Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 03 September 2008 04:41
Opinion and Analysis
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A new Apple event to be held on September 9 all but confirms that new iPods are on the way. Invitations to the event have been received by the US media. In line with the company's previous practice, there's no explicit indication of what's to come, but the timing plus the graphic on the invitation makes at least one new iPod model a virtual certainty.
This time last year, Apple introduced the iPod touch and the current incarnations of the iPod classic and iPod nana.
At the same time, a $US200 price cut trimmed the tag of the original iPhone with 8G of storage to $US399. In comparison, the iPod touch with 8G of storage cost $299 - and still does today.
September 2007 also saw the arrival of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store - which allows iPod touch and iPhone owners to buy iTunes content without using a Mac or Windows PC as an intermediary - and the related music partnership with Starbucks.
A revamped (or at least repriced) iPod touch has been the subject of some speculation. While the iPod touch was originally priced below the iPhone, the arrival of the iPhone 3G and a switch to more transparently subsidised pricing has reversed that, at least as far as the sticker price is concerned.
With nobody to subsidise the iPod touch, it's hard to see how Apple could restore the original price differential between the iPod touch and the iPhone. However, flash memory prices are even lower than they were a year ago, so there's clearly some room to trim the price of the iPod touch if Apple thought that would be desirable. Still, a $149 iPod touch seems a stretch given that is the price of the current iPod nano.
But maybe there is a way to subsidise the price of an iPod - see
page two.
