Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Media (Apple) Media

Apple Updates iPod 689

TheRaven64 writes "Apple seems to have quietly updated the iPod Photo and iPod Mini lines. The Mini now comes in 4GB and 6GB flavours, priced at $199 and $249 respectively. The iPod Photo now comes in a 30GB flavour for $349 - only $50 more than the 20GB iPod with a mono screen and shorter battery life."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Apple Updates iPod

Comments Filter:
  • ipod mini.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Folmer ( 827037 ) * on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:41AM (#11755609)
    No panache. No wireless. Hard drive smaller than a Dell DJ. Lame.
  • by NivenHuH ( 579871 ) * on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:42AM (#11755618) Homepage
    They dropped the 40GB mono model... and the new 30gb photo is slimmer than the older 40gb photo... :)
  • by TrippTDF ( 513419 ) <hiland@NosPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:43AM (#11755633)
    ... my continued holding out for one of these guys is paying off. $350 for the 30 GB iPod Photo is not a bad deal.

    But it just makes me want to hold off longer so I really get my money's worth.
    • Re:I knew it... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Radres ( 776901 )
      It also makes it worth buying the iPod with a 2-year replacement plan, and then using that to buy the latest model when the battery runs down since you can't replace it yourself...
    • Re:I knew it... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bombadillo ( 706765 )
      Looks like they are phasing out their monocrhome models. Judging by their choice to drop the 40GB B/W and their pricing scheme of a color model now being only $50 dollars more than the 20GB B/W
    • Re:I knew it... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75@@@yahoo...com> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:13PM (#11755975)
      ... my continued holding out for one of these guys is paying off. $350 for the 30 GB iPod Photo is not a bad deal.

      Not bad but not as good as it looks either. Note that no iPod comes with the dock any longer, and the iPod photos do not come with a firewire cable either (the older 4G iPods came with both firewire and USB 2.0 - the 20GB still does).

      Probably not a big deal for a lot of people, but not having a dock myself I can tell you I wish I did, and as I have not yet been able to get my iPod working reliably with USB 2.0, it's nice to have both cables. (Plus it means I can leave one connected to my PC at all times, then bring my USB cable with me wherever I go and use the iPod as a portable hard drive.)

      Apple would charge something like $70 for the firewire cable and dock separately, so you're not really getting that much (if any) value over the old 40GB iPod photo when you also factor in the smaller capacity.

      I also sort of lament the fact that with each new revision, the iPod becomes less of a luxury product and more of a commodity... but that's inevitable, I guess.
    • by hey! ( 33014 )
      Wasn't too long ago that you'd consider $350 for a hotpluggable 30GB hard drive to be an excellent deal.

      Now if the sales guy said, "plug these earphones in -- it also can play your entire music collection", it wouldn't have been that different than if he told you it could give you a hot bikini wax while you sleep.
  • Discontinued Lines (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mfkap ( 230504 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:43AM (#11755639)
    Another interesting note is that they only sell the regular iPod in the 20GB flavor now. They got rid of the other sizes. Guess iPod photo for everyone is the plan.
  • Firmware update ! (Score:4, Informative)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:43AM (#11755642) Journal
    There are new firmwares [apple.com] available for most iPods, they will bring new menu functionality and "better" iTunes connectivity:

    iPod Updater 2005-02-22 includes new iPod mini Software 1.3 for iPod mini, new iPod Software 2.3 for iPod with dock connector, new iPod shuffle Software 1.1 for iPod shuffle, and new iPod Software 1.5 for iPod with touch wheel or scroll wheel. iPod Updater 2005-02-22 contains the same software versions as iPod Updater 2005-01-11 for all other iPod models.

    Download and install the iPod Updater then connect your iPod shuffle, iPod, iPod photo or iPod mini to your computer. The iPod Updater will automatically determine if an update is required.

    What's New in iPod Updater 2005-02-22 iPod shuffle Software 1.1 for iPod shuffle
    • Support for iPod shuffle Battery Pack
    • Increased software stability
    iPod mini Software 1.3 for iPod mini
    • Support for second-generation iPod mini
    • Support for charging and syncing over USB with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or 10.3.4 or later
    iPod Software 2.3 for iPod with dock connector
    • Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu
    • Music menu item in Main Menu
    • Support for iTunes 4.7 and later
    iPod Software 1.5 for iPod with touch wheel or scroll wheel
    • Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu
    • Music menu item in Main Menu
    • Support for iTunes 4.7 and later
  • Quietly? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Momoru ( 837801 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:44AM (#11755645) Homepage Journal
    You mean with a press release [yahoo.com]?
  • by ejoe_mac ( 560743 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:44AM (#11755646)
    $100 to $350 in $50 increments. Once you start, you can't stop. "But for $50 more I can get this"
    • by Ohreally_factor ( 593551 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:11PM (#11755950) Journal
      I just noticed something.

