ideoverse home to the ramblings, experiments, resume, and portfolio of Adam Dunford

I’d like a portable mp3 player but the current prices are just a little too much for the time being. As an idle fancy, I’ve been following the rumors that Apple would release a sub-$200 ipod at Macworld this year and when Jobs’ keynote included reference to a $250 4GB mini-ipod, the bulletin boards erupted in absolute horror that Apple priced it beyond what most of the rumors had pegged it at.

I think they’re mostly misinformed–$250 is still an incredibly good price and the smaller size (business card!) increases complexity too–but when they say that it won’t improve Apple’s marketshare, I say, who cares?

After all, as John Gruber points out, Apple targets the creative workers, a small subset of business in general. BMW seems perfectly happy filing a smallish niche in the auto world, and I think Apple would rather be the BMW of the computer world rather than the GM.

Although the cost of the new ipod’s doesn’t completely disuade me, my biggest question is whether the smaller form-factor negates my biggest issue with the ipod: as a hard-drive-based machine, the bumps and jiggles that come from exercising force frequent hard resets, making it nearly impossible to use while running. (Okay, so I don’t run but having such a sweet player might almost get me to start)