Check out AT&T's FREE camera phonesSeptember 10, 2005 2:30 PM PDT
Apple store buzzes with Nano fever
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Robert, who found out about the Nano while looking online for an iPod-ready BMW, was just one of numerous shoppers at the Apple Computer store in downtown San Francisco, where the diminutive new addition to the iPod family created a palpable buzz. The iPod Nano, unveiled this week as Apple's replacement for the popular iPod Mini, is much smaller than its predecessor, has a color screen that can display photos and uses flash memory rather than a bulkier hard drive.
Actually, to call Robert a "shopper" is a bit of a misnomer. Unlike others, who took their time around a crowded Nano display table at the front of the store, she asked an employee at the door where to get the wee device he was casually holding in his hand. He replied "at the register," and Robert got right in line. She knows her verve for everything iPod is a bit "ridiculous. But it's a life choice," she said.
In contrast, Brian Chance of Santa Cruz, Calif., who was attending a trade show at a downtown hotel, spent some time making sure he could see the iPod Nano screen clearly enough with his bad eyes. After years of hearing from a friend how great the iPod is, what put Chance in purchase mode, he said, was discovering the world of podcasting while on his computer at his hotel Friday night.
"I get bored with my own music after awhile and I like to hear the spoken word," he said, adding that he also likes the iPod's stopwatch, alarm clock and other functions.
Chance, at one point, was one of 10 customers testing out 10 Nanos at the display table. Meanwhile, the adjacent iPod Mini display table sat lonely, with no one testing out the 10 display Minis and iPod Shuffles. The Nano is replacing the Mini, which Apple is phasing out.
Also in San Francisco on business was Jon Benediktsson, of Iceland, who bought three Nanos--one for each of two his teenage children, and one for one of their friends.
"I saw something in the news (about the Nano) and liked it immediately," he said. The Nanos will replace his kids' Mini, so Benediktisson, who has no iPod of his own, said he thinks he might get a used Mini out of the deal.
Shoppers Jin and Don Jiang of San Francisco had just come from a nearby Cingular store, where they expected to fall in love with Apple's also newly released iTunes phone. The Rokr phone, made with Motorola and carried exclusive by Cingular, holds up to 100 songs.
But the Jiangs were disappointed at the Rokr's design, which Jin said was bulky and Don said "looks just like a regular phone." They fell for the Nano, however, even though it wasn't what they were initially looking for. "If we get it today, it will be an impulse buy."
Minutes later, they bought it.
Nicholas Blum, a San Francisco resident who was at the store to drop off his iPod Photo for repair, was in awe of the Nano's size. The device weighs 1.5 ounces and is 0.27 inches thick, thinner than a standard No. 2 pencil, Apple says.
Like the Jiangs, Blum had been watching for the iPod phone. "I was so unimpressed with the phone and so over-impressed with this," he said of the Nano.
The iPod Nano comes in black or white and in two sizes: the 4GB iPod Nano holds about 1,000 songs and the 2GB iPod Nano holds 500 songs. They cost $249 and $199, respectively. The Mini line, while available, comes in four colors and in capacities of 4GB for $199 and 6GB for $249.
The Rokr phone sells for $249.99 with a two-year service agreement. It has a color display and features built-in stereo speakers, as well as stereo headphones that also serve as a mobile headset with a microphone.
See more CNET content tagged:
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shopper,
San Francisco
http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/06/29/technology/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20050629_GUEST_VIDEO.html
LOL!
Notice the URL at the end of the clip:
www.apple.com/itsnotreal
Cool Idea Though, for a dog!
Seriously, I don't get what the big IPod deal is. So it can play music. (And not my music which is DRM encoded WMA, so you either have to pirate, burn and then rip your DRM collection to remove DRM or buy from Apple.) Maybe I would warm up to the IPod if it could play DRM encryped WMA. (Not likely however) It can play WMA if you convert the files but it can't play purchased WMA, which keeps me way from IPod. Also, a big downside for me is my experience with Apple's software, Quicktime. That thing ate up so many of my system's resources on my PC, I don't want to take a chance with their ITunes software because it may be a big bloat.
I'll stick with a player that can play DRM WMA.
Also, I think that the IPod may be oversaturating the market. People think they are cool because they have an IPod, but sooner or later everyone will have one except for a few. I am a nonconformist, I prefer to do my own thing. I just don't get why people love them. It has to be personal image, though, since the Mini costs less and can hold more songs than the Nano, and yet now if you own a Mini you are suddenly Uncool.
BMR
http://www.rusnakweb.com
On the subject of MP3 players...
Congratulations to Apple for moving away from miniature hard drives and toward flash memory. Low power consumption and lack of moving parts are big advantages.
On the other hand, what good is a durable storage medium if it's packaged with a battery that expires after 400 charge cycles can't be replaced easily? The iPod nano is another throw-away, bad for the environment and bad for your wallet. Apple charges $66 to replace an iPod battery, and evidence points to replacement of the entire iPod, not the battery ( http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery/ ). An adventurous person can buy a battery online (about $35, shipped) and, at the risk of doing permanent damage, pry her iPod apart.
One wonders why Apple didn't produce a more power-efficient design (or use a bigger battery) for the iPod nano. Battery life of 14 hours ties the device to a computer or a charger. Travelers, in particular, will have to buy and lug around a plug-in charger. Many flash memory-based MP3 players get better battery life, and some use standard batteries that can be replaced on the road (rechargeable versions of these batteries are of course available).
Finally, with the iPod accounting for an ever larger share of Apple's revenue and income, one wonders about the company's long-term prospects. MP3 players are becoming commodity products. Prices -- and margins -- are falling. Apple's market share started high (although not as high as some people claim, because most of the figures floating around cover the US market and neglect the rest of the world) and can only drop as competitors refine their own MP3 offerings. Big, diversified competitors like Sony have other lines to fall back on when MP3 players go the way of digital watches and pocket calculators -- expensive, high-tech wonders when introduced, but cheap and common today.
Paul Marcelin-Sampson
Santa Cruz, California, USA
I didn't sit around and gripe that the iPod was too expensive, or that I have no interest to carry around my entire CD collection with me, or that I wanted a color screen, or that I wanted something I could run with. I sat and waited till the right product for me came around.
So if the iPod doesn't do it for you, don't get it. *******' about it isn't going to get you anywhere.
- Yes, the Nano is cool. Creative did it right!
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by
September 29, 2005 2:05 PM PDT
- Les'see, FM, FM recording, built in mike, line input, never needs to be tethered to a charger, no software to load, MP3, WMA. Yes, I think it's a keeper. Good enough for Apple to copy the name.
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