      The AV cable, which I believe came with the iPod Photo, is now extra. Same deal with the dock.

      The older models came with both a USB 2.0 and a FW cable. The new ones come with only a USB 2.0 cable.

      On the plus side, Apple is clearing out the old stock. Check the "Special Deals" page. 40 GB and 60 GB with

      Apple Earphones
      AC Adapter
      FireWire cable
      USB 2.0 cable
      iPod photo AV cable
      iPod photo Dock
      Carrying Case

      $379 and $479 respectively.
    • by ShadowDawn ( 450549 ) <xao@@@thinkunix...com> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:47PM (#11756380) Homepage
      It worked on me...

      My wife keeps stealing my iPod Mini (4GB) when she goes to the gym, so I said I was going to buy her one.

      She said she would be happy with the iPod Shuffle at $99, I told her we would get least the $149 1GB version.

      Now with this announcement, I will just go ahead and get her a iPod Mini (4GB) @ $199, since she loves mine so much.

      So, Apple got another $100 out us! :)

      I think Apple is doing a lot of things right lately and I'm about to jump into the Mini Mac wagon once my bonus check comes next month.

      If I really like it, I see a PowerMac in my future next year. I will have to give it a long evaluation, since I have used PeeCee's for many years, I want to give them a honest evaluation before judgement. I am a UNIX gearhead though, so I think I'm going to love the new Macs.
  • by ites ( 600337 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:45AM (#11755660) Journal
    My main question is: how long before Apple eitehr (a) reintroduce a PDA or (b) morph the iPod into one?

    It would, I believe, take the market from PalmSpringSourceOne but also a large chunk of the consumer Windows PDA market (the business market being firmly Outlocked into place).

    • Archos PMA-400 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by idlake ( 850372 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:10PM (#11755932)
      Have a look a the Archos PMA 400 [archos.com]. It's a 30M disk-based player with a 320x240 screen, a long battery life, and the ability to record audio and video. It has USB device and master connectivity and WiFi. And it runs Linux and has lots of software available for it. What more do you want?
  • But... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ed Avis ( 5917 ) <ed@membled.com> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:45AM (#11755664) Homepage
    Before anybody asks: yes, it does run Linux [xlr8yourmac.com].
  • iPod Photo (Score:5, Insightful)

    by avalys ( 221114 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:46AM (#11755671)
    I still have no idea what the purpose of the iPod Photo is. Sure, the better battery life and color screen are nice, but who really cares about carrying their photos around with them for viewing on a 1.5-inch screen? Hell, they could just lug their digital camera with them, and get mostly the same functionality...plus a camera!

    Anyone know what the sales figures are like?
    • Re:iPod Photo (Score:3, Interesting)

      by thenerd ( 3254 )
      But my digital camera can't store 60Gb, so I can't store all my old photos on it.
    • Re:iPod Photo (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bobdinkel ( 530885 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:59AM (#11755820)

      I personally don't care about slideshows and such. But I really like that the album cover can be displayed while the song is playing. It may seem like a very small thing, but to someone as anal about their music collection as I am, this is very appealing.

      That being said, it ain't appealing enough for me to drop $449 to upgrade my iPod.

      My guess is that this is just an intermediate step towards some greater functionality. Like video or broader PDA functionality.

    • by johnpaul191 ( 240105 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:06PM (#11755884) Homepage
      this makes the iPod Photo even more useful. i know the one card adapter exists, but it was expensive........

      "The new iPod Camera Connector is an optional accessory that enables customers to connect their digital camera to iPod photo and import their photos into the iPod. By simply connecting the iPod Camera Connector and a digital camera, customers can easily transfer digital images to their iPod photo, providing tremendous storage space so they can take more pictures. Imported photos are immediately viewable on iPod photo's crisp color screen, and can also be brought back to iPhoto(R) on the Mac or various photo applications on the PC. The iPod Camera Connector is expected to be available in late March for $29."
    • Re:iPod Photo (Score:3, Interesting)

      by shaper ( 88544 )

      I still have no idea what the purpose of the iPod Photo is. Sure, the better battery life and color screen are nice, but who really cares about carrying their photos around with them for viewing on a 1.5-inch screen?

