| Home > Of things Mac > Why Apple will sell a s**tload of 2nd. generation iPod Shuffles |
| Why Apple will sell a s**tload of 2nd. generation iPod Shuffles | | Date Created: 21 Sep, 2006, 11:53 AM |
 Last week in the Showtime Keynote, Apple showed revised versions of its iPod range of portable media.
The "regular" iPod was tweaked with a new screen, updated software, and in one case, the growth of the largest iPod to 80GB, in deference to the shift to the iTunes Store, selling a bucket load of very large full length movies, each more than 1GB in size. Battery life was also improved so maybe you can watch two movies on your trans-continental flight.
The nano range returned to its origins bearing strong resemblance to the iPod mini, with its alumunium multi-coloured bodies. Apple will sell a bucketload of these even if one of the range is the same price as the lesser but full sized iPod.
Apple has learnt to back its judgement after it originally released the iPod mini in January 2004 to much laughter and derision. Tech writers had lured themselves and their readership pre-release into believing Apple might show a "new" smaller iPod, for anywhere between $99 - $159.
Some samples for your hindsight-informed amusement: |
From Tom Dominey's blog, dated January 6, 2004:
Just when in looked like Apple might hit the ball out of the park and take over the portable mp3 player market, today they unveiled the iPod mini -- a smaller, less expensive version of the regular iPod.
Smaller? Less expensive? Sounds great, right? Yes, unless you have more than an elementary school proficiency in basic arithmetic. The iPod mini retails for $249 -- a mere $50 less than the entry level iPod. What does $50 off buy you? A hard drive that is nearly four times smaller (4GB instead of 15GB), which translates into 2700 less songs for you to listen to.
Sure, the iPod mini sports some new skin colors, and has a form factor about the size of a business card. Otherwise it is nearly the same as the regular iPod but with far less capacity and a ridiculous price tag.
If Apple could push the form factor's limits and include a 4GB hard drive, surely they could have offered a 2GB model for $150. Or hell, how about a 1GB version (which would hold about 10 albums or so) for $99?
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 And from the "I wish the internet wouldn't remember every doofus thing I ever wrote" file, comes MacWorld editor Chris Breen's piece, also dated January 6, 2004:
I'm withholding final judgment until I hold one in my hand, but at first blush, the iPod mini hints that much of Apple was on lunch break when the "Power Mac G4 Cube: Lessons Learned" memo circulated.
Granted, the form factor looks very cool and a lot of those who already view the iPod as a hip fashion accessory are likely to be tickled by the anodized aluminum case, tiny size, and variety of colors (the iPod mini comes in Silver, Gold, Blue, Pink, and Green). But when Steve Jobs finally announced the device's $249 price during his keynote presentation, it was as if someone had sucked the air out of the room.
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 Most were very disappointed at the mini's price point, focussing their attention on hard drive size.
The public weren't concerned and showed their disdain for the pundits' opinions by making the iPod mini Apple's best selling iPod.
Young people especially were unafraid of the price point, loved the form factor and colours, and revelled in its light weight, hardiness and size.
Naturally, a whole iPod mini ecosystem developed because of this new form factor, and perhaps it was the support industry gearing up to support the mini that really turned a cottage industry of accessory making into a multi-billion dollar "made for iPod" licensing scheme, which irony of ironies, alleged iPod killer maker (yeah, right) Creative has now joined that industry, no doubt adding heaftily to its own coffers.
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Apple of course was the only company who could make a true iPod killer, and so it killed off the mini and replaced it with the Nano, in black and white.
When Jobs drew it out of his Levi Jeans coin pocket at a special Keynote last year, the collective ooh's and aaah's were really the transformations of the sound "ka-ching" as the nano proved to be its own killer mp3 player. Who cared about its price? It was just so cool and cute and everyone wanted one.
