Forgets to add video to iPod Touch
Over the course of its hour-and-fifteen minute ‘rock and
roll’ 09-09-09 event in San Francisco, Apple revealed its new lineup of iPod
models, new software development updates and even Steve Jobs himself in a disputably
renewed health condition.
As the presentation began, Jobs took
the stage for the first time since 2008 and announced that he had
successfully recovered from his liver transplant five months ago. At the same
time, he also expressed a rather humble statement for himself towards the organ
donor who generously allowed him to regain his health. Now that he has had a
near-death experience, he made it known to the world at large that everyone
should now become an organ donor.
In a rather frail but happy tone of voice, he also
exclaimed, "So, I'm vertical, I'm back at Apple and loving every minute of
it, and I’m getting to work with some talented teams to come up with some great
products for the future. It's wonderful."
Apple also announced that its fruit-themed media player iTunes
underwent a “significant” update, moving all the way to version 9 (or 9.0.0.17
to be exact). The all-in-one media player now features a redesigned iTunes
Store with a slightly more simplified interface navigation in our opinion. Tabs
for Music, Movies, TV Shows, App Store, Podcasts Audiobooks and iTunes U are
now located at the top center of the marketplace and the intuitive Cover Flow style
navigation through media is now replaced by side scrolling.
Device syncing to iPod and iPhone has supposedly been
improved as well, as the company is now offering more fine-grained control for
syncing music by genre or artist, straight from the Music tab of the sync
dialog. The iTunes 9 update also boasts better syncing of Movies in Windows and
Mac and Photos specifically on Mac (using iPhoto's Events and People
identification). However, our favorite new feature would undoubtedly have to be
the ability to organize downloaded Apps from iTunes itself. As many iPod and
iPhone users know, this can be a hassle from the devices itself, particularly
on slower models such as the original iPhone and iPod Touch.
Apple also decided to include an LP feature in iTunes 9
which is rather useful for older generations who still enjoy indulging
themselves in classic 12-inch vinyl phonographs. The media player will now display
animated lyrics and liner notes, artist performance videos, artist and band
photos and plenty of bonus material from those dusty LPs that you collect in
your garage. All said, Apple is making matters one step more convenient in our
attempts digitize the entire 20th century of music and make it as interactive and
immersive as possible.
On the product side of the presentation, the company
announced that it has sold more than 30 million iPhone models to date, more
than 20 million iPod Touch models, more than 100 million iPod Nano models, and over
220 million iPod models in total. This amounts to some serious, although
expected, market share for Apple and if its numbers are indeed accurate, it
will have a very smooth sailing Q4 to end off the rest of the year.
Let’s take matters a step back for a second and examine what
was going on behind the scenes prior to the event. Many consumers and journalists
briefly reported that the iPod Touch 2nd generation underwent some price
slashing across almost every major retailer. The 8GB model fell from $229 to
$189, the 16GB model fell from $299 to $249 and the 32GB model fell from $399
to just $279. On the other hand, prices were slashed on the iPod Nano 4th
generation from $149 for the 8GB down to $129 and from $199 for the 16GB down
to $149. Finally, the iPod Classic 6th generation 120GB received a price cut
from $249 to $229.
What was predicted to be a major announcement for the iPod
Touch lineup turned out to be a heartfelt disappointment followed by a neutral
consumer response. Apple announced that its new iPod Touch lineup would consist
of 8GB, 32GB and 64GB models priced at $199, $299 and $399 respectively. At the
same time, the possibilities of the camera/compass/GPS
features that we all expected in these 3rd generation multi-touch devices were
completely dismissed and were instead replaced by a large emphasis on gaming. The
idea behind this strategy was for Apple to minimize overall costs of the
product and put it in the minds of consumers that the iPod Touch is centrally a
gaming platform at this point in time. The push for OpenGL ES 2.0 was also made very clear with this new generation.
Hardware wise, the iPod Touch 3rd generation incorporates
the same 65nm ARM Cortex A8 600MHz processor and PowerVR SGX graphics core
found in the iPhone
3G S. We can now expect the device to be an iPhone 3G S minus camera/compass/GPS/3G
phone capabilities. Apple has instead decided to focus primarily on OpenGL ES
2.0 support for its renewed fruit-themed multi-touch gaming platform.
On another note, there were some rumors
that remained corrected. While many analysts had confidently predicted the
death of the iPod Classic at the event, the device actually maintained its
position in the music aficionado marketplace with a reasonable spec bump to
160GB of storage capacity at a price of just $249. Basically, the only
difference between this device and the 6th generation 120GB device is a
capacity of 40GB more for $20 bucks more.
The event also saw the continuation of the iPod Shuffle
lineup. The microsocopic media player now comes in five colors with the new
additions of green, blue, and pink along with the existing black and silver
options. The 2GB goes for $49, the 4GB for $79, and there is also a special
edition polished stainless steel 4GB version for $99 sold as an Apple Store
exclusive.
Out of all the hardware refreshments, the biggest news of
all comes from the innovation in the iPod nano lineup. It seems as if Apple
exclusively decided to reinvigorate demand for this lineup because its
marketing focus points are made much clearer over its other iPod lineups.
Primarily, new iPod nano 5th generation surprisingly sports a
very small H.264 VGA video camera capable of capturing 640x480p video at 30fps
with AAC audio. It also features fifteen special effect modes similar to what’s
found in Photo Booth on Mac OS X. At the same time, the device sports a 17.5%
larger 2.2-inch display at 240×376, up from the 2-inch 240×320 display on the 3rd
and 4th generation models. More interestingly, the new iPod nano adds support
for FM Radio with Live Pause. Essentially, the device can pause live radio
feeds for up to 15 minutes, giving it the status of “pocket radio TiVo.” Apple
has now officially “reinvented” the pocket radio (Sony Walkman). We have reason
to believe that the generational group known as Generation Y is going to think
this is a massive revolution as the majority are oblivious to the fact their
parents and grandparents have been using radio since the early 1940s.
The new iPod nano 5th generation is available in pink, red,
orange, yellow, green, light blue, violet, silver and black. More specifically,
an 8GB model is available at $149 and a 16GB model at $179 respectively. We do
have some criticism regarding Apple’s pricing structure, however. Due to the
fact that the iPod Touch 8GB is now $199, it would seem economically rational
to position the 8GB nano at $129 and the 16GB at $159 in order to compensate
for the large platform difference between a strictly music-oriented micro
portable device and a multi-touch computing platform.
Regardless of our disposition, Apple is going to be seeing
more positive income in its next quarter and perhaps well into the first half
of 2010.
