8 & 10 GB iPod Nanos Rumored

koweja writes "The UK based technology magazine T3 is predicting that Apple will release larger iPod Nanos in the near future. From the article, "Munster's reasoning is that, as the touchscreen iPod will likely not now appear until next year, Apple needs to launch something eye-catching in time for the lucrative run-up to Christmas - and bigger capacity nanos fit the bill nicely." Granted it's an almost completely unsubstantiated prediction from somebody outside of Apple, but it is what a lot of people have been asking for since the original Nanos came out."

Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[kestasjk]

Nanos were made to have smaller capacity because Apple weren't selling a good balance of Minis and normal iPods, if they increase the storage capacity it gives people less incentive to buy a more expensive regular iPod.

And does this really qualify as news?

Re:Wow! Baseless speculation!

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I've seen product tear-downs that showed the current nano had two flash chips in the 4GB version, one in the 2GB version. Some might have two 1GB chips if it was more cost-effective. So an 8GB nano would have two two 4GB chips. Of course, bare flash chips are rated in bits, not bytes, so the chips might be 8Gb, 16Gb and 32Gb for the respective sizes.

It might be more realistic to expect to see a 6GB version (1x 4GB and 1x 2GB chip) and the 4 and 2 GB models pushed down in price $50 each.

Is it even physically possible?

[Evro]

Do 8 & 10 gig flash media drives even exist at this time (or in the near future)?

Storage space isn't the only factor

[achesterase]

Yes, well one factor is the storage capacity, but let's not forget the size. At least for me, the smaller form factor of the Nano makes it much more attractive than the normal iPod and I don't think that I'm alone. These are really two distinct product lines with usually quite distinct user bases.

Re:Wow! Baseless speculation!

[Kjella]

I'm too lazy to actually check out the sources, but wikipedia says it's 1x1GB, 2x1GB and 1x4GB respectively. Since there's 4GB chips already, and apparently room for two I imagine it's a matter of cost. An 8GB Nano would have a quite high price point.

Difference between rumor and speculation

[heli_flyer]

There's a difference between rumor and speculation, and this is more speculation than rumor.

nano replaced mini

[fermion]

The nanos were clearly created to replace the minis, which were cute but had limited battery life due to the power requirements of the hard drives, and as they were so small could not have larger batteries.

As the minis were phased out, they had a capacity of 6 gig. I have been expecting the nano to increase to 8 gig for a while. Of course the nano still has a short battery life, and perhpas the added memeory is just going to make that worse.

The 4GB are available, and given Apple discounts are not overly expensive. I do not see a 10 gig nano, as the nanos seem to have pairs of cards. Hopefully they will come out with a 8 gig Nano in the $250 price range, and drop the other prices according. That might be enough space to make it worthwhile. I would also like to see a 2gig shuffle, though that product line also seems to be dead.

why?

[penguin-collective]

I don't see the point. If you're gonna dock to your computer, then you only need memory for one battery charge, and 2G is plenty. If you're going to use a charger while traveling, 10G strikes me as too small for a regular music collection.

I bought the 4G but discovered through use that I could have saved my money and lived just fine with the 1G or 2G model.

Re:Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[ozmanjusri]

Not if they bump the storage on the larger iPods as well.

No, there's a break-even point. Even a 20GB iPod will play about music for about two weeks continuously, day and night before repeating. Every CD and vinyl record I've collected in the past 20 years will fit on a 40GB iPod, and that's close to AU$20,000 worth.

I suspect everything I'd ever want to listen to would fit on a 100G iPod, and it would only take a 6 TB iPod to play music continuously for every waking hour of my life without repeats. I wouldn't want to buy anything bigger than that.

Re:Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[radish]

Right, but you forget two major factors.

1) The fullsize ipods do video now. That needs a whole lot more space. The nano doesn't do video (does it?) and so the nano almost fits the "music only" category, which tops out around 20-40GB for most people. The HD based ipods then become more and more targetted at video customers.

2) Lossless. I listen to my music at home via Squeezeboxes [slimdevices.com], and lots of people are starting to use HTPCs, Airport, etc to listen to the same rips at home as on the go. I know I sure as hell don't want to listen to AAC or MP3 on my nice hifi, so it's lossless all the way. Now I could (and in fact, do) keep two copies of everything - one for portable and one for home. But that's a pain to maintain. Would be easier if I didn't have to worry about space and could store all those huge files on a portable player too. My CD rips are currently around 200GB, and most of it is still lossy. When it's all reripped as lossless we'll be looking at over 0.5TB. Bring on the big portable players :)

Is Flash Memory Cheap Enough?

[Nazmun]

Has flash memory become cheap enough for 8-10gb nano's to be out with a nice profit margin?

Re:Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[plumby]

There is a point at which it would become pointless, but 60GB aint it. I've got over 100GB of (legally aquired) mp3s in my library, and although there's a limit to the amount of music that I can listen to while I'm out, I don't know when I leave the house exactly which tracks I'm going to want to listen to - greater capacity means greater choice of music when I'm in the mood.

Re:Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[timeOday]

1) The fullsize ipods do video now. That needs a whole lot more space.

But will portable video ever take off enough for that to matter? It's not clear to me how many are buying the video iPod for the video. Even on the plane, it surprises me how few people I see watching movies on laptops, since it's about the only place I ever do so.

Re:Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[nhandler]

Okay, no, that's silly to even ponder. Apple will eventually switch over from HD-based supercapacity players to flash-based. Both harddrive and flash players are increasing in size. There is a large market for reasonably-priced, extremely small music players and HD-based players don't fit that bill. Any increase in size will only make the market more willing to purchase from Apple and if that means some cannabilization of the HD lineup, so be it. Apple can shift their production priorities to match market trends, they won't just sit there like a dummy and wonder where their HD iPod sales went.

Re:In Other News

[ThatFunkyMunki]

Mac "point" upgrades generally add functionality, whereas Windows update generally is only there to fix bugs.

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Re:Nanos were made to have smaller capacity

[plumby]

At an "I'm happy, I want a happy tune" level, no. At the "I'm really in the mood for a bit of Durutti Column" level, then yes.

Also, having that volume of music really makes Random more interesting.