Apple must have thought about this a lot over the last year or more as it prepared to piggyback the iPhone on the colossal success of iPod. But a crucial moment has arrived as tomorrow, 5th September, is strongly rumoured to be the due date of a iPhone-a-like iPod.
The new iPod, complete with touch-screen and possibly wi-fi, has to happen in order for Apple to stay ahead of the game in the personal media player market. The current iPod design is now over two years old (albeit with a minor revision at the halfway point), and needs refreshing — although Apple has done an amazing job of selling the current version.
Since launch, Apple has done little to keep iPhone fresh (with unfulfilled promises of new features), and some key features are looking distinctly underwhelming (such as the phone’s interesting but feature-lite handling of text messaging). Meanwhile, tempting and polished new offerings from Nokia and Sony, often on highly subsidised tariffs, arrive all the time.
Assuming that Apple doesn’t want to price the new iPod out of the market, it’ll have to maintain price levels close to the current model. Based on current US prices, this means $249 (£125) for a full-size iPod that’ll match iPhone’s video and music playback. The 4GB iPhone is priced at $499 (£249). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it could soon be possible to pick up something like an N81 or N95 8GB on contract and buy a new iPod for less than the price of an iPhone.
For our money, that would be a done deal. Why put up with a closed-box iPhone when you could have the flexibility of a top-end Nokia S60 handset, with dozens of great apps, hundreds of games, and also buy a dedicated, high-end music/ video playing iPod? Yes, you have one more thing in your pocket, but you also have the freedom to use each independently.
Apple of course could price the new iPod significantly higher than the current model — but that might be killing the goose that laid the golden egg. New, larger-screened iPod nanos are also on the way, and perhaps those are seen as stepping into the gap for buyers of the current full-size iPod.
But upping the price of the new iPod isn’t really the answer: the solution that Apple won’t want to hear is that it needs to crack on with improving the iPhone’s features, and open up the iPhone to thirdparty games (what the hell happened to those?), applications, ringtones and all the other things that handset users want. Apple can control distribution of these through iTunes if needed, but however it does it, those iPhone extras need to start arriving soon — otherwise buyers, including us, will be voting with their wallets. And Nokia’s new N81, especially the 8GB version, is looking extremely tempting right now.
Related articles:
- iPhone/iPod Touch SDK rumors ramping up
The release of Apple’s hotly anticipated iPhone/iPod Touch SDK is... - iPod Touch is more different to an iPhone than you think
Apple’s iPod Touch is basically an iPhone, except with double... - iTunes store goes wi-fi for iPhone and iPod, and is linked up with Starbucks
With both Sony and Nokia (which recently announced its service)... - Apple announces iPod touch, cuts iPhone 8GB to $399, drops iPhone 4GB
As predicted, Apple has announced the new iPod touch,... - iPhone delays next iPod?
With the current iteration of Apple’s iPod (albeit with one...
About Caspar Field
Your recent Comments