Steve Jobs, iTunes and Cheaper iPod?

The only thing that's holding me back from buying the 20GB iPod is the price. If it were 100 bucks lower, I would buy it tomorrow.

Yeah, the iPod is a music only device. And that's cool... I can dig it. But for ****es' sake, make it a little less!! I'm typing this on my iBook and I really want to take my music with me (I'm a fan and customer of the iTunes Music Store). iPod is the best intigration device I know of but a lower price would seal the deal.

Here's hoping!

That would be awesome! I hope whatever this next step is, they take it soon. Perhaps a 20 GB iPod for $100, a 40 GB for $200, and a 60 GB for $300. Only time will tell, but if they can figure out how to drop their prices, Apple's market share of MP3 players wil skyrocket.

Or maybe at the next ipod product update they could do it like this: 10GB: $149, 20-30GB: $249, 40-60GB: $349. Or something like that. Maybe they could add a forth model or something to fill it in.

If the 10GB ipod's price was that low I'd pick it up in a heart beat. I want one right now, but $269 for the 10Giger (which is all I need) is way too much for me :(.

okay, wanting twice the GBs for a third of the price is a bit too much. i got my no-dock 20GB ipod for $300. it IS very expensive. won't surprise me if apple decides to cut the 10 or 15 GB model to $200 right before the pepsi promotion kicks off. $200 is regarded as a magic price point for consumer devices. that combination will be like a fire vortex. it'll just sweep the market from its feet. however, keep in mind that the profit margin on the ipod is very important to apple. they're not making money on the iTMS yet.

$100? maybe in two years. it depends on volume. is toshiba going to make a cheap enough hard drive?

Originally posted by alphaone
Or maybe at the next ipod product update they could do it like this: 10GB: $149, 20-30GB: $249, 40-60GB: $349. Or something like that. Maybe they could add a forth model or something to fill it in.

That would work if the major cost associated with the different size iPods were the cost to Apple of the hard disk. However I reckon that that is not the case, and that there is a fixed high cost associated with the rest of the iPod that they need to bring down before you will see cheaper iPods.

At the moment the lower capacity iPods probably have a lower margin than the higher capacity ones, which all up gives an OK margin over all. Which means that there is a fine balancing act between models, price and demand for them to get their desired margin for the entire range.

So, unless components get cheaper, their assembly costs go down, they redesign using cheaper components, or they redesign with less functionality I don't see a huge change in bottem end pricing as a possibility.

Cheers, Edward.

I think it was a dumb question by the interviewer. The miniature hard drive alone costs around $100, so you're really not going to see a $100 ipod anytime soon.

Anyway, Apple considers itself a premium brand, and generally prices its products a little higher than the competition. It's like asking Louis Vitton if they'll come up with a $20 handbag. Even if they could do it, it wouldn't have the quality that you'd expect.

I think Apple's prices get out of hand sometimes. I almost bought an airport last week - almost - then I found a 4 port wireless hub/router for $30 after rebate. Sure, the airport's better, but if something will do the job for $30, it's hard to justify spending $200. (Especially in a recession.)

"Celestial Jukebox"

Not heard of that one before. Anyone got more info on this future technology?

NEWSWEEK: Your business model is based on people owning their music. But in 10 or 20 years, isn’t there the possibility for high-speed wireless transmission—the “celestial jukebox” where no one owns music but has access to everything?
STEVE JOBS: God, I wish there was. But the bandwidth revolution is happening so slowly. I don’t see it happening that fast. I hope it does, and we’ll be there.

Another iPod possibility is moving away from HD storage and into flash memory type storage (similar to SD/MMC/xD, but not necessarily removeable from the device, maybe an SD/MMC RAID of sorts).

Only, of course, if the latter storage method becomes price competitive, cheaper and as dense or denser than hard drives.

The major advantages could be durability and longevity because of no moving parts to break down.

Given the popularity of the iPod, maybe Apple could realize economies of scale quickly on the chip-based storage.

Originally posted by Rod Rod
Another iPod possibility is moving away from HD storage and into flash memory type storage (similar to SD/MMC/xD, but not necessarily removeable from the device, maybe an SD/MMC RAID of sorts).

Only, of course, if the latter storage method becomes price competitive, cheaper and as dense or denser than hard drives.

The major advantages could be durability and longevity because of no moving parts to break down.

Given the popularity of the iPod, maybe Apple could realize economies of scale quickly on the chip-based storage.

That's my hope as well, size stops being a factor then too-- they can fit gigs upon gigs into tiny little cards. unfortunately it will still be a year or two before this becomes even feasable... tho we can all see that HD is going to move solid-state soon, and no doubt Apple will be the first one out there incorporating it into their machines...

pnw

Maybe I am way off, but outside of R&D costs, I would guess that the major cost of the iPod is the hard drive.

What else IS there? The processor, 1 bit screen, plastic casing? $100 seems too low, but I just don't buy that they couldn't do a $199 5-10GB and still maintain a decent margin. How expensive can a 10GB hard drive be now? It ain't cutting edge anymore!

I think Apple has a good pricing structure, it's just that an entry level model is missing. Price points of 199, 299, 399, 499 would be ideal, in my opinion (Maybe offer some iTunes downloads on the higher models, or discounts on accessories, to motivate people to go higher).