>>That depends quite a bit on what the competition is doing during the delay. The Microsoft Zune looks like it is for real, and while we will need to wait for some specs/pictures, there is no doubt that it is going to grab quite a bit of attention in the PMP space. The numbers from the cellphone manufacturers are also starting to get big....Sony Ericsson announced today that they sold close to 4 million Walkman handsets this quarter. This is before the launch of the W950 which has a 4GB embedded NAND drive (supposed to be this month).
Apple is going to have continue to out innovate the competition....and while you might see that as a given, I would like to see some actual product. If the delay is correct, it will be over a year between new iPods. That is way too long in the consumer electronics space.<<
Slacker -
The Microsoft product sounds like an overly complicated loser to me. Of course, we haven't seen it yet. But Microsoft has a small advantage over Apple in marketing an MP3 player. It has no existing product, so it can spread rumors about its upcoming product without affecting sales. Even so, I don't see why anyone is assuming the Zune (first time I'd heard that name) will be on the market before new iPods will, or that it will actually be a better product.
Its two big selling points, a bigger screen than the iPod and WiFi, are questionable. When we say it has a bigger screen, that can only be in comparison to the present iPods. I don't see why anyone would assume that iPod screens won't get larger if that's what customers want.
As for WiFi, anyone who has a notebook with WiFi knows that it's not always easy to connect to access points. It's easier on a Mac than on a PC, but you often need to enter long passcodes. How will that be done? In any case, WiFi a huge battery drain.
Music phones are another matter. There have been a lot of rumors about an Apple entry into this market. If they do a music phone, I expect they will do it right.
Less than a week until we get numbers for the past quarter, and some guidance about the present one.
- Allen |
