Apple’s Announcements Disappoint

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Apple’s Announcements Disappoint ~ Chris PirilloHey Chris. A few comments on your comments. 1. Agreed. At least they aren’t trying to charge you by the month for them though, but give it time. 2. When does it even pay to be an early adopter? I paid near $600 Canadian for the G1 iPod. No empathy

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Blogs: Rich talks about a few blogs that discussed the recent updates and product rollouts from Apple on 5 September 2007. Included were comments from Angry Chad,Chris Pirillo, and Gizmodo. Views: Rich did not buy any iPod products. He bought an iRiver ifp899, then upgraded to the Sansa E260 MP3 player – 4GB[IMG] (actually, he bought three of them!) Blues: [IMG Live At Blue Cat Blues - Dallas Texas]

only 16 gigabytes? But the iPod classic has 160! That’s ten times more! Bah humbug! And don’t even get me started on the whining around the iPhone price drop. Fans are screaming bloody murder, from Engadget, Paul Thurrott, Business 2.0, Zoli Erdos andChris Pirilloto TUAW, who went so far as to say “Apple screwed you”. (At least ParisLemon gets it.) Silly consumers. All Apple has done is create the widest, most versatile lineup of digital audio devices out there, period. Want the minimum? Shuffle is for you.

Play Now | Play in Popup | Download[IMG] Blogs: Rich talks about a few blogs that discussed the recent updates and product rollouts from Apple on 5 September 2007. Included were comments from Angry Chad,Chris Pirillo, and Gizmodo. Views: Rich didn’t buy any iPod products. He bought an iRiver ifp899, then upgraded to the Sansa E260 MP3 player – 4GB[IMG] (actually, he bought three of them!) Blues: [IMG Live At Blue Cat Blues - Dallas Texas]

to find creative ways of making money outside of traditional album sales. Dolly awards: TV soaps the teen favourites HOME and Away is the best television show but rival soap Neighbours has the biggest stars, according to the nation’s teenagers.Apple’s Announcements DisappointSeptember 5, 2007 at 3:38 pm in Apple Comments I’m largely disappointed with Apple’s announcements today.

I disagree about the announcements being disappointing. Apple has never been one to give us everything we want in one fell swoop. This could arguably be why their stuff works so well. Take numbers for example, they could have put out a spreadsheet years ago, but no they took their time and really focused on making an elegant easy to use alternative to Excel. The fact they are doing ringtones, mobile iTunes, etc gives me great confidense that they are going to answer many of the demands from users. Even if its gradually its good enough for me. Your a power user that has specific needs as I am as well, however for the majority of people the features they relased today will be a nice upgrade.

Yeah, I am really ticked that Apple would make a $200 price drop to the iPhone two months after it was released. However, at least they are doing wireless music downloads now. Just a nitpick, but the iTunes store download button for the iPhone, that is coming via software update, looks odd all by itself in the bottom right hand corner-http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/09/dsc_7670.jpg

Being someone without an iPhone, and not much interest in the phone part, I was thrilled by the iPod touch announcement, though I am disappointed to see the lack of a mail client, and IM would be nice, but hopefully this will be cracked like the iPhone soon. The iTunes WiFi looks interesting, but it still has that DRM problem that keeps me from using the iTunes store in the first place, except for a few DRM free albums. Other than that, the updates to the nano and classic looks pretty solid.

Yeah, I’m kinda of in the same boat, Chris. I didn’t have an iPhone so I decided to preorder the Touch. The other things are more of novelities rather than anything else, namely the starbucks thing. I have never been to a starbucks (I don’t like paying 5 dollars for something I can make at home). The iTunes store and Wi-Fi is nice for me because the college has total Wi-Fi, but if I want songs I’ll probably come back to my dorm and do it on the laptop. But the main reason I pre-ordered the touch was before it is the iPhone without the phone and hassles of AT&T. I have had nothing but trouble with them and didn’t fancy signing a two year deal for the phone, so now i don’t have to (plus it has more storage!)