      Very convenient presentation tool. Just google "iPod photo presentation". The top two links in the search results pretty much sum it up:

      HOW-TO: Put PowerPoint on your iPod Photo [engadget.com]
      ZappTek's presentation-to-iPod photo software [engadget.com]

    • Personally I'm thinking about the new 30 gig model. It's getting toward that "sweet spot" you hear so much about, and it wasn't there before at all.

      I have a Sony digital camera, just an old 3.2 MP model. On my annual 2-week vacation with the kids to our CO cabin, the pictures still pile up at that file size. Sony's proprietary memory format (did I mention this was Sony?) means memory sticks are pricier than flash memory, and while I have a few I'm not really wanting to load up on them any more, especially

    • Re:iPod Photo (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Calroth ( 310516 )
      I still have no idea what the purpose of the iPod Photo is...

      The iPod Photo is not about photos. Repeat after me: The iPod Photo is not about photos.

      OK, so that was an overly confrontational way to start a post. But let's plow on.

      The iPod Photo is about Apple transitioning the iPod series to colour screens. Notice how the only black-and-white iPod remaining is the 20GB model - everything else is colour. Mark my words, the next time we get a refresh, it'll be a 20GB iPod Photo, and the black-and-white v
  • The color screen for the mini that ALL the rumor mills were pushing?
  • Be vewy vewy quiet (Score:5, Informative)

    by Palshife ( 60519 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:46AM (#11755675) Homepage
    Yep, silent [apple.com] as [macrumors.com] the [macosxrumors.com] night [google.com] breeze ;)
  • 18h battery life (Score:5, Informative)

    by moonbender ( 547943 ) <moonbender@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:47AM (#11755679)
    The Slashdot blurb missed one of the significant upgrades: the battery life in both iPod mini is now a lot better. The original iPod mini only lasted about 8 hours (according to Apple [archive.org]), the new one supposedly lasts 18. And if that turns out to be exaggerated, even 15 hours would be a very good battery lifetime for that kind of device. I wonder how they've done that - the weight hasn't increased, so it's probably not simply a battery twice as big.
    • Re:18h battery life (Score:3, Informative)

      by rj4x ( 689285 )
      the new one supposedly lasts 18. And if that turns out to be exaggerated, even 15 hours would be a very good battery lifetime

      apple tends to underestimate battery life, not the other way 'round. The original mini was billed as having 8 hrs of life, but various tests showed some would consistently last 9 or 10 hrs. so if apple claims 18, i wouldn't be surprised to see 20 or so hours of actual playback.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:47AM (#11755690)
    I'm probably in the minority here but I think that the iPod photo is overkill. The iPod is an excellent, simply designed music player. Bolting on photo displaying is a bit pointless. Not only is the screen still too small to be practical, even for "quick viewing", I tend to keep my iPod in my pocket all the time. Colour screens are not necessary.
    • by tgibbs ( 83782 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:32PM (#11756211)
      I'm probably in the minority here but I think that the iPod photo is overkill. The iPod is an excellent, simply designed music player. Bolting on photo displaying is a bit pointless. Not only is the screen still too small to be practical, even for "quick viewing", I tend to keep my iPod in my pocket all the time. Colour screens are not necessary.

      I'm hoping that eventually Apple will port Keynote to the iPod photo (yes, I know that you can make a slideshow and port that, but I mean native Keynote files with all effects). Every academic will want one, just to be able to to carry his lectures in his pocket, without lugging around a laptop or dealing with the potential complications of running a presentation on somebody else's computer.
    • by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:45PM (#11756353) Homepage
      I'm probably in the minority here but I think that the iPod photo is overkill.

      Heck, the classic iPod is overkill, too. That overkill is what makes it such a great little device. Think about it--when the original iPod came out, more than a few people were saying "who in their right mind pays several hundred dollars for a glorified Walkman?"

