Apple Introduces New iPods
Apple's Steve Jobs today introduced a number of new iPod's at a special Apple press event. Job's also announced a $200 price reduction for the iPhone, slashing the price of the 8-gigabyte model to $399 from $ 599. Apple also said it would phase out the iPhone's 4-gigabyte model.
Jobs introduced a new iPod called the iPod Touch which is basically an iPhone without the phone. The iPod Touch has all the great features of the iPhone, including the 3.5-inch widescreen touch display, and Wi-Fi, which will allow users to buy iTunes music wireless as well as access the internet.
The iPod touch will be available this month in two configurations, an 8GB model for $299, and a 16GB for $399.
"We've distributed 600 million copies of iTunes so far, and customers have bought and downloaded over 3 billion songs from iTunes. iTunes is the number one online music store in every single one of the 22 countries it operates in," Jobs said. "We started with just 200,000 songs and we have over 6 million songs in every single one of those stores."
Jobs also announced a deal with Starbucks that will allow iPod users to buy music from Apple's wireless iTunes music store while they are at one of the chain's coffee shops.
Jobs revealed that Apple plans to release a new version of iTunes on Wednesday evening that will support the products that are being announced Wednesday -- the biggest new feature in iTunes will be ringtone support for the iPhone.
"We're going to do ringrtones in our own special way," explained Jobs. "And, of course, these are for the iPhone. And what we want is rather than having someone make ringtones for us, we're going to make a custom ringtone maker. We're going to build it into iTunes, and you can make ringtons from many songs available on iTunes including some songs you've already purchased."
"Our ringtones, make 'em yourself, you pay another 99 cents to make the ringtone," he said."
Jobs also introduced a new iPod Nano, the most popular music player in history, said Jobs. The Nano has been updated with video playing capabilities and a new 2-inch video screen and metal design. A 4-gigabyte Nano is $149, while the 8-gigabyte version is $199.
The iPod has been renamed the iPod Classic. It has been updated with full metal design in silver and black. It nows come in a 80-gigabyte model and a 160-gigabyte model. The new 80GB model costs $249, while the 160GB model costs $349, with availability beginning Wednesday.
