Friday, September 24, 2004

Cheap Ipod Idea

i was just inspired by "hmurchison" on this board, who said "For 2005 I'd like to see Apple go here. $99, 512MB USB based Flash card with store support."

so i got to thinking...is it possible. because i certainly think there is a sub $100 market now that apple is missing out on. anyway i looked. seems that it might just be!

according to Steves Forums the drive used in the mini is similar to a compact flash. "It is an OEM (Black/White label) drive. And as such, is customized for that companies application at their request. Also at their request I cannot divulge what is different. There are no CF compliance labels on it since it is NOT Compact Flash org complaint. Only our retail package (blue label) drives are trully CF Compliant as indicated by the CF mark on them. Hence, they will work in all cameras that are also CF complaint.
William F. Heybruck, Ph.D.
Senior Applications Engineer
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies"

it is likely that apple has it slightly modified to keep people from moding them ala rio or MuVo2.

anyway point is the mini is nearly designed for cf as it is. a 512mb cf is about $65 when bought by a consumer. the ipod mini's hitachi microdrive is about $360. both obviously are much cheaper bought oem in volume. but still thats 5.5 times as much for the microdrive as a 512mb flash!

assuming the drive is the major cost (as it seems to be) and since the mini is $250, divided by the 5.5 and you got less than a $50 device!!! but still all other costs do not drop proportionately like, 3rd party licences, same size box and cost for other components, screen, wheel, battery, etc... but you can double the cost of the estimate above and still end up under $100 with the same profit margin as the ipod mini!!!

seems to me it would be totally doable with very, very minor modifications to the existing ipod mini. same form factor, same features, same os except maybe just a firmware update to read an unmodified cf compatible card. and there you go the sub $100 ipod mini capable of using the itms is within reach! maybe they can call it the ipod micro!!!

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