      Thing is, though, the iPod really re-introduced us to portable music. Yeah, there were other high-capacity players on the market first, but it was the iPod that really got the ball rolling. Looking back, I'm struck by how non-portable 'portable' music used to be. Now, I have my entire music library with me wherever I go--and I take it for granted that I don't need to lug a bigass CD folder and swap disks to get the music I want. It seems like a small difference, but the net effect is quite significant. With just a slight reduction in the overall space and inconvenience of listening to music on the go, I've found that I'm listening to a whole lot more music--and really enjoying it.

      The iPod Photo may just end up doing much the same thing for photographs (and, in another few years, movies.) Right now, my photographs are split between "old" photos in boxes and bulky albums, and "new" photos on a comparatively small laptop. The laptop is nice, but it's still significantly more of a pain to carry with me than an iPod.

      It isn't that much of a leap of the imagination to see the iPod Photo doing the same thing for your photo albums as the iPod did for your CD collection. Going to grandma's? Load up the baby pictures on the same miniscule device as the driving music (and 'Bananaphone' to keep Junior happy). Plug it into her TV, and you've got an instant, large-format slideshow that grandma doesn't need to squint at through her reading glasses. Got a slideshow to go along with your thesis presentation? Don't bother with the laptop, just bring your iPod. Hell, just wanna show your friends that fish you caught on vacation? It's already on your iPod, which you'll have on you for the drive, anyhow!

      Sure, it's easy to say that it's "overkill"--but then again, so much about the iPod is already overkill. A CD player is perfectly adequate for playing music on the go, after all. What makes the iPod so successful, though, is that this "overkill" is just enough to make a pretty radical change in one's music listening habits. Jobs is betting that it can do the same with your photo viewing habits--and to be honest, he may be right. Luckily for him, even if he's dead wrong, it's still the same awesome music player it has always been--and the added photo functionality isn't likely to turn many people off...

      • what really spooks me about the iPod photo, to the point that it puts me off getting one, is that you use iTunes, not iPhoto to transfer the photos. Doesn't this just scream "it's a hack until they roll out a new iPhoto." well they did roll out a new iPhoto but lo - no support for synching your photo lib at all. I mean even if they'd done it with iSync that would have been acceptable (and if so, iSync should sync with your iTunes lib too just for orthoganality's sake). But to make you sync your photos
  • With all these new choices, it's going to be really hard for Andrew McPeters [blogspot.com] to keep his focus, you know.
  • by Synesthesiatic ( 679680 ) * on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:48AM (#11755703) Homepage
    It seems to be the iPod way these days, but part of the price reductions come from fewer pack-in accessories. Apple did the same thing last year with the price cut on the 20 GB 4G.

    iPod minis no longer include an AC charger, and the iPod photos no longer include a dock, carrying case, or AV cable. Apparently they'll have USB host support with an accessory though, and you'll be able to download and view photos right from your camera.

    But most shocking of all to the "faithful" is the lack of a firewire cable with any iPod. It's optional across the board. Apple sold Macs with USB 1 and Firewire very recently, so they're essentially screwing over their fans. There's already a petition [petitiononline.com] to but the cable back in the box. And you don't want to piss of a Mac fanatic!

    I'm kinda disappointed with the lack of Bluetooth, though. It'd be nice to have the music pause when a call comes in on my T616, and maybe allow the headphones to double as a headset. iTunes already pauses the music for me courtesy of Salling Clicker.

    • by Mournblade ( 72705 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:08PM (#11755910) Homepage
      "But most shocking of all to the "faithful" is the lack of a firewire cable with any iPod."

      According to the "full comparison chart" on the store webpage, that's not true - the 20GB mono and the 20GB U2 editions still ship with a Firewire cable. I don't get why they leave it out of the bundle for the Photo iPods, though. Doesn't seem to make sense.
  • by tdhillman ( 839276 ) * on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:49AM (#11755714)
    In years of watching Apple make moves, this one seems to be one of the most insightful in terms of keeping marketshare. Although the competitors do not have the "cool" factor of the iPod, for once Apple seems fully aware that the competition is there, and they can not get by by merely producing superior technology.

    This time, they have realized that in order to keep this technology at the center of the business model, they must continue to innovate.

    With storage devices becoming smaller and smaller, they must continue to breakthrough with the bleeding edge technology. The iPod technology is simple enough that staying on the bleeding edge makes perfect sense. I sense that they've got this one nailed and are not letting go.
  • Darn freaking blast it. I was just getting ready to buy one of those. Is there something wrong with the 40GB model?
  • by SkipRosebaugh ( 50138 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:56AM (#11755774) Homepage
    Reuters has a story on this which adds:
    Apple also introduced an iPod Camera Connector for about $30, that lets users link their digital camera to an iPod photo model -- which has a built-in color screen. Users can then transfer snapshots over to the iPod, where they can be viewed.

