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Apple Archive

iPod photo and U2 iPod: Is Apple Resting on Its Laurels?

- 2004.10.29

Apple's released a new version of the iPod this week, but unfortunately it doesn't do video. This iPod is basically a color screen version of the regular iPod, except that it has the ability to store and display photos.

While Apple could have revised the software for the older iPod so that it could, too, store photos, the black and white screen wouldn't make viewing them on the unit very realistic.

There are two new models, the iPod photo 40 GB and 60 GB, priced at $499 and $599 respectively. The 40 GB iPod "Music" sells for $399.

What are you getting for your money? Well, if you've got $600 to spend on an MP3 player, you can have an enormous 60 GB of storage, more than any other iPod. But regardless of which version you choose, you'll be able to store photos, view them as slideshows, and also view album art for the song that's playing.

I don't know, but something seems wrong - paying $500 for something that doesn't even take pictures, it just stores them. Even my mobile phone has a built in mini digital camera.

I would think the least Apple could equip the iPod with is one of those. Clearly that seems to be something that Apple isn't ready to do, as then it would start making the iPod into an "all-purpose" device that might start confusing consumers as to what the real purpose of the iPod is.

But the idea that it can display photographs isn't really the new iPod's big feature.

iPod photoThe big feature is the color screen that Apple includes with the iPod photo. It's significant not only because the iPod can now be used to display photos, but that improvements in games, calendar, contact information, and various other features are now imminent.

Perhaps there's even still a chance that a video player will be included in a future version.

The other new option in Apple's iPod lineup is the special edition U2 20 GB iPod. It's black with a red clickwheel and contains the signatures of the band engraved on the back. Plus you get a coupon to save $50 off the complete U2 collection at the iTunes Music Store.

U2 iPodFirst of all, I'm not quite sure who'd buy a U2 iPod in the first place. Perhaps if you're a huge fan of the band and have posters all over your wall, you might want the U2 iPod. But how many people like that are there?

Then again, perhaps it's just because I'm not a huge fan of U2 myself (although I don't despise them). The $50 coupon seems to be a way to make money off of people. You'd think that the least they could do is include a couple albums with the iPod. After all, you are paying extra for it at $349 compared to $299 for the plain 20 GB version.

I've wondered for a while now if the iPod is starting to become a victim of its own success. When this happens, companies tend to become secure in the knowledge that whatever they produce will sell.

Take the Honda Civic, for example. It was a very reliable car in the 80s and 90s. Many people bought them, but the models produced in the past five years or so have suffered from some pretty major problems, most notably with the transmissions. However, it doesn't matter because the reputation around the Civic is so good that people will continue to buy them anyway.

iPod photoI'm not criticizing the people that buy them. I'm just suggesting that because of their success, they aren't as well made as they should be.

Going back to the iPod, the iPod photo seems to imply what many people criticize Mac users of doing: iPod users will buy it just because it's the newest thing and not for what it will actually do for them. It will sell because, like the Honda Civic, the iPod is "in," and due to the success of the older versions people have heard by word of mouth that the iPod is the best MP3 player that they can buy.

Perhaps, the new models get away with fewer features than they probably should have just because of the iPod's popularity.

Clearly, what it does doesn't actually matter. It's a new iPod. Get to the Apple store early - you don't want them running out on you.

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