Underwhelmed by iPod announcements
I'm following Tuesday morning's Apple event, and while HD TV and NBC's return to iTunes are nice, this blog's about music. So here are some instant reactions to the music-related news:
Genius playlists. Select a song, click this feature, and you'll get a playlist from your collection of similar songs, plus iTunes recommendations. This sounds like a promising way to solve the fatigue that a lot of users develop with their own collections after a few months, as well as the jarring transitions that sometimes pop up during a random shuffle session. Of course, so much depends on how well it works--will the algorithm adhere toward the same artists and genres? Will it be reliant on metadata such as composer and year, or can it analyze actual audio characteristics like tempo and key? The latter would be amazingly cool. I'll check it out later Tuesday and post more details then.
Bright colors and a nice oval shape characterize the new line of iPod Nanos.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)New iPods. The super-thin Nano looks amazingly cool and will probably do well this holiday. And a new 120GB Classic for $249 matches what Microsoft announced for the Zune on Monday. Only it's an iPod, which means it looks way cooler, has a scroll wheel, is far more fashionable...you know the drill. They've put the cover flow and accelerometer from the iPhone in, meaning the Nano will know when you turn it on its side. You can shake it up and it'll shuffle songs. New bright colors, and more recyclable than ever before. (Wow--is it smart to introduce a new product by talking about how you'll have to throw it away someday?) This is all fine and dandy if you don't have an MP3 player already, but I'm not seeing any exciting new features that will make existing iPod owners run out and upgrade.
The iPod Touch is also getting a makeover, super-thin with an integrated speaker, has the App Store (games!) and Genius and Nike+ features built-in. This is really becoming a hybrid entertainment device--more like a PSP than a mere MP3 player. Still, I've always thought this product fits into a weird niche between the iPhone and old-fashioned iPods or other MP3 players. I guess it's for people who want cutting-edge technology (touch screen!) but aren't ready to part with their current phone. BlackBerry fans, maybe. They seem to be targeting it at gamers, but with an entry price of $229 I'm not sure that will work--that's $100 more than the cheapest Nintendo DS Lite, about $60 more than the cheapest Sony PSP, and--heck--$20 more than an Xbox 360 Arcade. Then again, it is the market-leading MP3 player as well as a game device.
That's it? OK, that's it.
Harrumph. I'm happy to hammer Microsoft when it screws up, as it did with some earlier Zunes, but I have to say that this week's Zune announcement was a lot more exciting than the iPod announcement. The hardware's nowhere near as cool--Apple's a great hardware and design company--but I'll be darned if the new Zunes don't do more when it comes to music. They're not all-in-one devices like the Touch is becoming, and Microsoft certainly doesn't have anything that can touch the iPhone, but on a pure MP3 player basis, the Zune's finally looking competitive.
That said, Apple's probably done enough with the new designs to keep the iPod Nano flying off store shelves this holiday. And Zune's got a bad reputation to overcome.
Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure.
Frankly, i dont care how much MS adds to the Zune, i will always buy an iPod. I'm on my second and thinking about buying a third within a few months. I already have a classic and touch, so i might just buy one of the new nanos.
Those are exactly the arguments used by the people who buy iPods: "more fashionable". It does not matter that the Zune is a superior product than the iPod Classic
The one thing I don't understand is why would Apple integrate the Nike+ transmitter in the Touch? I can't imagine working out with my Touch. That's what I have my Nano for.
And MSFT gets little press for some truly innovative features. Tag FM and buy/Stream/Buy over wifi...no computer needed.
Good news was Appl tanked today ;)
What about us who want to take all of our music with us, but don't want the Classic?
I have the 160GB Classic, and I love it. But I want the Touch, and I was really hoping for a 64GB or 128GB of the Touch.
The 32GB forces me to pick/choose my playlists, and pick/choose my Family Guy videos.
That's what underwhelmed me during this announcement. A larger capacity Touch/Nano.
What a lazy/complacent iPod lineup.
I would think Apple would save these big productions for truly new products.
Maybe too with all the problems of late I just think people have brought Apple down a notch or two.
