iPod? iPad? What's up?
15/06/10 07:49
Just went to check on the Apple store - it’s down. Why? Usually when there’s a new product being launched. This could be web real estate for the iPad or maybe some new goodies. How about a revamp of the Mac Mini range, now getting long in the tooth. Or 101 other brilliant things Apple could be sliding in.
But back to what I was going to say. We went to the Apple store in Bluewater and had a demo of the iPad. Great machine, despite its shortcomings, but my wife asked the obvious question, how much will this be next year? An item in the month’s (US) Wired noted the original iPod launched back in 2001 cost $400 and stored 1,000 tracks. At an optimistic exchange rate that would have translated into around £200.
In US terms that’s $0.4 per track or 20p in sterling. You got poor battery life, a slow machine and a widdly mono display. It just played music plus a couple of other minor features. Today, on Amazon UK, for £175 (12.5% less in absolute terms) you can get a sleek, colour screen, video playing, iPod Classic with a 160 Gb drive capable of storing 40,000 songs. That’s down to 0.4p per track. Loads more features along with it.
So where will we be when the store comes back online, who knows. But in a years time my guess is we’ll be playing a tad less for an iPad, it will be thinner, lighter and using the same display technology as the newest iPhone.
But back to what I was going to say. We went to the Apple store in Bluewater and had a demo of the iPad. Great machine, despite its shortcomings, but my wife asked the obvious question, how much will this be next year? An item in the month’s (US) Wired noted the original iPod launched back in 2001 cost $400 and stored 1,000 tracks. At an optimistic exchange rate that would have translated into around £200.
In US terms that’s $0.4 per track or 20p in sterling. You got poor battery life, a slow machine and a widdly mono display. It just played music plus a couple of other minor features. Today, on Amazon UK, for £175 (12.5% less in absolute terms) you can get a sleek, colour screen, video playing, iPod Classic with a 160 Gb drive capable of storing 40,000 songs. That’s down to 0.4p per track. Loads more features along with it.
So where will we be when the store comes back online, who knows. But in a years time my guess is we’ll be playing a tad less for an iPad, it will be thinner, lighter and using the same display technology as the newest iPhone.
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