lower prices
Apple is really trying to get into the early majority market of digital audio players, with their recent introduction of some updated models and price cuts. They now have players in $50 increments from $99 to $449 (with the exception of a jump of $100 between the 30 and 60GB iPod photo).
This price slashing does come at a cost. Now, none of the new iPods will come with accessories like a docking station, or even a firewire cable (USB only). This means that they're not really going for the "elite" status anymore. In fact, the iPod mini won't even come with an AC charger (it's supposed to now charge over compatible USB ports), which means that some iPods won't be usable out of the box. Imagine this scenario - a non-technical family with a 4 year old desktop buys an iPod mini for their kid, they come home, open the box, install the software, plug in the mini, and start transferring files. Everything works fine, until 20 minutes later, when the mini runs out of battery power because their USB port on their old computer didn't supply power. The family calls technical support, finds out that they have shell out another $30 for the charger. But wait, the charger only has a firewire port, so they need to spend another $20 for the firewire cable. Bad user experiences like this can seriously hurt Apple's reputation. And Apple, if anything, is known for their good user experience.
It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to the competition as they are the market leader moving from an early adopter market to an early majority market. This is not a position they have not been familiar with in 20 years (having dealt mainly with niche markets and a very loyal userbase).
I think they need to eventually expand into more lines of iPods, including premium lines for power users (for lack of a better word)- just like the evolution of the portable cassette player and cd player - that includes things like the docking station, and more advance feature sets, as well as basic lines for everyone else. They will also need to be able to keep up with production demands. Two to three week waiting periods are find for early adopters, but are not for the majority market, especially during the holiday season. Good luck Steve.
This price slashing does come at a cost. Now, none of the new iPods will come with accessories like a docking station, or even a firewire cable (USB only). This means that they're not really going for the "elite" status anymore. In fact, the iPod mini won't even come with an AC charger (it's supposed to now charge over compatible USB ports), which means that some iPods won't be usable out of the box. Imagine this scenario - a non-technical family with a 4 year old desktop buys an iPod mini for their kid, they come home, open the box, install the software, plug in the mini, and start transferring files. Everything works fine, until 20 minutes later, when the mini runs out of battery power because their USB port on their old computer didn't supply power. The family calls technical support, finds out that they have shell out another $30 for the charger. But wait, the charger only has a firewire port, so they need to spend another $20 for the firewire cable. Bad user experiences like this can seriously hurt Apple's reputation. And Apple, if anything, is known for their good user experience.
It will be interesting to see how Apple responds to the competition as they are the market leader moving from an early adopter market to an early majority market. This is not a position they have not been familiar with in 20 years (having dealt mainly with niche markets and a very loyal userbase).
I think they need to eventually expand into more lines of iPods, including premium lines for power users (for lack of a better word)- just like the evolution of the portable cassette player and cd player - that includes things like the docking station, and more advance feature sets, as well as basic lines for everyone else. They will also need to be able to keep up with production demands. Two to three week waiting periods are find for early adopters, but are not for the majority market, especially during the holiday season. Good luck Steve.