Here in the UK the iPhone is not available! This is frustrating as it looks a great little phone! Does anyone know why this isn’t over here :-S

One more thing.. Still no flash! At least I think…

1. Google for RIAA +ringtones and you will find that the RIAA’s next target for piracy are in fact ringtones. Apple’s ringtone service is an easy way to deal with this issue.

2. Here in Canada we don’t have ANY iPhones at all. Even knowing what I do now about the iPhone and the price drop I would have loved an opertunity to buy one here even at $800 (given the exchange rate) I’m an early adopter too… the golden rule of early adopters is… you pays your money and you takes your chances. :-)

3. I LOVE Starbucks, I love Apple… to me this is a deal made in heaven. :-)

4. People have been begging for a wifi enabled iPod complete with wifi iTunes store for years… I’m not surprised it took two years to set up. great to see at long last.

5. Subscription services suck because subscription fees and the harsh DRM that goes allong with it suck. When I pay for music I want to keep it. I don’t want my music deleted by DRM after my subscription ran out. Boo hiss to that idea.

6. Again, we don’t have iPhones up here in the Great White North… but if the iPod Touch is as close as I can get to it… Great! besides you just know someone is going to port Skype to this thing and then… goodbye overpriced cellphone industry… the free market is a beautiful thing! :-)

7. I own the first generation iPod nano, I didn’t need it but I just had to have it because it’s so small and cute! Later on i found a practical use for it.. I use it as an emergency backup iPod in case the battery in my main iPod runs dry.

1 – iToner cost 15ussd but allow adding ringtones to the iPhone without any hack on the iPhone Side (unlike iFuntastic)
2 – Bad for early adopters (around 700 000) good for the rest of the potential buyers (not me for now)
3 – Walked in SB once looks like a MacDonald+Häagen-Dazs…
any way here in Paris I do prefer small Café to some Fastfood cofee Mall
But for the Wi-Fi+special portal Wi-Fi iTunes Server+Lasst 10 songs played It could be good for Wi-Fi spreading
4 – I’m not sure Apple is ready for slowstreaming videos or FREE content trough the Wi-Fi Store (Bandwith cost big money, btw you should know that more that most of your readers…)
5 – The Music subscription isn’t written in the Apple Credo (Bandwith again+Treating the music as trashfood isn’t an Apple’s way of seeing things… for now)
6 – iPod Touch isn’t for iPhone owners, It’s for non willing to switch to AT&T client + those who are happy with iPod and cellphone being two different devices
the downside for the iPod Touch would be more the lack of Mail client (Having multiple webmail to check is a knightmare)
7 – You should try It with a Nike+ …

From My perspective This new collection iss Ok and follow the tech evolution
Hope Hackers will put their hand on the iPod Touch too
the Video Out on all the screened iPod is a good news (just figured out that the iPhone has It too)
The iPhone Price Drop, Wi-Fi Store and “Custom official support for ringtones” is a good news (more hackers will be able to trick the workflow just by fooling iTunes and not devellopping an app from zero or taping into the iPhone Itself)

If I haden’t to renew my camera maybe I would have considered the iPhone
If i won lottery for sure I’ll pick one of each (in fact one of each Apple’s product)

Cheers

I too am unimpressed. I was hoping for something I couldn’t live without.

The iPod Touch is nice, but 16 GB max….come on. I would come closer to buying the 160 GB Classic. But I already have an 5th gen iPod and other media players so no need for me to buy.

Chris, get over this subscription thing. Ain’t gonna happen. Who wants to download exploding media? On the other hand, yeah, Apple hosed the early adopters. I say you guys should get a rebate, 200 free songs or free minutes on the phone.

Where’s the “all you can eat” music subscription service already?

Apparently it’s in 2006, kissing your ass. :-)

Which, I might add, is where it belongs.

