First off, The iPod Touch has blasted into third place in Amazon.com’s prestigious Top Selling Electronics list, available for pre order only, it’s taken third place already behind two deeply discounted GPS units that almost anyone would buy.
Also of note, Apple.com/uk is listing September 28th as the ship date for these new iPod Touch models, that’s really quick global distribution of this product.
Blackfriars Marketing:
Let’s rewind a few months and review what actually happened. Apple went into its June 29 iPhone launch with a stock of about 300,000 iPhones and a manufacturing capacity of roughly 150,000 a month, give or take. It knew it wanted to price the phone at $399 for the holidays, because it expected to ramp up its production lines significantly by then. But until about September or so, Apple was looking at constrained production. Demand was going to exceed supply — big time.
This article sums up the superb marketing by Steve Jobs and Apple, read more here
Just in time for the holiday season, Apple today unveiled a massive revision to it’s 110 million selling iPod line.
The revisions began with the iPod Shuffle, this small iPod is the size of a stamp and clips onto a lapel or shirt collar in a discreet manner suitable for bringing on trips to places that an iPod Nano might be too valuable to have, lke the beach, a jog through the woods, or when you’ve got to carry as little as possible. The iPod shuffle is now available in five new colors, including a Product (Red) edition which benefits African charities, they are still $79.
The iPod Nano received one of it’s most sensational revisions yet when the third generation became a video playing, game playing slender and sleek model. The iPod Nano starts at $149 for the 4GB model and $199 for the 8GB model, prior to hands on testing, the blogosphere was concerned it was too broad, but Engadgets Ryan Block said this after getting hands on with it at the Moscone center:
Ok, we know we’ve been calling it the fatty, but we’ll be straight up with you guys: the third gen iPod nano is friggin’ tiny. It’s maybe not the most beautifully proportioned iPod we’ve ever seen, but its tapered edges and ridiculously thin frame make up for the squatness going on here.
The iPod that we’ve known and loved has gotten a beautiful aluminum wrapper and beefed up storage, it can now hold 80GB of music videos and pictures for $249 or 160GB for $349. The iPod classic is exactly what can be expected a sleek and good looking elder iPod who seems content to hand the throne over to the successor King, his beautiful and technologically amazing son, the iPod Touch
The iPod Touch is the iPod to rule them all, Multi Touch Wide Screen Display, Web Browser, iTunes purchasing on the go, slender as can be, and absolutely gorgeous. Starting at $299, it’s got a generous 8GB of storage and goes up to 16GB of storage for $399 (at which price you can also now buy an iPhone 8GB model)
The iPod Touch and iPhone have similar feature sets with the iPhone having enough extras to make it a tantalizing temptation, Maps, Email, and, Camera are certainly three of the top reasons I’ve got my iPhone, it’s a business tool through and through, the iPhone meets a certain user set and I’ve a feeling the iPod touch is going to meet the larger user set who is simply seeking an iPod, after all, two days ago folks were paying $249 for an 8GB Nano with a small screen, they’ll surely love a full screen multi touch display, with Wifi web browsing and iTunes purchasing built in. They don’t even need a Mac or PC anymore to fill it with Music.
Both the iPhone and iPod Touch are gaining the superpower of Wireless iTunes purchasing through a new custom application that looks nice and simple.
With this revision of the iPod lineup, Apple is sure to reignite the interest of consumers and leave competing music players scrambling for competitive solutions, the iPhone price drop is a masterful piece of Machiavellian marketing, let Steve Ballmer and others scoff at the iPhone for the last six months, “Pfff, $600 for a phone!”
Then stun all by making it incredibly affordable, to compare, examine the price of unlocked Palm Treo’s and Rimm Blackberries, both sets of smart phones are in the $350 plus price range with the Palm 750 at $599. Out of the clear blue sky the iPhone is now a major competitor on price and a clear winner in terms of functionality.