    Unfortunately, I can't find this item anywhere on Apple's site. Anyone else have any luck?
  • Flavo(u)r? (Score:5, Funny)

    by IRNI ( 5906 ) <[irni] [at] [irni.net]> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:57AM (#11755783) Homepage
    Hmmm... mine only comes in a weird plastic flavor. Sort of tastes like my cell phone... a little bit.
  • by goldspider ( 445116 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @11:59AM (#11755812) Homepage
    maker of cool gadgets for discerning geeks!

    So, how much does a front-page advertisement on Slashdot cost these days?
  • HQ recording ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ericandrade ( 686380 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:00PM (#11755830)
    PDA's do it. [core-sound.com]
    iRiver's do it. [iriveramerica.com]
    iPod's running linux seem to be able to do it. [hackaday.com]

    Stupid hardware crippling! It's pathetic!
    • by J-Doggqx ( 809697 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @01:58PM (#11757223)
      OK, I'll bite.

      The reason I got an iPod over the iRiver and the others you mentioned is because it doesn't have a voice recording feature. You see I can't have recording devices or cameras in my office and that is where I was planning on using my music player the most. So the iPod was (almost) the only choice I had. I love it though and have got my whole family hooked on the idea of getting one.

      (But don't even ask how screwed I am when it comes to cell phones.)

  • they saw me coming (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rtphokie ( 518490 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:02PM (#11755852)
    I just bought a 20Gig monochrome iPod for my wife. I would have gladly paid the extra $50 for better battery life and color
  • No more gold (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anynomous Coward ( 841063 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:05PM (#11755878)
    This post [slashdot.org] wasn't too far off the mark.
  • by Brian Kendig ( 1959 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:09PM (#11755923)
    Just an FYI in case anyone missed it: this latest iPod update delivers some of the small things that owners of the 3G iPods (the ones with the four buttons between the display and the touchwheel) have been waiting for.

    Specifically, the 3G iPods now have "Shuffle Songs" on the top-level menu, and the "Browse" and "Playlists" menu items have been consolidated under a "Music" menu.

    Lots of people were mad at Apple for not giving 3G owners these small touches that the 4Gs had; it looks like Apple listened to their complaints.

  • CF Slot (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NetJunkie ( 56134 ) <jason.nash@gmail. c o m> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:12PM (#11755953)
    If they'd put a CF slot in the iPod Photo I'd buy one today. That's a perfect setup. Let me carry my iPod, that I'll have anyway, with me on vacation instead of a notebook to dump pictures.
    • Re:CF Slot (Score:4, Informative)

      by iainl ( 136759 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:37PM (#11756255)
      According to Reuters, there is going to be a $29 accessory next month to connect to your USB camera, in order to download pics directly.

      If it is the same as the equivalent feature on the iRiver H3x0 series, you can also plug in a CF (or in my case Memory Stick) reader.
    • belkin makes a card reader that pops onto your ipod to dump pictures to, and in March Apple will have a $29 (US) accessory that will allow you to connect your ipod to your camera via USB and suck down the images.
    • Re:CF Slot (Score:3, Insightful)

      by alphakappa ( 687189 )
      Except for the fact that many people use SD/XD/Memory stick etc instead of CF. Hard to satisfy everyone. Also, it would take up a significant chunk of pod real estate - things are already quite packed in there.
  • Mini downgrades (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Folmer ( 827037 ) * on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:12PM (#11755957)
    While Its great that they have set the price down for the mini, they have cut the firewire cable, and the power adaptor at the same time, leaving apple users with older computers stuck with their USB 1.1 connectors...
    I guess that they are really looking to get into the windows users' pockets instead of the Zen micro... Its 19 for the firewire cable, and 29 for the power apadtor, so price cut isn't really a pricecut..
    For thoose who have USB2 and take their laptop everywhere its a bargain after all..

    more interesting is the camera connector:
    The new iPod Camera Connector is an optional accessory that enables customers to connect their digital camera to iPod photo and import their photos into the iPod. By simply connecting the iPod Camera Connector and a digital camera*, customers can easily transfer digital images to their iPod photo, providing tremendous storage space so they can take more pictures. Imported photos are immediately viewable on iPod photo's crisp color screen, and can also be brought back to iPhoto(R) on the Mac or various photo applications on the PC. The iPod Camera Connector is expected to be available in late March for $29.
  • by tetranz ( 446973 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:15PM (#11755988)
    Looks pretty good. [soniqcast.com]
  • by jayratch ( 568850 ) <<slashdot> <at> <jayratch.com>> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @12:39PM (#11756272) Homepage Journal
    You can all thank me. It wouldn't have happenned without me.

