so ihaman is really excited about the new ipods

[redbull]

thoughts on this breaking news?

[silent_brian13]

i'm surprised nobody posted this

[Boycott Graceland]

Apple Slashes iPhone Price And Dials Up An iPhone-Like iPod
September 05, 2007: 08:05 PM EST

Sep. 5, 2007 (Investor's Business Daily delivered by Newstex) --

With an eye on the holiday shopping season, Apple Wednesday refreshed its lineup of iPod portable media players and slashed the price of its iPhone by a third.

Apple's AAPL new slate of iPods *******s a high-end model that borrows the looks and features of the i- Phone. That model, the iPod Touch, has the same widescreen display and touch-screen controls as the i- Phone, which debuted in late June.

Apple also introduced new models of the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and the original product, now called the iPod Classic.

Plus, it announced a new wireless music download service for the i- Phone and iPod Touch called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. And it started selling customizable ring tones via the iTunes store.

"They have a very deep and complete lineup for the holiday at very aggressive price points that their competitors are going to have a hard time matching," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "It's looking like another very strong holiday for Apple."

Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the new products at a press and analyst event Wednesday in San Francisco.

Apple's lineup of iPods covers all parts of the market, he says. From the low-cost iPod Shuffle, which sells for $79 for a 1-gigabyte model, to the feature-rich iPod Touch, which costs $299 for an 8 GB model and $399 for a 16 GB model.

The iPod Touch is basically a "phoneless iPhone," says Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. It has Wi-Fi for wireless Web browsing and the same multi-touch interface and applications as the iPhone. But the iPod Touch is only 8 millimeters thin, compared with 11.6 mm for the iPhone.

"We think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World," said Jobs, describing the iPod Touch.

Speaking about the Wi-Fi feature, Jobs made a dig at Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) MSFT rival Zune media player. "Some others have done this, and it's failed," he said. "We took a long look at this and think we understand why it failed and think we know what to do to make it successful."

The company's shares had risen the past four days on rumors of the new products, but the stock fell 5% Wednesday when few surprises were forthcoming and on possible concerns of the quick, sharp iPhone price cuts. Apple shares have risen more than 60% this year.

Apple had to drop the price for the iPhone because it couldn't get away with selling the iPod Touch -- something that was almost an iPhone -- and charge substantially less for it, Gottheil says.

Apple should benefit from lower costs because the two products share parts, Gottheil says. The Cupertino, Calif.-based firm will be able to place larger orders for parts such as multi-touch screens and take advantage of volume pricing.

Gartenberg surmises that it was Apple's strategy all along to have a lower-priced iPhone for the holiday season. The company knew that early adopters would be willing to pay more at first.

"The iPhone at $600 was just too expensive," he said.

Apple dropped the price of its i- Phone with 8 GB of storage to $399 from $599. It also is discontinuing its less popular 4 GB model iPhone.

Jobs said Apple is on track to sell its one-millionth iPhone by the end of this month.

The iPod Touch is a new category of product, Gottheil says. With its 3.5-inch widescreen display, users can watch videos, browse through their music collections by cover art and surf the Web. It could become a portable game device as developers write applications for it, he says.

Apple also announced an exclusive agreement with Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) SBUX that will let users access the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for free in participating U.S. Starbucks coffee shops.

The iTunes service at Starbucks is slated to debut at stores in New York and Seattle on Oct. 2. The national rollout is scheduled to continue with stores in the San Francisco Bay Area on Nov. 7, Los Angeles in early February and Chicago in March. Additional U.S. markets will be added later in 2008.

The Apple-Starbucks deal could help T-Mobile USA, which runs the Wi-Fi hot spot network for Starbucks. T-Mobile might get more paid subscribers, after they get a taste of the service through the free iTunes access, Gottheil says.

The most popular iPods this holiday will be Apple's redesigned iPod Nano family, says Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies.

Apple added video playback and a larger display to the new Nanos. The new version features a 2-inch display with 204 pixels per inch. It *******s three games. Users can download movies and TV shows to watch, as well as other games to play at the iTunes online store.

Apple's rebranded iPod Classic comes in models featuring 80 or 160 GB for storing music, photos, video and games. The iPod Classic is priced at $249 for the 80 GB model and $349 for the 160 GB model. The larger of the two can hold up to 40,000 songs or 200 hours of video.

"This is the best lineup of consumer products Apple's ever had going into Christmas," Bajarin said.

Apple also said Wednesday that it would sell ring tones for its iPhone for 99 cents to people who also buy the song. That's $1.98 for both the song and the ring tone. Rivals sell ring tones for up $2.49, Jobs said.

Demonstrating the new ring tone feature, Jobs played John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

"That's (for) when NBC calls," he quipped, alluding to Apple's public spat with the TV network over sales of shows via iTunes.

[Ihaman]

I'm pretty stoked

[Fattening Ass]

Mixed reaction. As much as i would like to get an iPhone, i don't think i will until it supports some things i may need down the line (excel viewer, OTHER CELLULAR CARRIERS, etc.) 8gb is also pretty weak for a music player.

[wHATcOLOR]

have some turtle soup you animal!

[Fattening Ass]

irrelevant