Quote:
Originally Posted by ErnieMcCracken
I like your thought process and I would hope its true but the price of this phone will never significantly come down. Doing so would cannibalize the sales of the high end Ipod so there has to be a price differential between the two.
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At some point, I could easily see Apple making the iPhone THE iPod, and just having the cell function be an option. That would make their lineup look something like this:
- 4/16/64GB iPod (with iPhone capability) @ $299.99, $349.99, and $399.99
Replaces the just-released iPhone lineup.
- 16/32/64GB iPod (media only version) @ $249.99, $299.99, and $349.99
Replaces the current iPod Video lineup; form-factor would be the same as the iPhone, sans phone and web functions.
- 8/16GB iPod (music/photo-only version) @ $149.99, and $199.99
Replaces the current iPod Nano lineup.
- 1/2/4/8GB iPod (music-only version, limited display/controls) @ $59.99, $79.99, $99.99, and $129.99
Replaces the current iPod Shuffle lineup.
Granted...I don't think Apple will do this, because it sounds like they want to keep the iPhone a high-profit / low-volume item in their inventory. Who knows though...
EDIT: I should also note that for each device listed, all storage would be flash-based, as opposed to a micro HDD, hence the less-than-impressive storage sizes for the devices (basically the same size, or in the high-end smaller sizes for each device). Obviously for the high-end devices, the slightly smaller size would be traded-off with much longer playback times (it's very obvious this is where Apple and the industry is headed at this point, and I doubt we'll see micro-HDDs in the portable industry for any longer than two more years, probably less).