Some thoughts on iPod mini
With the new ipod mini being quite a bit more expensive than people previously assumed due to numerous rumors there’s a lot of complaining about the pricing of the new minipod. Apparently people can’t handle their disappointment but rather feel obliged to post their personal grief in comments on as many sites as possible. Thank god there’re still some sane people on the web, and as usual, john gruber is among them:
The whole point of the iPod Mini isn’t that it’s cheaper. It’s that it’s smaller.
I didn’t believe that apple would introduce sub-$100 ipods quite long, but the early hype eventually got me. A great example of rumor sites (and big media picking up the rumors) not just spoiling, but destroying apples big news. I personaly am not disappointed, however, but glad that apple didn’t cut back but produce something that looks as if it truely deserves the apple branding (except for that color thing of course, it’ll take some time to get over that).
If i were in the market for an ipod these days, i’d seriously consider the ipod mini. It’s smaller, it looks great (though i’m still not sure wether regular or mini appeals more to me) and weighs just 104g. I couldn’t sync my whole music library with one of those, but sooner or later i won’t be able to do this with my current 15gb ipod as well, and 4gb is still plenty enough music on the road. Last not least it’s still cheaper than the current lowend model. Only time can tell wether it will be a commercial success, but i sure hope so.
Update: jason fried also thinks the ipod mini is about size, not price (via whatdoiknow).