In time, its shortcomings (scratches) turned into a PR nightmare, and with the reduction in price of flash memory combined with increasing storage size, Apple did itself a favour and returned to the original iPod mini form factor and colours (keeping black the only one to have 8GB) and it now has another killer iPod on its hands. Creative must be so glad it got $100 million for its troubles and doesn't compete with Apple. Microsoft's Zune development team are perhaps returning to the drawing broad and their Excel spreadsheet calculations.
This time no one is saying the 8GB nano is the same price as the cheapest full size iPod and then deriding that economics equation.
I mean, who'd be so stupid to repeat that dumb bit of iPod mini forecasting which underestimated the public's desire for small and simple even at a high price point.
After all, laptops of lesser power than desktops still run at double the price, yet laptops outsell desktops because we want the convenience to have our work and entertainment tools with us always.
Now to the Shuffle MK II.
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 When the Shuffle was introduced in January 2005, the price of flash RAM was still relatively high. Geeks and other tech types walked around with USB thumb drives, and presentation makers were just becoming aware they could carry their Powerpoint slideshows with them on 256Mb and 512MB chupchicks. 1GB thumbdrives were just appearing but they were quite large and still expensive.
The white Shuffle was also initially derided by the tech pundits, joined by a new group of commentators - podcasters.
Podcasting had started to emerge in August 2004, just a few months before and looked like a return to the days of CB radio. It wasn't on the map for Apple quite yet - at least it didn't give it public recognition until iTunes 4.9 came along in mid-2005.
Well-known lead podcaster like Adam Curry "didn't get" the Shuffle at all because it didn't have a screen where his name could be seen scrolling across with the episode number. He and other pundits I took to task in the week after the Shuffle was released in a blog entry entitled,
Podcasters: Curb your whining about the Shuffle and taking a podcast-centric view of the world
(You can read the article, dated January 15, 2005, here.)
But as so often happens with technologies, the Shuffle took off because it broke a price and convenience barrier. Now everyone could own the hot brand in town.
Apple allowed its dual use as both music player and storage device. It spoke of research that showed iPod users loved the shuffle function in iTunes, which carried over to the iPod, such that listeners were surprised and delighted with discovering their music afresh, our of the usual sequence it played.
They could play guessing games to see who could first guess from the opening bars the identity of the song, and indeed this is now an "official" game on the larger iPods.
People wore their Shuffle in full view around their necks using the Apple lanyard, when others wore their full sized iPod more discreetly.
Eventually, podcasters relented, and led by Curry changed the way they formatted the very beginnings of their mp3 podcasts: "Daily Souce Code number 85, February 15, 2005" or similar.
Curry led the way, and people followed so that you get audible feedback as to what you were about to listen to. Problem solved of no screen. |
 Now we come to the Shuffle MK II.
Reduced in size and price, it reminds me of my friends who, faced with escalating petrol (gas) prices, have purchased a special-purpose motor scooter for nipping around town on the smell of an oily rag.
Need to take the family on a drive or tranport materials - use the family sedan or SUV. But for a fun ride on a bike or a quick trip to the video store, grab the scooter.
I'm betting that in addition to those who can't afford to pay Apple for a full size iPod to gain entry to the digital delights in the iTunes store or free via its podcasting community, Apple will sell a s**tload of Shuffles to people like me.
Huh? Haven't you got a 5G iPod, you ask?
Yep, but there a times I don't want to shlep it around with me. I have a half hour to walk Shrek and I just want to listen to NBC's podcast of Meet the Press, or something from Doug Kaye's IT Conversations, or folk dances I plan to teach.
Maybe I'm heading to the beach where if I drop the 5G iPod in the water it's kaput, but if I drop the Shuffle it may still work, and at $79 I'm not going to cry too much.
The Shuffle will be an excellent outboard iPod for those times you don't need your entire digital collection with you. And because of its form factor and cuteness, it won't scream
"I can't afford a 'real' iPod" ,
like the original shuffle; it screams
"I can afford a second iPod which suits my digital lifestyle"
(or some other pretentious advertising focus group meme).
Watch what happens folks. Apple will not be able to supply enough of these in the lead up to the holiday gift giving season. And the pundits will more carefully choose their words in the future... |
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