Will Mini iPods Delete Bigger iPods?
from the just-wondering dept
Well, as every other tech site in the world is now telling you, the not-so-secret rumors that Apple was coming out with a "mini iPod", cleverly named "iPod mini" are completely true. The other big story people are focusing on are that Apple has gotten past their Henry Ford-style color options, and will offer the iPod mini in multiple colors. You can read all the details at other sites, but in looking over the stories about the device, I'm wondering if the iPod mini will replace the iPod itself as the popular music device of choice. Personally, I don't own an iPod or any portable digital music player (I barely have any digital music - so buying such a device would only mean I need to rip all my CDs, which is a project I'm still not ready to bother with). Still, the iPod mini seems to make a lot more sense to me than many other portable music devices. The early MP3 players had way too little memory, but once you get up into the 4 gigabyte range, I wonder how much more some people need. Historically, of course, that's a dangerous viewpoint to take - since we've always figured out ways to fill up empty storage space. With Apple even advertising games, calendars and other iPod apps - you can imagine that the memory will go. However, if I were in the market for such a device, I'd definitely go with the mini iPod version right now: it's a better size for carrying around and it's "good enough" in terms of storage space - not to mention that it's cheaper. Thus, while I'm sure there are some people who simply need to have more storage space, I'm wondering if this mini iPod will steal marketshare away from its big brother.
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On the other hand, a smaller diskless version has a fair amount of appeal as i do more than a bit of running and other physical sports that aren't conducive to a disk based MP3 player ....
So I may wind up with one of each. Ouch. Or stay where I am.
Mike, would really like to see you get your hands on an iPod and interact with the itunes store for a while ... might provide you a different perspective on how good of an alternative this is to file sharing which I know you are highly in favor of.
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I realize the differences between the two models, particularly the flash/hard drive distinction, but I think that may be lost on most general consumers, who will likely look at price vs. storage capacity.
That is if they're not entranced by the pretty colors...
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If It Were Cheaper...
MLO
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Now that's a rhetorical question... ;)
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They still use regular hard drives.
Besides, think about it. USB Flash drives cost around $70 for 256MB. By that standard 1GB of flash memory would cost about $280. Do you think Apple somehow found the magic flash drive and supplied 4GB's for the cheap?
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Re: They still use regular hard drives.
The iPod mini will definitely see a price drop when more hard disk manufacturers barge into the market. For now only Hitachi Storage makes them (4GB), I think.
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But the price point!
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The iPod mini is not a flash memory device
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