    You see, I just passed the return period on my new monochrome 40 gig. Therefore, new models are automatically released.
  • by AaronStJ ( 182845 ) <AaronStJ.gmail@com> on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @01:49PM (#11757094) Homepage
    I finally got around to ordering my iPod, and I get this in my inbox:
    Thank you for your recent iPod order.

    Apple is pleased to inform you that we have reduced the price of your iPod!

    Bwah? They changed the price of the iPod? But the 40 gig iPod cost $399. That's just how it is.

    So I head over to store.apple.com. What else have they changed? iPod photo? 60gb?! Only $449! Sign me up!

    So for only $50 more than I'd expected to pay, I get 20 extra GB, and a color screen.

    Apple is my new favorite company.

    Off topic, does anyone know where the Apple call center is? Cute accent...
  • by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @01:51PM (#11757121)
    Macobserver [macobserver.com] quoted the following:

    For the third quarter of 2004, the iPod accounted for 92.1% of the market for hard drive-based music players, according to the NPD Group, up from 82.2% a year ago. Players from Creative Technology and Rio were a distant second and third, with 3.7% and 3.2% of the market, respectively. Market share numbers for the fourth quarter have yet to be released.

    So for hard drive players (~60% of the portable digital music player market) that is:
    - 92.1% Apple iPod (all non-shuffle varieties)
    - 3.7% Creative (all HD models)
    - 3.2% Rio (all HD models)
    - 1% Other HD players

    This is a breathtaking dominance of the market space that serves as an indicator for the related on-line music purchase/subscription market. If 7.9% of the hard drive players are non-Apple, and we assume the larger capacity HD player market space is where the most volume from these services is coming from, then that is a small piece of pie for all the players (Napster, Buy, Wal-mart, others?) to carve up into a successful and sustainable (profitable) business.

    Further, Apple's iPod Shuffle is targeting the remaining ~40% flash-based player market. Even if the Shuffle is 50% as effective in market penetration as big brother iPod is, that would leave Apple with a (wildly) estimated ~45% of the flash player market. So again, competition would be nosing for larger nibbles, instead of the crumbs of the HD market, but still a far smaller pie to distribute.

    All this points (for me anyway) to an impending consolidation of WMA related service offerings. Specifically, I would look for Napster to end it's offerings after Wallstreet destorys an already paltry stock for the failure of a $30M campaign against iTunes Music Store with the "Do the Math" campaign. Also, I would look for Buy.com to further phase out their download music store in favor of higher margin CD sales as they find even offering $0.79 selected tracks isn't creating market traction. The "hope" for WMA may be in Wal-Mart - the icon of the price elastic shopper - who may prefer $0.89 downloads (and $189 players) to Apple's $0.99, $199 combinatons.
  • by mh101 ( 620659 ) on Wednesday February 23, 2005 @09:07PM (#11761509)
    Of significant importance to me, is that Apple finally has a firmware update for 3G iPods, after the last few updaters just saying for 3G's, it's the same as the last one.

    The full update list follows:
    iPod software update 2005-02-22 delivers the following software:

    iPod shuffle software 1.1 (for iPod shuffle)
    Support for iPod shuffle Battery Pack
    Increased software stability

    iPod mini software 1.3 (for iPod mini)
    Support for second-generation iPod mini
    Support for charging and syncing over USB with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or 10.3.4 or later

    iPod software 2.3 (for 3rd Generation iPod with dock connector)
    Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu
    Music menu item in Main Menu
    Support for iTunes 4.7 and later

    iPod software 1.5 (for Touch Wheel and Scroll Wheel iPod)
    Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu
    Music menu item in Main Menu
    Support for iTunes 4.7 and later

    iPod software update 2005-02-22 contains the same software versions as iPod software update 2005-01-11 for all other iPod models.

If you're not careful, you're going to catch something.

Working...