I felt literally sick to my stomach when I saw they had dropped the iPhone price. Thankfully, I kept putting off getting my wife an iPhone.

My other comment is regarding the iPod Touch – 8GB and 16GB, WTF Apple?! So much for a big music buff getting the iPod Touch.

Chris

With regard to the $200 price drop on the iPhone, you may want to read this article:

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/09/05/priceprotection/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

Hopefully you may be able to ease the pain somewhat!

Regards

How ironic (or planned) that AdSense has an ad for the lower priced iPhone next to this post. :-)

Chris,

You know I usually have your back, but this post (especially the title) seemed a little to blatantly like obvious linkbate.

I guess being a contrarian works for you…

1.- The cellphone-less iPhone form factor has had *huge* pent-up demand/desire in the community…

2.- Bringing the iPhone out of the price stratosphere by making it $399 is gonna make it available to a much larger audience…

3.- Releasing a 160GB iPod Classic for $349 for those people who don’t care about an integrated cell phone or don’t want AT&T as a carrier is awesome. That more many movies/tv shows/videos to carry around…

So, tell me again how exactly did Apple disappoint?

I will give you this: Charging .99 for ringtones on songs you already paid for seems like double-dipping in to your wallet and I think it was stupid of Apple to do that… The community is gonna lash out at them for this, rest assured.

For the record, I happened to have bought my 1st iPhone on Sunday and today I walked into the Apple Store in Manhattan Beach, CA and asked for a refund/price protection and I got it instantly without having to do anything other than presenting my receipt.

I was given an immediate $216.00 refund. It was an absolutely amazing experience and has made a *huge* Apple fan out of me.

Anyone reading this who bought an iPhone within the last 10 calendar days can just ask Apple to credit you the difference between what you paid and today’s announced price drop and they will do it no questions asked.

It is their stated policy.

Anyways, I think all in all, today’s iPod line-up refresh was tremendous and I predict that the iPod Touch is gonna be another homerun for Apple.

Cheers, Chris and keep up the stellar writing. See ya in Seattle in ‘08 for Gnomedex 8!

I think the announcements are good. It’s about time we had a refresh, regardless of how wow they are or not.

The iPod touch is nice, but c’mon 8/16gig? for a machine that is OBVIOUSLY built for movie playback…

I’ve had iPod mini’s, and Nano’s, but never a ‘classic’ or other derivative.

I’ll be upgrading my 1st gen nano to a new nano soon’ish.

Why a nano? I like to count my km’s/times and plot some maps with the Nike+ kit when walking my dog :)

Where’s the movies/tv shows for the AUS iTunes store Steve? WHERE?

I absolutely LOVE the ipod Touch! It’s for those of us who didnt want to get the iphone for various reasons (mine being that I’m happy with my cell phone provider and dont want the extra bill or the cancellation fee, etc), but wanted a music/internet integration at a cheaper price than as a cell phone.

I also love the new Nano, but my old one is mite jealous! ;p She also says “sorry but use me up first before casting me aside”, so what can I say about that! ;-D

I’m waiting until I can get a device with a builtin podcatcher that works (well) over WiFi – a Zune, IPod or whatever.

What’s bumming me about the announcements is the lack of announcements on the core product line. The flagship towers have gone a year without an upgrade (discounting a minor 8-core machine that is only for uber pros) and buying an Apple display now is just a silly idea given the lack of serious updates.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

Here is what I think,

You are a bit over critical, when the razr was first announced it cost over $500, now is free. That’s true on every electronic device. No one is giving Apple a couple days to see what they are going to do with early adopters. In the past, they have settled for store credit and people have responded well. Ringtones? If you haven’t ever bought a ringtone before, then what’s the problem, people that have are saying this is much cheaper that anything else out there. Starbucks, well is your loss. All you can eat? Look what happened to NBC, not happening Chris.

Great post man! Keep it up.

