Apple doubles iPhone, iPod Touch capacity
Updated at 6:30 a.m. PST with additional details and at 7:30 a.m. with comments from Apple.
Apple doubled the capacity of the iPhone and the iPod Touch on Tuesday for an additional $100.
The iPhone once again comes in two capacities: 8GB for $399 and now 16GB for $499. Apple sold 8GB and 4GB varieties on iPhone Day, but it discontinued the 4GB model after it cut the price of the 8GB model to $399. Something like 90 percent of all early iPhone buyers opted for the 8GB version.
The iPhone and the iPod Touch now come with more storage for $100 more.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Apple thinks that there's still room for an 8GB iPhone in the mix, said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of worldwide iPod and iPhone product marketing. The first time around, people signaled pretty clearly that they wanted more than 4GB of storage, but he thinks that there's still a "sweet spot" at 8GB of storage.
And the iPod Touch can also store more music and videos now, with 32GB of capacity for $499. That device is now available in three versions, with Apple also selling a 16GB model for $399 and an 8GB model for $299.
The new iPhone and iPod Touch appear to be unchanged from their previous incarnations, though they ship with the new software unveiled at Macworld, which provides the ability to edit the home screen and triangulate your position using Maps.
The release of that software really changed the iPod Touch into a new type of device, Joswiak said, and Apple is now playing up the iPod Touch as a "Wi-Fi mobile device," as opposed to a high-end iPod. "It becomes even more promising, once we enter the world of the SDK," he said, referring to the expected release of the software developer's kit for the iPhone and iPod Touch in late February.
Both are available immediately. This move should give something of a boost to iPhone and iPod Touch sales. Apple shipped fewer iPods than expected during the fourth quarter but still grew iPod revenue at a strong pace, suggesting that the higher-priced iPod Touch is gaining ground against the iPod Nano and Shuffle as a percentage of Apple's iPod mix.
The iPhone story is a little more complicated. The rampant unlocking of the smartphone makes it both harder and easier to understand iPhone demand: On one hand, people want the iPhone so badly, they are willing to take risks to use it on their network or in their country. On the other hand, it's almost impossible to get a true number of how many phones have been unlocked.
This time around, there's no price cut on existing models, which some prognosticators felt was necessary in order to spike iPhone demand during the leaner first and second quarters of the year.
Given the price cut debacle the first time around, I wouldn't expect to see the price of the iPhone change too dramatically any time soon, at least until the 3G model is unveiled.
Still, I'd imagine that most people who intended to spend $399 on an iPhone would be willing to cough up another hundred bucks to get twice as much storage. As might be expected, Joswiak concurred, saying the higher prices for twice as much storage reflects that the "value proposition remains." We'll see if the public agrees.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
I don't know - with no new features and a +$100 price tag, in this economy, it doesn't sound like a very compelling offering.
positive GDP growth last quarter... for it to be a recession you need
two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. No way is that
the case. The economy is just taking a breather. People still have
tons of money and will spend themselves into oblivion.
Give me a small but usable Apache service on it, and I can use it as a portable mini-server, from which to install whole desktops or servers with.
Leave it as it is, and I can now store a shedload of documents and files to transfer on a business trip without having to lug around an extra hard disk or laptop with.
You probably don't find such things compelling. That's natural. But please do not presume to dictate what "compelling" is or is not for the rest of us, please.
/P
US citizens is one group of people who will buy stuff - regardless of the economy's condition. The number-one goal of an American is to be happy. If buying a $500 iPod touch makes him happy, then let him go ahead and splurge.
Just take a look at Apple's stock performance the last month or so. The tech and Wall St. community were not impressed with the offerings at MacWorld.
My mother recently got an ipod touch and it's just alright. It can be a serious pain in the rear to use. And the iTunes software bites the big one.
But hey, if you want a 32GB MP3 player for $500, I'm not going to stop you. I'm sure there's plenty of brainwashed apple fans willing to hand over their money. Those people should look into scientology as a religion- it's a perfect fit!
Are you comparing a 80GB Hard drive to a 32GB Flash. What is the highest flash based player the Zune has?
Why is iTunes so good for everyone except you? With Mac market share growing, do you think the Zune even has a chance.
make it entertaining and make up something that is plausible.
/P
(yeah, sarcasm. gotta love it).
/P
The media just repeats Government statistics, such as the one shown above. The "shoot the messenger" crowd just don't want to hear the truth.
I have no doubt they will release a 3G phone- they may just want to wait until they have sold off their excess surplus inventory of unsold product first. Look to the announcement of dropping production of the iPod and iPhone by 60% as an indicator of oversupply and not enough demand.
I work on a glorious Mac Book Pro and have been te proud owner of mostly Macs, have Nano and a larger iPod 3G that still kicks ass. An IPhone would sooo compliment my business and personal workflow but NO.
I really do not want to go back to AT+T/Cingular...I don't trust those people even with dumping the Cingular name.
Anyone care to talk me over the ledge on this and promise me AT+T's got a net waiting below?
He keeps rolling out one high priced item after another. Even the elitist, gotta-have-an-Apple-at-any-price crowd, is wearing thin. His new customers are "Average" Joe & Jane. With Americans losing homes at 7000 per day Steve needs to lower prices and/or offer bundled packages that include free trial movies & songs. Apple has over $15 billion in the bank and can easily afford exciting promotions without denigrating it's pricey, elitist, out-of-the-box-thinking, sex appeal.
He owes it to shareholders to drive sales up. Instead most are scratching their heads in total disbelief. Many are wondering if he's lost his game once again. Or worse, he's tanking the stock intentionally to buy AAPL at a huge discount. The stock keeps sinking from these pathetic over-priced roll-outs.
LOL...Kinda reminds me of Mel Brooks "The Producers" or Pete Rose gambling on his own games. Not so LOL for shareholders.
Pay $300 for designer jeans? I'll stick with my Levis.
of us are beginning to see how Apple makes its money. They
have frequent product upgrades, their products are designed in
a way to encourage buyer's to buy other Apple products in order
to enjoy all the features. This is a monopoly! How come Apple
gets away with stifling competition but Microsoft takes hits all
the time. Heck Microsoft does not even build computers, they
are a software company! Apple does it all!! I just love how Apple
manages a small user base over the years, yet makes so much
money.
At $500, I would get one of those "one laptop per child" computers and feel good about myself.
I really like the design of it, but it is waaayyy overpriced. Maybe if they got the price down to $300 and added Bluetooth Audio.
people! Things are going to start happening to me now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt7eLe8RBJQ
is still no flash support! There are so many sites that rely on flash
for their core use, why can't they add this? In my opinion this is
what would propell the iPhone and iPod touch into the next
generation.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod_photo
I think the news in my opinion is that we are starting to see 32GB solid state based players that are profitably being sold for ~$500. In a year the price could easily be half that. For the sake of audio 32GB is essentially infinite for a lot of people. You could store over a day worth of lossless audio on such a player and well over a week to two weeks of lossy audio depending upon the bitrate. Unless you are going to buy $100+ headphones or you are going to hook it up to a high end stereo system lossless doesn't make much sense. People who want a portable device for audio only have virtually no need for a hard disk player with that amount of storage. The only question is how much longer hard disk player will be popular for video?
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