MyQJ | QJ.NET | Apple | Mobile | Science | MMORPG | Nintendo DS | Wii | World of Warcraft | PlayStation 3 | PSP | Xbox 360 | Gadgets | PC Gaming | Age of Conan | Downloads | QJ.NET Forums

Post-iPhone: iPod in the Shell - Stand Alone (Complex)

Posted Jan 09, 2007 at 06:22PM by Chris L. Listed in: Apple Tags: Bluetooth, Steve Jobs, iPhone
Ó

Look upon me, ye iPods, and DESPAIR... NOT!!!Okay, so there's a new iPod in town. It's big, it's bad, and it can call your girlfriend and whisper sweet nothings into her ear, so I'd worry if I were you. Kidding. This writer has argued that the new iPhone might actually be the newest generation of the iPod - I mean, God, the touchscreen, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the web browsing, and yeah, it calls your girlfriend, too. It might as well be the sixth, or seventh, or somethingth-generation iPod in the near future.

Permit me to raise my hand and ask the obvious question, then: What now of the current iPod lineup?


It was only last year that Apple unveiled the latest iPods (+ Nano and Shuffle), now with video capabilities, aluminum shells (Nano), and small enough to become a really weird earring. Or clip your homework with (Shuffle). Then again, they've been upgrading iPods like Nintendo upgrades Game Boys, the iPhone wouldn't be too out of pattern. Although coming in at a hefty US$ 600, which does limit the number of early adopters, and with less memory (8GB max), features-wise the iPhone just blew away its entertainment-centric cousins. Talk about paling in comparison.

I R FAMILY - NANO AND MY SHUFFLE AND MENo, the iPhone won't spell the end of the iPod as we know it, if only for costing as much as a 60GB PS3, plus only having 8GB max memory. But if the price drops - and knowing Apple's history with its gadgets, and if memory storage can be improved, oh boy will that price drop and become more tempting!

This depends on two things - how Apple markets the iPhone now and in the coming months, and how quickly the market will be willing to trade in their cellphones AND iPods for an iPhone. Still, none of our potential scenarios predict the end of the iPod as we know it. But they all do point to a change in how Apple markets the iPod.

Consider the iPhone the newest, and most certainly, high-end iPod, a position previously (or currently, depending on how you look at the iPhone) held by the video-capable iPod. We're betting that once Apple's got a good flow of iPhones moving down the assembly line and in the street, future pricing will be scaled to the iPod lineup (with extra charges, since it does have a cellphone built inside). This means that when the iPhone's price drops, the prices of the other iPods may drop as well. The current gen may become the mass-market iPod of the future at this rate.

Next step: improve the memory capacity of the iPhone. A swap to a hard drive is the current best option available, but that will play merry heck on the battery life of a device with a big, pretty touch screen and Bluetooth, cellular and Wi-Fi antennae, Apple's ingenious power-saving features notwithstanding. Even an improvement to 16GB flash, or 32GB flash, or even 64GB flash (though costly), or even radical small and low-power HDD designs, would be a decidedly good improvement. Punching up the memory will go a long way to cement the iPhone's position as the high-end iPod.

Now to work on the lower, mass-market end of the iPod family - the purely entertainment iPods, the "Stand-Alone" iPods. It's quite possible that we may see some sort of merging of products to shake up the iPod line somewhat. Keep the current 5G iPod (or create its successor), but reduce its price and widen its market base as the iPhone becomes more widely available, lower in price (and gains more memory). Merge the Nano and Shuffle into a single, audio-only product (or perhaps keep them separate - there are advantages to having a display screen on an MP3 player, after all).

Kusanagi approves!In the not-too-distant future (in three years, perhaps), we may see Apple's consumer electronics lineup settle into three products: the iPhone for the high-end, with improved memory storage; a video-capable "Stand-Alone iPod" for those who still want to keep their cellphones but love the iPod, and the "Stand-Alone" Nano and Shuffle, or even a radical hybrid of the two, as the low-end, audio-only option. It may even be that the lineup in each would be further segmented into pricey, high-features options and cheaper, low-features options, playing to the strengths of Fortress iTunes.

Yeah, we could miss our call entirely on this one - no one can really predict what the wily, maybe even wicked, Steve Jobs and engineers will pull out of Apple's hat next. But the iPod ain't just for music anymore, it seems. Unless you're the one with a Stand-Alone.

Yes, we do know we've borrowed a technical and p[hilosophical term from a certain Japanese anime. But if you think about the iPod's position in a slowly converging market, it's actually rather appropriate when you get down to the basics. Again, thanks to resident MacCrack addict Chris S. for his input and ideas!

Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

Bookmark / Find this article on:

14 Jumps     Life with PlayStation coming very soon, supports Folding@home
9 Jumps     Scientists discover how to swat a fly properly
8 Jumps     New Disgaea game coming to PSP, stars Prinny
7 Jumps     Dissidia: Final Fantasy gameplay vid - Tidus versus Jecht
7 Jumps     New MGS4 passwords for in-game swag: iPod track, MK.II scanning plug
7 Jumps     PSP-3000 battery life shorter; PSP Slim to cease production
6 Jumps     Burnout Paradise Bikes Pack also brings Day and Night gameplays
6 Jumps     PS3's PlayTV: you can record TV content while playing games
6 Jumps     BD-J PS3Filer unofficial update/recode: image handling removed, file h..
5 Jumps     Mythbusters tackle the Moon landing conspiracy theory

5 Comments


Sort by:
   by aj (Unregistered) - 2007-01-10
 » wow
wat can i say my first time to be the first

   by neok182 (Unregistered) - 2007-01-10
 » .
in short i dont see this first generation iPhone being a success and this isn't because i hate mac. i think this phone is amazing. it's a great device. But it's missing a lot of things. mainly more space and 3G. and without those things. a lot of tech savy people are not going to shell out 600 bucks for this. especially since we have to go down on a 2 year contract with cingular.

maybe in 2008, with a price drop of 200 (and if apple allows discounts (which they currently wont allow on the iPhone)) and they give it to more services it might actually sell. But with how it looks right now. i think apple is in for a big suprize come june.

   by Advertising -
   by Stan Fran (Unregistered) - 2007-01-10
 » What the
The comments posted here are simply insane, probably secondhand too. Don't you people know anything. Apple iPhone is next-gen iPod. I think you're trying too hard to be original. Os X in a mobile handset is really the big story yesterday. Imagine MacBook's user interface in your cellphone. But all you can do is act the naysayer. Boo

   by Stan Fran (Unregistered) - 2007-01-10
 » What the
This post is simply insane, probably secondhand too. Don't you people know anything. Apple iPhone is next-gen iPod. I think you're trying too hard to be original. Os X in a mobile handset is really the big story yesterday. Imagine MacBook's user interface in your cellphone. But all you can do is act the naysayer. Boo

   by ill say jus fuuuck me (Unregistered) - 2007-02-08
 » uck yall
i think tahat all of this is bull-sheet and ill be buyng a mac with leopard ajjajaajaj
apart i am *****ing drunk and 1 dont know may fuscking name jajajajlololololol i love qj it rocks and im at the university library fuuuuck i am been expeled jajaja lol lol lol
i love u gys jajaaj lololol



Featured Content
Contact
QJ.NET Blog Network RSS Feeds
MyQJ Feed / PDA
MyQJ RSS / PDA
Blog of Blogs Feed / PDA
QJ.NET RSS / PDA
Gaming Consoles Feed / PDA
Nintendo DS RSS / PDA
PlayStation 3 RSS / PDA
PSP Updates RSS / PDA
Wii RSS / PDA
Xbox 360 RSS / PDA
PC Gaming Feed / PDA
Age of Conan RSS / PDA
Games for Windows RSS / PDA
MMORPG RSS / PDA
Tabula Rasa RSS / PDA
World of Warcraft RSS / PDA
Science Feed / PDA
Science RSS / PDA
Technology Feed / PDA
Apple RSS / PDA
Gadgets RSS / PDA
Mobile RSS / PDA
Photography RSS / PDA
Tech RSS / PDA
Add QJ.NET
Add to My Yahoo!
Google Reader Subscribe with Bloglines
Add to your Kinja digest Subscribe in NewsGator Online
Subscribe with Pluck RSS reader Add 'www.qj.net' to Newsburst from CNET News.com
Subscribe with SearchFox RSS del.icio.us www.qj.net
Add to Technorati Favorite! Add to My AOL
furl! it Stumble for Treehugger!
User Favorites - August
Most Commented
(86)
(81)
(68)
(65)
(39)
(37)
(34)
(33)
(32)
(32)
(29)
(29)
(28)
(26)
(24)
(24)
(23)
(21)
(19)
(19)
User Favorites - August
Top Jumps
PlayStation 3 backups runni.. (289)
PSP-3000 submitted to FCC f.. (219)
Leipzig: PSP-3000 officiall.. (185)
Despertar del Cementario v7.. (160)
PlayStation 3 homebrew gets.. (159)
Comparison photo: PSP slim .. (142)
PSP Pandora Deluxe v0.4 (130)
Introducing PSPZProject: a .. (121)
Pandora Installer for 3.xx .. (114)
Metal Gear Acid "possible.. (111)
Kojima: stop asking for an .. (104)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII de.. (95)
EA reveals Need for Speed U.. (86)
Hideo Kojima might stay for.. (83)
Recovery Flasher v1.30 (76)
Kurok v0.4 out now; hope fo.. (76)
Leipzig: new 160GB PS3-Unch.. (75)
Thai official wants to pros.. (74)
Japan: Xbox 360 gets boost,.. (73)
New Dissidia, Kingdom Heart.. (69)
CSPortable 0.79: fixed weap.. (68)
Mars webcam now live (65)
Survey: Parents more concer.. (64)
Music industry on game devs.. (63)
PSP-Maps v1.4: new features.. (63)

 Username: 
 Password:
Forgot password
New user registration



Categories

Archives


Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the TERMS & CONDITIONS and PRIVACY POLICY
Copyright © 2006, Content Holdings, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Version. 1.31