What the new iPods mean

Posted on February 23, 2005 by Ian Betteridge

Michael Gartenberg: What the new iPods mean.

Apple now has the most complete product line at effective price bands to allow consumers join the iPod experience while not creating overlapping products. This is a good tactical move and will once again force their competitors to respond.

I really can’t see any other manufacturer getting more than a toe-hold in this market without coming up with something spectacular.

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  • nick

    This is a weird roll-out, from my perspective: the 20Gb iPod sticks out like a sore thumb, the 30Gb photo becomes the sweet spot of the range, but I’m still unconvinced that the photo’s anything more substantial than a colour display iPod.

    Like you said, ‘be prepared to spend more money’; I get the feeling that people are being up-sold a bit here, at least at the iPod entry level. If you were thinking about buying the 40Gb mono iPod at $399, where do you go? Probably to the 60Gb photo at $449, rather than the 30Gb at $349.

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    There’s definitely plenty of scope for upsell, but that’s no bad thing – the difference between a 1GB shuffle and a 4GB mini makes the mini look a real bargain.

    Having played with a photo at length for the first time, I’m much more convinced about it than I was. I like the photos feature, of course, but more important is the vastly improved look and feel of the interface – it really does make a difference. If Apple can make the whole range with colour screens – and I think that’s fairly obviously where they’re heading – then they’ll have another advantage over the competition.