End of the iPod era
This month, Apple released an upgrade to its iPod line. But amid the hype surrounding its careful marketing and intentional secrecy about the content of the launch, a different truth is emerging: that we are seeing the twilight of the stand-alone digital music player (DMP), a product category little more than 10 years old.
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That does not mean digital music players will vanish. Quite the opposite: the sector is still growing. Increasingly, though, the products have some sort of connectivity — whether wi-fi, mobile phone, Bluetooth or all three.
But if you look closely, signs the stand-alone player is in decline are all around. The first, and most obvious, was Apple's announcement in its latest quarterly results that iPod sales fell year-on-year for the first time since the product's launch in October 2001. As the iPod dominates the market for DMPs, any drop in its sales indicates a fall in the market.
Apple Unveils new iPods
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Apple has unveiled its new iPod range. It includes an iPod nano with basically the same appearance as the previous generation but it has a video camera and the shell is made of polished aluminium making it nice and shiny. It also features a slightly larger screen (2.2") and built in FM radio with Live Pause, an inbuilt pedometer, inbuilt microphone for voice memos and the same Voice Over feature which says the name of the song you are listening to as the iPod shuffle.
Apple also has introduced new colours (including polished steel) for its iPod Shuffle as well as lowering the price of its iPod touch to AU$268 and introducing a new 64Gb model for A$549 and featuring the same voice control system as the iPhone and including the Apple earphones with the remote and mic attached.
As well as this, the new version of iTunes was announced. It includes an iTunes store redesign and a new feature called iTunes LP which allows artists to include interactive features with albums such as lyrics, album info etc. here is a full list of all the new features:
http://www.apple.com/au/itunes/whats-new/
The capacity of the iPod Classic has been upped to 160GB instead of the 120Gb.
Microsoft Releases pricing for new Zune HD
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp put its new Zune HD digital music and video player on sale on Thursday, pricing it below comparable Apple Inc iPod devices, in an attempt to claw some market share away from the dominant leader.
The devices, which are available for pre-order but won't hit shelves until September 15, are priced at $219.99 for the 16 gigabyte version and $289.99 for the 32 gigabyte version. Comparable iPod Touch players are priced at $299 and $399 respectively.
A 16-gigabyte player typically holds about 4,000 songs.
Microsoft's new Zune HD is slimmer than previous version and has a touch screen for the first time. The range comes in five colors and has a built-in radio receiver, Wi-Fi, and can display high-definition video to a big screen.
Source: Reuters
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