Comments on: What's inside the new Apple Shuffle?

iFixit has done a teardown of the third-generation Shuffle. As one might expect, the diminutive device is tiny on the inside, too--and pretty simple.

[tipoo_]

Whats inside it? Well, i'll tell you whats NOT inside it, 100 dollars worth of hardware. they probably have a healthy (but disconcerting) 75% profit margin on these things.

[joelikemilk]

Tipoo_, can you explain why this is "disconcerting" to you?
Apple sells ipods, they make money, they make more products, they hire more people, more people are happier.
If $79 is too much for you, don't buy one. If you can't stand paying that much and getting so little, buy the innards and make one.
If enough people don't buy them, they'll drop the price or drop the item.
Any guesses what the mark-up is on toothpaste? Beer? Don't buy those items? How about perfume?
There are a lot of forces that determine the retail or street price; cost of materials is not one of them.
Am I right?

[tipoo_]

All I'm saying is that their profit margins on this thing are probably much much higher than any other MP3 player maker.

[Jonnygthedrummer]

nothing wrong with that , its there stuff

[Perry_Clease]

There is more to the cost of an item than the cost of the components. R&D, advertising, support, and other non-hardware costs.

[tacit]

"Well, i'll tell you whats NOT inside it, 100 dollars worth of hardware."

Oh? How much would you say those components cost, then? Are you speaking as a person with a significant professional background in procurement and logistics, or are you speaking as someone who says "Well, I see a bunch of little tiny black rectangles,a nd they're so small they can't be very expensive"?

[Dalkorian]

by tacit March 13, 2009 8:46 AM PDT
Are you speaking as a person with a significant professional background in procurement and logistics, or are you speaking as someone who says "Well, I see a bunch of little tiny black rectangles,a nd they're so small they can't be very expensive"?

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LOL, no he's speaking as someone who says "that's only 4 dime sized parts there, I can throw that together for 40 cents, I tell you what!"

NOW do we see why inbreeding is bad?

[tcr071]

He is right. There aren't $80 worth of parts in there. There aren't $30 worth of parts in there. Maybe not even $20. What you don't understand is that you have to factor in design costs, shipping costs, research and development costs, the cost of the headphones, advertising, taxes on all of the above, etc. On top of all that Apple might want to go ahead and run a profit on the things they sell because we aren't talking about video game consoles.

There is probably a hefty margin on this and Apple could stand to cut the price some but if people are willing to pay it, as has been shown, why should they? Goal of a BUSINESS is to maximize profit.

[ferretboy88]

Its ok for Apple to make a large profit but not a normal person to go to college and find a great job and make a ton of money. Somehow that is evil to democrats. Or saving your money and starting a business, if you make a profit you should be taxed to death to pay for welfare collectors.

[Danbolicious]

Supply and demand is a great thing. Don't like it, don't buy it. As a manufacturer of electronic goods, everyone always looks into the base cost of these things. No one is taking into account the engineers, additional R&D, keeping the lights on, paying for insurance, etc. etc. etc. These pre-sales costs need to be tied into the product as well not strictly based on hardware base cost.

[aMUSICsite]

Can anyone actually provide examples of these cheaper alternatives that have the same battery life, same build quality and are just as small?

I'm willing to bet you don't use the cheapest perfume/deodorant, drive the cheapest car and live in the cheapest house you can find. Also I would guess that their markup is only slightly above the industry standard.

[hermantf]

The only reason I think that this iPod is NOT worth the price is the lack of buttons on the unit. I want to use my own earbuds, and I don't want to use a "dongle" to do so.

Lame Apple. Really lame.

[felgercarbnaysay]

OK, I get it. you actually enjoy having to fish around in you pocket to pull the device out and possibly drop it.
I suppose that's even better when you're skiiing and can lose it in a snowdrift.

Lame? Hardly.

[hermantf]

I see your point but I think you missed mine.

Yes. iPods are about convenience. But they are also about other things like sound quality. The standard earbuds that Apple includes with their iPods are probably acceptable to some people. But they do not compare to sound isolating earphones (Anyone reading this should seriously give some a try. I use Shure SCL5. You'll never go back, unless of course, you have the new iPod shuffle and don't want to use a dongle....).

I'm sure that there are many activities where this feature will be useful (like skiing), but why not give us the option of having controls on the earbuds AND on the iPod???

The answer to that is of course, profit margins. Buttons elevate the cost of the unit, hence, Apple left them out and tries to sell it as some kind of "awesome new feature." And it's not.

It's just lame, Apple. Really lame.

[JoeF2]

I haven't used the crappy Apple earphones in ages, and I won't start now.
The headsets I am using are so much better than Apple's earphones. And I can change from my earphones on the street to using a noise-canceling headset when flying.

[tcr071]

Nah what is lame is going for a jog with your new shuffle and your headphones keep bouncing in front of your face because one of them has a small weight on it. I guess I could plug in the stock head phones, set the volume I want, go plug in my jogging headphones, and hope I don't ever want to skip a song or change the volume...

Fun..

[softwarepro]

I know people who buy expensive stuff will always try to justify their purchase just to make them feel better. Now it is fashion or style statement not the technical things where I can have 8GB of music player built into cell phone for extra $10-$20 (microSD cost is very low now.. in fact $16GB cost $50 at frys.com). If you are in technology for long enough you feel people are paying too much where alternative is available for cheap. In fact it is applicable to many thing you can purchase in America,

[JoeF2]

Now why would I want my cellphone to play music?
Real techies rather subscribe to the Unix style of things: have specialized tools that do one thing, and do one thing good.
The 2nd gen shuffle was a good player. The 3rd gen would also be, except for the lack of button in the device.

[mayo-on-a-bun]

You want your cellphone (at least I do) to play music for the simple pleasure of convenience and portability. Now why would you want to carry two devices around in each pocket, a cellphone and an ipod?

[agj333]

XP SP3 REQIRED! Not Going there w/o a track record. CD DOS REPAIR CONSOL? WIN XP SP2?

No alternate Headphone option. Couldn't they make a control 1/8" adaptor?

Looks cool, but I already have Shuffle 1&2.

They're fine, for now.

$79 isn't too much for this kind of inovation though, IMHO. Go Apple!

[agj333]

XP SP3 REQUIRED! Not Going there w/o a track record. CD DOS REPAIR CONSOL? WIN XP SP2?

No alternate Headphone option. Couldn't they make a control 1/8" adaptor?

Looks cool, but I already have Shuffle 1&2.

They're fine, for now.

$79 isn't too much for this kind of inovation though, IMHO. Go Apple!