Daring Fireball makes a convincing argument that the iPod minis are going to sell like hotcakes:
“Everyone wants to focus on the $50 price difference between the iPod mini and the 15 GB iPod. I agree that the $50 price difference between the mini and 15 GB iPods is negligible. That’s exactly the point. Take it a step further and imagine if Apple cut another $50 off the price and sold the 15 GB iPod for the same $249 as the mini. I say, even then, there would still be people who would choose the mini. For roughly the same price, you get to choose between a significantly smaller footprint and 11 extra GB. If hard disk capacity were the only factor that mattered, we’d all be using brick-sized players from Creative Labs.”
I totally agree and I’d even go so far as to suggest he forgot another selling point for the Mini – the colors. It sounds silly and sexist, but a lot of females would rank the pretty pastel case as a more important feature than a huge hard-drive. For proof I offer this Glitter thread. I’ve gotta believe that Apple absolutely knew what they were doing with this one.
Dan
January 9, 2004 — 4:08 pm
Actually, I think I agree that it will sell well. I think they will be a big success. I mean, after all they are still cheaper then most iPods which makes them more giftable. From reading the slashdot thread, it seems clear that this is a good time to be the girlfriend of an Apple geek. It is going to broaden the iPod market; chaeper and smaller should appeal to the less technophillic people. But I stand by my original comment that Steve is reaching when he says that this is going to wipe up the low-end market. That’s ok; Apple stuff isn’t for everybody, just cool people!