Apple's Joswiak: "We're Winning"; No 60GB or Older iPod Software Update
TMO Reports - Apple's Joswiak: "We're Winning"; No 60GB or Older iPod Software Update
by , 4:15 PM EDT, July 19th, 2004
Apple has no immediate plans to release a 60 gigabyte, fourth-generation iPod and there are no plans for a software update to enhance older iPods, an Apple executive told the Mac Observer Monday.
In the aftermath of Monday's announcement of the fourth-generation iPod, Greg Joswiak, vice president of hardware product marketing at Apple, told TMO the company never had plans to release a 60GB model.
"We have no plans in regard to announcing a 60 gigabyte model of the iPod any time soon," Mr. Joswiak said.
In early June, a Toshiba spokesperson reportedly told the IDG News Service it would soon ship a 1.8-inch, 60GB hard drive and that Apple would be buying the drive for use in a future iPod.
"The unfortunate thing was that it obviously wasn't true," Mr. Joswiak commented. "Some person at Toshiba who didn't know the facts spoke out of order and made it look like we were about to do a 60GB (iPod) when we knew we weren't."
Mr. Joswiak said Apple would not rule out a 60GB version in the future, but as is customary for Apple, it would not comment on future products.
Mr. Joswiak said Monday's announcement of a new, slimmer iPod should be a further indication that Apple is going to do everything to protect it's 50% marketshare of portable music players, as reported by NPD.
"We decided a long time ago that we were going to stay very aggressive with updating the iPod," he said. "And the reason for that of course is that we're winning. We want our competitors to aim and where we've been, not where we're at. So, if we're out front and we continue to move faster than them, we're going to get further out in front. And the market sure seems to be indicative of that. We entered the year at about 30% market share in the US as measured by NPD and we're now over 50%. We want to continue to turn up the heat and provide a better product with a better feature set."
Mr. Joswiak reacted to a number of other issues regarding the iPod. Here are just some of the questions we asked him and his answers...
The Mac Observer: Are you releasing a software update for older iPods to add features like Shuffle Play and re-organizing of menus like what are now found on the new iPod?
Greg Joswiak: No, we're not. The fourth-generation iPod isn't just different on the outside, it's different on the inside too. It's got a different hardware platform underneath and that's what we developed this software for. We're not holding it back, it's just a new design to take advantage of this hardware that we have here. We could have added these additional features to older iPods, but it would be another product effort. It would require us to create a new set of software on the old platform that we haven't decided we're going to do. We haven't ruled it out, but right now there's not an effort underway to do that.
TMO: Does the 40GB come with a dock, remote and case? It's sort of unclear because the tech specs page on your Web site gives the impression that it does, while the Online Apple Store says it only has dock.
GJ: Let me clear up any confusion there might be. The 40GB version of the (G4) iPod only has the dock.
TMO: As for the 50% better battery life, is this due to hardware or software enhancements or both?
GJ: Both. The battery as a slightly larger capacity, but we've also done a lot of work on both the hardware and software fronts to be as efficient as possible on our use of power.
TMO: Could an update not be released for older iPods to have them more efficiently use the battery?
GJ: No, because it's specific to the different hardware architectures that are part of the new fourth-generation (iPod). Some of the new hardware enable things we can do in software.
TMO: Some people are wondering about other features that didn't make it in the new fourth-generation iPod. Why wasn't there a built-in AM/FM radio added?
GJ: Most of the product I've seen who have attempted adding an AM/FM radio have terrible reception. They also take up power and space as well. We've found that our customers are more interested in listening to their music.
TMO: Another feature not included is Wi-Fi support. Why not?
GJ: There just hasn't been much demand for it. The syncing over USB and FireWire is so easy to do and you just don't have to do it that often. There has been a lot of customer drive for that, but I think it's one of those things that we could do, but there hasn't been great demand.
Observer Comments
I thought that since they came up with AirTunes via Airport Express that they would be working on an iPod that would take advantage of that technology, but apparently not. I guess we have to wait for the fifth generation of iPod to do that. It was a no brainer, unless cost was a factor...
Mon Jul 19, 2004 4:49 pm Subject: Apple's RDF - There Is No $100 Price Drop For 20G iPod
No 60 GB hard drive! No AM/FM receiver! RC is right we are dead!
Seriously, my family has been wondering why I have not bought an iPod nor would I let them give me one as a gift. I wanted one, but didn't "need" one so I felt that I could wait a bit. I will let them know that they can now buy me one, especially with the price reduction, Christmas maybe.
You all have a great week
You missed a great opportunity to ask Joswiak about incorporating wi-fi into the iPod to control Airport Express. Why would Joswiak think that people would want to sync via 802.11? That would be way slower than firewire.
What people want is a wireless way to not only listen, but also CONTROL all their tunes over their home entertainment system.
Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:13 pm Subject: The Mac is the Digital Hub, not the iPod
Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:23 pm Subject: 60GB not for iPod... then what?
Read Joswiak's comments about the 60GB drives carefully.
"Some person at Toshiba who didn't know the facts spoke out of order and made it look like we were about to do a 60GB (iPod) when we knew we weren't."
He doesn't say the report was false. I read into his statement that Apple bought the drives... just not for the iPod.
Jobs has maintained that the iPod won't become a PDA because it's a music player (and IMO, this makes sense).
Could all those drives be for the new iPDA (iPad, iPal, iPlan)?
From dux5
Read Joswiak's comments about the 60GB drives carefully.
"Some person at Toshiba who didn't know the facts spoke out of order and made it look like we were about to do a 60GB (iPod) when we knew we weren't."
He doesn't say the report was false. I read into his statement that Apple bought the drives... just not for the iPod.
Good point
APPL at this point can't leave drives, especially new 60 gig drives, on the shelves at Toshiba. Sony or others want everything APPL doesn't take. APPL wouldn't want to be beaten to market by Sony with a 60 gig player, so they must have bought the 60's. At least enough to keep Sony out for now.
-Zato
Um I read his statement carefully. He said they are not ABOUT to do a 60GB iPod. I think its fairly obvious from the product lineup that they are going to have one. Just not right away.
Since the two-platter 60GB drives aren't ready yet, I assume the single platter 30GBs aren't either. Traditionally the mid-level iPod has had the single platter version of the high end. The interesting thing is now Apple has themselves stuck with 40GB as the midrange. They can't switch and suddenly have 30GB as the midrange. I dunno, maybe it doesn't really matter.
WiFi is great but does take up a lot of battery power (not to mention some room in the form factor). Bluetooth is a better option, smaller and uses less power.
Though the bluetooth ear/headphones is a nice option, the cool thing would be to use the iPod as a bluetooth remote to your Mac that (via APX) controls your music selections; maybe other content.
Imagine the iPod through bluetooth controlling the DVD player, watching iMovie files, QT clips, or slide shows from iPhoto as well? It wouldn't need to feed the data, just send instructions.
The problem is 802.11g likely does not have adequate bandwidth to drive the graphics -- or can it? Well, this idea works if the Mac has hard-connections to your entertainment system; but this is kinda lame. Any idea on whether 802.11g can stream video adequately for slideshows at least?
Mon Jul 19, 2004 10:38 pm Subject: oh RC, the ipod is so dead
right that's why the ipod's market share went up from 30% to 50%. idiot. i'd gladly pay $100 less for an ipod without a case remote and dock. i dont need the dock, it's basically uselss, i can buy a case for $19 from some third party, and i dont need the remote when the ipod is so small and easy to carry.
increased battery life, capacity, and features make this new ipod a real winner and with the better value it has now it will even further advance apple's market share.
this isnt the early 90s this isnt about mac vs pc it's a new situtaion and it's not a repeat of apple's market share history.
did you happen to read about apple's 19% rise in MACINTOSH sales for this quarter? and 40% more for higher education students. these are our future adults and computer consumers (who are obviously more sophisticated than the current windows xp baby boomers)
Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:49 am Subject: More features for the iPod!
I agree with everyone here - we need more features in the iPod! Maybe my iPod could double as a palm-mounted rocket launcher, or perhaps they could put little jet pods on it and I could use it to hoverboard to work.
Why do you need wi-fi, to use an iPod as a remote, have bluetooth headphones, or a color screen? All of those use battery power, which is already the iPod's achillees heel in this category (at least until the 4Gs came out). The iPod does one thing well - it plays music (the PDA elements and games on it are pretty useless now), and it plays music well. I'm not interested in an iPod that's one inch bigger, a half an inch thicker, or gets five hours of battery life on a charge.
If you want all that stuff, buy a PDA. That is, unless you want to see iPod sales cut in half.
quote; posted by Guest:
" So for $50 more than mini you get 5 x storage. Not that anyone seems to care? The mini remains a mythical beast on the inventory list of any store around here."
I agree with you that I'd rather get the iPod than the iPod mini (assuming that's what you think). However, there's no way Apple will (or should) lower the price on the mini. Demand is far outstripping supply, so they wouldn't really sell any more minis, there'd just be more unsupplied demand, and less demand for the iPod.
Wed Jul 21, 2004 1:55 pm Subject: Waaaaaaaaa!
Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:56 pm Subject: I disagree with Joswiak..
People, like my brother and I would indeed like to have a AM/FM reciever "plug in" available. Griffin was working on one awhile ago, then it just disappeared-whoosh! Joswiak sayin theres no demand for it is PR bull. WE WANT A RADIO RECIEVER PLUG IN ACCESSORY! So someone BETTER make it...Or I'll set your sister up with RC, LOL!!!
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