Comment Re:most miss the point . an average consumer sez: (Score 0) 1318
I dunno if the $249 is market research. Most comments I've read seem to place "reasonable" at $200 and "ideal" at $150 or $100. The small form factor and the different colors are what people want, but in terms of technology, flash drives aren't that cheap and hard drives have only recently begun to get smaller. I think Apple jumped the gun on this one.
It makes sense from a developer point of view: something needs to go between the $150-250 flash players that store at most 256 MB and the $300+ HD players that store dozens of GBs.
But from a consumer point of view or a marketing point of view, it doesn't really. And it won't until these minis fall below $200. At below $200, the mini would keep the high end at the high end while eliminating the lower end and creating a new low end that starts at 1-4 GB instead of 128 MB.
But I'll wait and see. Steve Jobs said at the keynote that the mini is meant to compete with the high end flash players -- those that cost $250 but store only 256 MB. And I can see how the mini could all kill the players in the $150-250 range. If I were Apple, I'd be developing a trickle down strategy. Take the high end of a market and then develop cheaper versions, working towards the lower end of a market.
Anyways, when the iPod first came out, everyone said, "I want! I can't afford!" And then Apple created different price points for its iPod line. I'd expect a similar strategy with the iPod Mini.
It makes sense from a developer point of view: something needs to go between the $150-250 flash players that store at most 256 MB and the $300+ HD players that store dozens of GBs.
But from a consumer point of view or a marketing point of view, it doesn't really. And it won't until these minis fall below $200. At below $200, the mini would keep the high end at the high end while eliminating the lower end and creating a new low end that starts at 1-4 GB instead of 128 MB.
But I'll wait and see. Steve Jobs said at the keynote that the mini is meant to compete with the high end flash players -- those that cost $250 but store only 256 MB. And I can see how the mini could all kill the players in the $150-250 range. If I were Apple, I'd be developing a trickle down strategy. Take the high end of a market and then develop cheaper versions, working towards the lower end of a market.
Anyways, when the iPod first came out, everyone said, "I want! I can't afford!" And then Apple created different price points for its iPod line. I'd expect a similar strategy with the iPod Mini.
