

Apple's iPod Problem - kwamenum86
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2008/tc2008122_679456.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

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markessien
This is the reason why the iPod took over in the first place - all the old
companies like Sony and so on knew what worked, because it was selling.
Changing everything was too much of a risk, so they preferred to stay with the
safe stuff. Apple had nothing, so whatever it could come up with could change
everything. They did, and became successful.

But now that they have a product that people like, they can't change
EVERYTHING again, because it may not work. So they just keep things the same,
and at some point, someone will come up with something that is niftier than
the iPod, and capture the market.

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kqr2
Apple has already anticipated this problem by releasing the iphone and Apple
tv.

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alexandros
Well, at least one of them is selling well.

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mattmaroon
I get the feeling that people mainly upgraded in the past due to expanding
storage capacity. Nobody really uses video, and other than the click wheel
(which is now ubiquitous) there haven't been any other major feature changes.

They're now at a point where most of the models have far more storage than
necessary for people's collections, so there's no longer any need for a new
one. Once they get a 32gb Nano though they might get a bunch of people
upgrading from a Classic to that.

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kwamenum86
"Nobody really uses video"

I don't know about that. I see people using the iPod for video literally
everyday.

"most of the models have far more storage than necessary for people's
collections"

Again I am not so sure because video can take up a lot of space and some
people me) have a lot of songs.

One angle the article left out is the number of clones on the market that
match all of the iPod's features and start at 40 bucks. The only thing
companies can't touch is the app store but for 40 bucks these clones could be
killers.

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mattmaroon
Certainly some people have large collections. Most people have a few gigabytes
though. I'd bet 90% of their users can fit on a nano.

Where do you see people watching video? I've never seen that once, and I've
flown a lot. I don't doubt that someone is, but video is a tiny portion of
iTunes sales, and you can't really watch any other videos on one without a
great deal of effort.

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Angostura
Actually, most of the complaints I've seen about the Touch and the iPhone seem
to be about the _lack_ of storage. I have a 16Gig Touch and it is crammed.

Let's see...

8Gigs of audio (including a lot of BBC podcasts) 4 Gigs of video 2 Gigs of
photos 200Mb apps 200 megs app data.

I've never bought video through iTunes, but video is extremely useful. When we
go away on holiday, I always encode a couple of children's series on to it
which comes in very handy as an occassional treat for the two girls when its
getting late and we are setting up a tent, or we have a boring hour or two in
a aiport terminal or on a very long flight (We're in the UK, my wife's family
in Australia). Video also gets used to transport home movies to my parents'
house for viewing through the TV.

Is video a 'killer app'? No, but it was definitely a nice-to-have factor in
the purchasing decision, as was the excellent Web browsing and e-mail client.

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mattmaroon
Well, the Touch is the one area where I feel they still have some replacement
cycles left based on storage capacity. It's also their newest product line.
The Classic and Nano are pretty near stalled.

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kwamenum86
Nobody is immune from the recession, not even Apple. Look for their sales to
take a hit because of high-quality low-priced iPod clones as well.

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nazgulnarsil
market saturation is not unique to technology sectors.

apple should stop working on features and start working on reducing
manufacturing costs.