That is Apple's own fault for bragging too much about how they are so much better then the rest!
We now know that is not always true! They have problems and maybe cut corners or have faulty engineering the same as any other technology manufacture. I must say, I will seriously look at the Zune before I get another iPod. I think its only fair to give the Zune a shot.
Every time one of these Apple events rolls around, I'm happier than ever that I never bought a Shuffle or Nano; the constant significant design changes must drive their owners and third-party accessory-makers up the wall.
If Apple had announced that they were going from a 80/160 lineup for the Classic to a 120/240, or even more radically, a 240GB-only decision, that would have gotten them more consumers for the Classic. (Yes, Toshiba makes a dual-platter version of the 1.8" 120GB drive, just like it did for the 80GB.)
Instead, it seems like they're treading water against the Zune. I cannot fathom why Apple would deliberately make it so that anyone who bought a 160GB iPod Classic would have zero incentive to buy into the latest generation. Anyone who has a collection large enough to need a 160GB (or bigger) drive won't be buying into the iPod Touch any time soon, so I'm not sure what Jobs & Co. thought they were doing for themselves here.
So, I won't be trading any of my money for the new ones they just announced. I can only hope that someone out there with a bit of entrepreneurial spirit creates a player that can store significantly more than the current line. They will get my money. I don't care if it is a bit bigger - I care more about functionality.
CNet will give you whatever propaganda will make you hate Apple and buy Microsoft.
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by patrick_i
September 9, 2008 6:02 PM PDT
- More features does not a better product make. What improvements are you looking for? Bigger drives? FM Tuner? Bluetooth? Touchscreen? I think there is not much you can add to these things that would add value for a majority of the potential market. Technology-wise how much further can you take it? Except for the larger hard drives, all of those features add marginally better value for the FEW people who want them, while raising the cost and decreasing battery life. FM, who listens to that outside of a car or office anyway? Seriously. Bluetooth connectivity for headphones? Have you heard what one sounds like? It sucks and uses up too much battery life. A bigger drive on the Touch (and iPhone) would indeed be worthwhile but at what cost? Do you have a battery strong enough to power the screen, the drive and the wifi? In the Iphone you also have BT and 3G (horrible on a battery). These are Portable Music and Video players at their core. If you're going to ask for one or two "necessary features", which features would they be because certainly what's important to one person is different for another. Why not add every possible available feature to make every possible person happy? I mean someone out there considers at least one of these features "absolutely necessary" right? Why not add GPS, led backlighting, why not make every ipod a phone device as well, what about browser features which means you need wifi, why not 9 colors for the classic as well? What about a camera? Bluetooth of course. AM/FM definitely. What about a TV Tuner? Why not, we're going digital next year right? I think as consumers Americans always want more than they actually need (the land of the SUV).Truthfully, I think Apple is avoiding the trap that American car manufactures are in now. American car manufacturers put a lot of feature value into their cars (think Sync and OnStar and more features per dollar), but no one buys their cars. Why? Because as cars, they aren't very good or "desireable". People buy Toyota and Honda even thought they cost more and have fewer features compared to US cars because as cars, they are better and are more "desireable". As a music player, in my opinion, iPods are more "desireable" but not necessarily better. But they are pretty good.
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by hejish
September 9, 2008 8:20 PM PDT
- Apple product is flying off the shelves. Somebody is liking and buying the product. I find it amusing that people think that the stock goes down because the show of new features isn't "enough". Nearly always when Apple presents new products or features (or quarterly reports) the stock plummets because prior to the event it is run up and people pull out making a profit. The stock is likely to be back up soon.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (40 Comments)I personally have tried the "genius" feature and have personally found it to be great - it is helping me to enjoy the music I already have. It lets me enjoy what I have and can "help" me buy even more music that I am likely to be interested in - the most direct marketing you can get, helping users sell to themselves. I suspect that this is going to generate some revenue for Apple.
Getting the ability to generate future revenue from more and more devices is valuable to Apple. Apple generating buzz, and selling devices to users that let Apple market to them better (to get them to buy more music) is genius.