I don't know what size the new toshiba HD's are going to be available, but I am guessing the miniPod will only have 1GB if it is under $100. But I would not be surprised to see it at $149, maybe a 2 or 4 at $199.

But Apple has to be careful. There is (I think) a very small market of people that really need 10-20+ GB of space for their music. So, while I may be willing to spend 299 for 10GB because I want an iPod, it is overkill for me. I really don't need more than 4GB. (And probably less) So they need to create uses for the extra space to make it worthwhile for people to upgrade for more space.

Home on iPod would be awesome, and would be worth upgrading for.

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The iPod is neither novel, nor a pod. The hardware certainly isn't anything new, and the iTunes software leaves me underwhelmed. Maybe it's enough for Apple to be better than anything else out there, if not do well.

MP3 players are are quickly becoming commoditized, what's making iPod so special, other than the brand name?

I hope I eat crow on this, but there is no way that Apple will produce a $100 iPod. Not with 2gig of HD space on it anyway. I can see a solid state player for that amount, but not an electromechanical one.

Rio sells a product in that class (1.5 GB) for $219, I can't see Apple undercutting the competition, it's just not their style. If they were to compete directly with the Rio product, they would price it about $30 to 50 more and count on their brand recognition and style to get people to justify paying more for it. And they'd get it, for a little while, until other companies figure out how to do it almost as well for a cheaper price.

Additionally, hitting the $100 pushes the device even closer to commoditization, something that has killed Apple repeatedly. I can't see them volunteering to be the low cost leader.

Apple (Steve Jobs in particular) has said that the whole point of iTunes Music Store was to sell more iPods. Fine, I understand that. But it's not a long term strategy. This is the same stupid mistake they make over and over again. You cannot innovate on something and expect to have the market all to yourself. People are going to figure out what you did and find a way to do it as well for less money and pretty soon, the originator either becomes a has been or moves on to a more profitable market. Apple seems to build their whole business model on one product or innovation and then can't understand why people move on to the commoditized products. It's happened with the PC, the GUI interface, multimedia, and it will happen again with iTunes/iPod.

If he was smart, he would take a page out of MS book and push to have iTunes and its DRM become the STANDARD. Take a few cents from every deal like Frauenhofer did with the MP3 format or license the encoding technology to the industry. It's got a helluva headstart on WMA as far as retail goes and the industry is looking for an alternative to giving MS the keys to their kingdom. No one wants to be indebted to MS because occasionally, they start collecting and when they do, companies go out of business.

I am an Apple user. I am a fan of iTunes. I love my iPod. But I just don't think that the company, specifically Jobs, understands that style only goes so far and that the mass market will take a cheaper product if it performs as well and is presentable.

I really have a hard time describing this. It's like Jobs has this aesthetic sensibility and he thinks everyone should share it. And many people do. I do to certain extent. But he doesn't budge to try to get any of the rest of the market. Take it or leave it. And he is repeatedly left. If Apple were willing to go mass market, that is, introduce models at lower price points (like a headless iMac), and allow discounting, Apple could have doubled its share by now. Maybe more.

If I were an Apple stockholder, I'd be pissed that he is not taking the necessary steps to increase their market share. Halfassed ad campaigns and flashy commercials aren't going to do it if you don't have a business plan that does what is necessary to grow your share. Gotta give the people what they want, not tell them what they want.

Best thing and worst thing to ever happen to Apple was the rehiring of Steve Jobs.

When I first saw this I was quite happy, I've wanted an iPod for a long time. However, now I'm a bit warry, $100 for an iPod seems to cheap for how Apple markets things. I'm thinking they are going to dumb down the interface, or only allow it to use their formatted files. Something lame to force you to want to upgrade to a more expensive model or force you to use Apple stuff.

I so so so hope I'm wrong. The competition's products suck, they either have odd shapes, lousy controls, lousy products (I had a Rio once and I loved it for about a month, right until it started acting weird, 1 year later it was broken).

Cheers, here's to hoping.

Hmm looks too good indeed especially if you can mod it buying a bigger 1.8'' HD from Toshiba.

http://tinyurl.com/uk4p (edited ;))

One can always hope.

I've still had my original 5GB iPod when they first came out. $400 for that bad boy, and I still don't regret it. While it's served its purpose well, a ~$100 4GB iPod with a smaller form factor sure would be tempting. Let's just hope Apple doesn't skimp on the quality or the interface.

2-4gig ain't enuff 4 me. Apple doesn't tickle my fancy. I'm too biased. I have no need 4 portable music device yet. My Nokia 3300 does have MMC card/FM radio for disgustingly boring times.

Where do I start the Mac bashing posts?

I've never owned an mp3 player, but a 2gb one for $100 sounds mighty tempting. I don't have enough mp3's to justify 20gb or even a 10gb player, and 128/256MB seems uselessly small seeing how I only do 192/VBR or higher when I encode.

I should also add that Apple is probably recognizing their ongoing loss of market advantage. They have none in hardware, the gap in software will close, and price is already something they struggle to compete with. So the only thing Apple will have left, after a while, is going to be the iTunes music service -- don't be surprised if the new, cheap players are just loss-leaders, with some sort of obligation to use ITMS.

MS Bob 2.0
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/34669.html
"MS Kills Smart Display"

The final nail in its coffin was Microsoft's absurd decision to kow-tow to the tin god of its licensing agreements. If you took your smart display downstairs, nobody in the den with the computer could use it. Single user licence, repeated Microsoft marketing droids. "We can't compromise our standard licensing policy."

But of course...

I already have a portable CD player with MP3 support, plus an AM/FM radio on it, so the iPod doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Still though, 2GB of music is quite reasonable for a portable device...beats using cassette walkmans like we did in the 1980s and for a good part of the 1990s!

That rumor is pretty hot stuff...a 2GB music player for $100 would make me buy one, that's for sure.