Are iPod prices cuts coming soon? I think so, and here’s why.
With the introduction of the iPhone 3G we were astounded by the price of only $200 for an 8 GB model. That’s completely insane for all the features you get. Now, granted you do have to have a 2-year contract with whomever your iPod carrier is, but that’s still amazing.
So, what about the ipod Touch? The base model is still $300 for the 8GB model. Wait, what? The 8GB iPhone, which does a lot more than the iPod Touch, as well as giving you free upgrades to future updates (where as iPod Touch users need to pay for future major revisions), is selling for $100 less. What the hell? This makes absolutely no sense from a sales stand-point. Who would buy the iPod Touch over the iPhone? Well, yes, people who don’t want the 2-year contract, but that’s a very niche market.
It’s because of this very reason that I believe iPod price cuts will soon hit.
Now, Apple could just cut the iPod Touch models down $100 for each version so that they match the iPhone (like they did for iPhone 1.0). However, considering that the iPhone now has built in GPS, this is no longer a reasonable plan. And since Apple tends to like pricing their iPod’s in divisions of $50 ($50, $150, $200, etc) the next price down prices the iPod Touch at the same price as the iPod nano. So who, then, would buy the iPod Nano (well, the 8GB model is $199 right now, so no one’s buying that model anyhow)? No one. Therefore I believe the Nano will also see a price cut down to $100 (well, $99, but whatever) for its base model.
Therefore the iPod line-up will probably look like the following in the near-future if customers decide to not buy the iPod Touch for its ridiculous price:
The iPod Touch’s models would then be $249 for the 16GB model and $349 for the 32GB model. Also, I believe that Apple will kill their 4GB iPod Nano if they did this plan and only do the 8GB model (for $99 of course). This is the only way Apple can fix their colossal price screw-up with the iPhone.
