MiniPod?
With MacWorld SF scant weeks away, the rumor mill has been working overtime with the idea of an “mini iPod”; a flash–memory based MP3 player from Apple that is not only smaller than the iPod (physically and in terms of song capacity) but cheaper. Looking back to my PowerPod wet dream, this actually makes more sense. Why make a bigger, badder, more fully–featured, more expensive ‘Pod to sell exclusively to gadget junkies and the super–rich when you can sell a cut–down, featureless, plain–vanilla ‘Pod to the masses?
Popular as the iPod is, people are reluctant to drop $400 on it. Those same people (myself included) probably wouldn’t think twice to spend $100 on a gizmo that you could say is “just as good”. It wouldn’t carry as many songs and would probably lack things like iCal/Address Book sync, but money is money and a great many people are willing to pay less money for less features; something Apple is generally loathe to accept when it comes to its computers. But the iPod isn’t a computer, it’s an accessory. A fashionable accessory. A cheaper alternative to the iPod, while still Apple–branded, means guaranteed business for the iTunes Music Store. When owners outgrow the capacity of their MiniPod, they’ll likely upgrade to an iPod. It’s lock–in; simple as that. In the mean time, it means that Apple can dominate the part of the MP3–player market where they currently have no standing (the cheap end) and conceivably swallow the market whole.
And who wouldn’t like to see that?