlier in this discussion, but those were usually in reference to Skype on the iPod Touch. Without a mic, you can't do voice recording, any form of VoIP, or audio in from, for example, a guitar amp or soundboard.

No camera either, which given the quality of photos you get from a lens that size is no big loss to me... apparently some people like them though.

I must say your list of capabilities surely increased my interest in the iPhone, especially with the price drop. I've completed my current phone's contract and am thinking about getting a smartphone.

Re:No, they are selling at max willingness to pay

[Shuh]

Of course, it would seem to me that they're making a mistake. High margins in most companies implies a very efficient operation relative to competitors because most firms don't have much price control. Apple's cachet, however, allows them considerable price control, and cachet is a fairly ephemeral asset, no matter how effective Apple has been in recent years in building it.

Apple has always had this cachet. They have always been effective at staying out of the commodity side of a market primarily due to their vision and ability to innovate (two more examples of "fairly ephemeral assets"). In the computer market, these skills have kept Apple alive and kicking for over 30 years. OS2, Commodore, DR-DOS, and a variety of used-to-be-very-big-name PC & software makers have come and gone since then. And Apple did this largely by going against the "conventional wisdom" spouted by almost every P.C. tech pundit whose job depended on Microsoft/Intel/AMD advertising dollars (i.e. most of them). In the wider non-PC markets, these skills will allow Apple to innovate and thrive and to ultimately become the conventional wisdom of those markets.

Re:I'm disappointed...

[FuturePastNow]

I imagine that the hard drive is the single biggest point of failure on "classic" iPods. The player gets bounced around, the drive packs it in, and if it's a warranty repair that's Apple's money down the drain.

Eliminate the hard drive, and that leaves the battery and the screen as the only failure-prone components.

Fuck Oppenheimer

[Apotsy]

Of course he knew. He sold virtually all his shares [yahoo.com] around that time. The stock is down dramatically today, and will probably be down even more tomorrow. He's probably laughing behind every shareholder's back right now over how fucked they all are.

I don't know if you were watching AAPL a few years ago, but there was a time when 5 execs (including then-CFO Fred Anderson) sold a bunch of shares right before a bad quarterly announcement (which precipitated a huge drop). The SEC said the trades were "well timed" but didn't do anything about it. This feels like a repeat.

I almost sold everything this morning while it was still at 144, but I checked the history and saw that the stock went up after last year's Sept. iPod announcement, so I figured this year might be similar and waited. Boy do I feel like a chump now. CFOs are scum, and if you don't sell when they do, you lose big time.