Tech New iPod Roundup
posted by on September 5 at 11:37 AM
The Apple news today:
• iPod Shuffle: Now in different colors.
• iPod Nano: Fat, wide and thin, with video.
• iPod Classic: The old standby, now in 80GB and 160GB models.
• iPod Touch: iPhone without the phone. Has Wi-Fi, web browser, calendar, etc.
• Wireless iTunes Store: For iPod Touch and iPhone.
• Wireless Starbucks: Like the music playing while waiting for your latte? Grab your iPod or iPhone, tap-tap-tap, you got it.
But the real insult here is this: They dropped the 4GB model of the iPhone (makes sense) and lowered the price of the 8GB model by $200, basically giving a giant fuck you to everyone who bought one in the first 2 months. Classy.
Wait, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, you're telling me Apple has ripped off all of the sheep that flocked to purchase another one of their new products?
Big surprise.
Early adopters always get screwed. Comes with the territory.
Early adopters? Come on, the thing's only been out for like 2 months!
As a former Newton owner, I can attest to the fact that Apple is particularly bad at fucking early adopters.
Haven't you people buying Apple products learned the golden rule yet: FUCKING WAIT FOR 2.0
Early adopters = suckers. But you do have to give Apple credit for being the rare tech company that can generate enough lust for it's products that people lose their minds and drop their money knowing a better, cheaper product is inevitably just around the corner.
Mookie's comment reminds me of an axiom from my days in the dot-com biz:
Never, never, never install, try, or buy version 1.0 (unless the boss tells you to)!
The people who purchased iPhones when they first came out KNEW the price would be dropping and the quality rising soon after their purchase. A hundred different consumer alerts went out, the history of Apple made for easy prediction, and smart people everywhere were vocal about the stupidity of purchasing v.1.0. So frankly, I don't give a damn how poorly those same "early adopters" feel right now. Their purchase was ill-advised then and just plain foolish now.
Yeah, but I had the fun of everyone wanting to see my iPhone :) Techno-lust, it's a glorious thing.
Not everyone who's bought an iPhone is fucked. Behold, those who've bought less than two weeks ago are due for a refund.
Also, Hecht, I'll be getting a preview iPod Touch in a few days if you'd like a little Week in Geek preview.
If you had $600 to spend on a fucking phone, you get no sympathy from me. You deserved it. "A fool and his money..."
The iPod Touch is a bit disappointing though. $300 for 8gb and $400 for 16gb isn't enough to hook me. They should have gone hard-drive based for that one, IMO, but they're moving away from hard-drives altogether so I'm not surprised.
Wow. No anti-Starbucks vitriol!
(There's no reason for it given the annoucement. I just expected it from kneejerk Slog commenters and it's nowhere to be found, that's all. Good job!)
@ #11: Yah, the storage isn't much, but that's what the iPod Classic is for. I'm more into the PDA functionality of it. The Safari browser on the iPhone is fantastic.
@13: I know, I was just hoping to have my cake and eat it too. BTW, are you by any chance related to a Justin Hickey?
If you are going to lift photos from Gizmodo, you should at least give them a link.
@14: Yup, I'm his bigger, better-looking brother.
Let me rephrase that: I'm his older, better-looking brother. Heh.
@16&17: Small world. I went to high school with him.
If it hadn't been for the suckers waiting in line to buy v.1, Apple would have less incentive to make the iPhone cheaper and better. Think of the suckers as pioneers, paving the way for the rest of us.
This is the same as people who payed $1000 to get a Wii the first week they were out. There's a certain type of person who's willing to pay extra to be the first on his/her block to have something knew. They know the price will come down. They don't care. They have to have it NOW.
@20... yes, we call those people "unreasonable" and "wealthy to the point of absurdity".
@21: I think if you look up "early adopter" in a thesaurus, those are the synonyms you find. ;)
ZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, the price thing just seems normal, if a little accelerated. All digital technology is getting simultaneously better and cheaper.
I'm a total iBook using iPod carrying Apple-kool-aid-drinking Jobs worshipper, and even I know better than to buy anything 1.0 from Apple.
$200 cheaper, whoo-hoo! When a reliable software-unlock becomes available, I'll begin to consider buying the iPhone that I will, inevitably, own.
A giant fuck you? No, that's stupidity on the part of everyone who paid the top price when it debuted because THEY JUST HAD TO HAVE IT. Every tech product debuts with a high price, which then drops over time as manufacturing efficiency increases and bugs are worked out.
They were just preying on the lemming like tech fetish of everyone. And now you're crying foul, when in reality it's your own fault, as they were simply playing the market demand, which people like you set, frothing at the mouth.
My Wii is still the same price it was on launch day.
@27: Mine too! Aw, snap.
Reason not to buy Apple products too soon: they're hip, and hip value depreciates fairly rapidly.
Reason not to buy Microsoft products too soon: those people can't find their asses with both hands and a compass, their initial offerings always suck, and later versions usually suck a bit less.
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