Luis

You know – I thought when I first heard this, here goes Apple again – giving it to their customer base.

But as I was writing a comment here, it occurred to me that all products eventually drop in price. It’s the way things work. Supply and demand and all that. Especially as new versions are made available, the older model gets discounted (PS3 anyone).

I’m curious as to how Apple and AT&T will handle the customers who bought the iPhone within the last 30 days. Most stores give back the difference if it’s within 30 days – and you’re right- Amex usually does offer a protection on things like this – it will be very interesting to see how they deal with this and if they go to Apple to get the money back themselves.

Buying the latest and greatest of anything comes with risks. I bought an 17″ LCD monitor for $635 in 2000. A few months ago I bought an 21″ monitor for $150. Such is the price of early adoption.

So for those who bought within the last 30 days – I wish you all good luck – I think everyone should go back to the respective stores to get the difference back.

But everyone else should just shuck it up to experience and maybe not be so willing to jump the gun next time if they don’t want to be in the same boat.

Please correct me if I’m wrong…

but isn’t the iPhone a pocket Mac computer with a cell phone radio attached?

Then isn’t the iTouch just a pocket Mac computer?

I don’t understand the iPhone or iTouch- Apple says iPod, reviewers sound like PDA…

and then I hear about people playing WoW on their iPhones…

Is the iPhone/iTouch a pocket Mac or a weird iPod?

please explain in more detail! thanks!

Dude – you bought the iPhone at the price it was being sold for and nobody forced you to do that. If it wasn’t worth it to you on launch then you shouldn’t have bought it. I agree that it’s probably the quickest price-drop in history but didn’t you see it coming? Apple has sold 1m iPhones @ $200 over the odds. Way to make $200m in a couple of months! That should see the R&D costs covered.
I’m sitting smug because I’m in the UK. Given the fact we’re likely to get a 3G plan here plus a lower price, I am stoked. Finally we benefit from not getting tech first.

Buying songs again as a ringtone is a blatant rip-off, though. I don’t see any justification in that.

Also agree that Starbucks is murky brown luke-warm water and I don’t like it but clearly Apple’s gonna strike up a deal with the industry leader, aren’t they? It’s not such a big deal that you won’t be able to walk into a ‘bucks and use their wi-fi to but tunes. Not really.

I’m sure that podcast d/ls from wifi ITMS will come. It’ll be a ‘major announcement’ sometime soon. Apple love to hold back some things that they could clearly add straight away. It’s a marketing ploy better known as drip-feed. It’s not good but they know they can get away with it.

If you own an iPhone there’s clearly no point in buying an iPod Touch. They’re aimed at people who don’t want the phone part. Just you wait… given time, the other features of the iPhone (GMaps etc) will eventually come to the Touch. Drip, drip, drip, drip…

5. I don’t know. I’d rather own my music rather than rent it.

Regarding your $400 overcharge, take a look at this:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003872032_webiphone06.html

As of this afternoon Steve Job’s wrote aetter apologizing aboutthe price drop and offering those who hadn’t already received rebates, $100 credits at the Apple Store. Only half your loss, but better than none.

I’m tired of people complaining about the price drop on the iPhone. It’s a phone, if you felt that you absolutely needed that phone when it came out, well, you’re gonna have to pay the price. Stop your whining!

I think that Apple products are getting uglier and worse by the second. The new colours are horrible. Sound quality is not as good as it should be. Features are the same. iPod Touch is a stupid product with no real advantages. As for the Starbucks thing, I don’t think that it will work that well at all.

lamboman – dalambomanblog.blogspot.com

For everyone complaining about the 16 gigabytes on the iPOD Touch. The iPhone and iPOD Touch have flash drives, instead of the regular HDs that power the iPOD classic. If Apple would have included a large disk based hard drive on the Touch, it would have killed battery life like nobody’s business. When bigger capacity flash based hard drives become more standard, you will see bigger drives included.