One more feature worth noting is the existence of CoverFlow on all three of the new iPod models, iPod Nano, iPod Classic and iPod Touch, more than making these devices incredibly sexy to navigate, this confirms the existence of a OS X style operating system under the hood, great news for all Mac Programmers, developers and users, it verifies Apple’s commitment to the OS and their skills in advancing their software for the benefit of customers.
Look at the prices of amazon’s iPods! They’ve run out of stock a week vefore the new ones come out, shocking but a sign that iPods are selling even FASTER than Amazon is predicting! Stunning
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The Apple Comment by Denny Grabowski
Breathless, running heartbeats, exciting. Folks, if you think I am talking about love then I have to let you know: Yes I do. It happend this morning in my email box. I saw this beauty, unbelievable nice computer. And unable to find words, just a huge WOW came over my lips. I know that rumours were around about the new outfit and shots of the new keyboard have been shown as well, but folks that thing looks gorgeous! In comparision with every other Desktop PC this machine is unbeatable: Fast, nice, thin, stylish! Just a very, very tastefull machine. And just in case if you don’t got it, I am not talking about a girl, but about a thing that is beautiful too, it’s the new iMac! Also the new design line: Aluminum and Glass! Just beautiful!
But that’s not all! There are more new things to explore. Steve Jobs introduced the new iLife and the new iWork as well. Both have very nice features and new extras. Check it out on the Apple site! Just sensational!
Gene Munster made a bold move last week by raising his price target for apple stock from $160 to $205. The decision was not easy though and the analyst has carefully considered what may be in store for Apple and the iPhone.
One very surprising note that was made is in regards to the revenue that Apple is receiving from AT&T for customers using the iPhone, apparently, AT&T is handing over $3 per customer using the iPhone, that $3 is PER MONTH for the duration of the customers contract, thats not all, there’s an addditional $8 per month, this extra revenue combined with actual revenue for hardware sales, plus a superfied halo effect on Macs.
If this all comes true than $205 will look like a bargain a year from now!
Well, Its been a good year for Apple and their Fans, We’ve been presented with the Apple TV, the iPhone, Leopard is coming in October, and since we haven’t seen new iPods or Macs for a while we have to believe there’ll be new Macs and iPods before year end.
Look out here for posts about Apple Hardware and Software, there’ll be plenty more coming soon.
John Gruber writes on the wonderful daringfireball.net, no matter how many zunes MS claims to have sold, I, nor he, have ever seen one in the wild, nor have I ever saw someone buy one at CompUSA or BestBuy.
Money quote : “Seriously, I’ve never seen a single Zune in the wild.”
Apple has today added MGM and its United Artists sublabel to its wonderful iTunes store, open iTunes and browse the new movies that have been added, the trailers for Rocky and Ronin make you want to buy (or at least SEE) them right away.
Does Apple iTunes make its own trailers? or have creative control? Something about their iTunes trailers seems so much better than your average trailers that you see on Network TV or other sales outlets.
Adding MGM to iTunes Movie Library brings iTunes Movie library to 500 movies, it also brings iTunes onboard movie studios up to 2.5 out of the Big 6.
The Big 6 Movie Companies are:
Fox
Paramount
Sony
NBC
Time Warner
Buena Vista
Apple of course began its catalog with Buena Vista (Disney’s) Library, that was followed by Paramounts hefty catalog around January, and today added MGM, which is a subsidary of the massive Sony studio.
Let’s assume that Sony/MGM see unparalled sales from the iTunes store starting today, it’d be logical for Sony to put the rest of its catalog up on iTunes (which includes Columbia, Tristar, Sony animation and more) in the coming months.
If that comes true, we’ve then three of the big six movie studios on board, and Fox, NBC and Time Warner will surely have to come on board too before the 2007 Holiday Season.
Here comes an amazing year for movies on iTunes, on your iMac, on your iPod, and on your TV!
Apple has quietly introduced the eight core mac pro on its online store, over a week before the NAB special event (when many expected it to be revealed), they’ve also lowered the prices on their gorgeous Cinema Displays, seriously tempting me to grab a 20inch for $599.
