Comments on: Apple’s Announcements Disappoint

By: Clark

Clark — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:54:34 +0000

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.

By: lamboman

lamboman — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:10:46 +0000

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

By: Dave Nap

Dave Nap — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:56:42 +0000

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!

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:11:38 +0000

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.

By: Kyle Hayes

Kyle Hayes — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:31:58 +0000

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

By: AR

AR — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:33:11 +0000

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

By: Davey M

Davey M — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 19:27:47 +0000

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…

By: Benjamin Rossington

Benjamin Rossington — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:41:20 +0000

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!

By: Bill @ Racine

Bill @ Racine — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:43:35 +0000

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.

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:08:56 +0000

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

By: penguinsix

penguinsix — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:59:36 +0000

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/

By: Thomas Rohde

Thomas Rohde — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 08:24:08 +0000

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

By: Lisa Lee

Lisa Lee — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:50:33 +0000

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

By: JimmyLee

JimmyLee — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:33:08 +0000

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?

By: Alberto S. Lopez

Alberto S. Lopez — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:40:49 +0000

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!