An Overview of Apple’s Event Yesterday

The slick new iPod Touch is a needed re-vamp on a (formerly) best selling product…and everyone is raving about the re-designed headphones as well

Yesterday, the whole tech world took a little break to listen in on what Apple had to say. Apple released details on three key products, the iPhone 5, the 5th generation iPod Touch, and the newest iPod Nano. Apple’s naming conventions are absolutely wacky, so we’ll just call them the iPhone 5, and the new iPods.

They are all centered around bigger and better screens than their predecessors. The new iPod Touch has iPhone 4S internals, a big 4″ screen and uses the new iPhone connector. The new iPod Nano also has a great big screen. At 2.5″, it is substantially larger than any of the portable media players we are used to. The iPhone 5 has a larger screen, faster processing and is skinnier and lighter. I wrote my views of the iPhone 5 in a post here.

I’ve written previously (here) about Apple’s problems creating products for all markets (especially the emerging markets) and I think their latest release is more evidence of this. It is not that they did not release quality products, they just want too much money. AT $299 for the iPod Touch, I am not a buyer. When I saw the updated iPod Touch, I considered it, but it is too expensive. Likewise, I find the iPod Nano to be too expensive (the multi-function Motoactv watch is the same price).

The new Nano is a crazy hybrid of the old Nano and an iPhone (but not half-bad looking)

In terms of pricing concerns, the iPhone is right in-line with its competitors, at $199/$299/$399 (16/32/64GB with contract). This pricing scheme is perfect for US customers, but might not work in other nations. In Europe, the carriers do not subsidize the purchase of the iPhone, and it might be expensive for some ($649/$749/$849).

In Summary

At the end of the day, Apple has released a bevy of new products that will likely sell extremely well. The iPhone is an apt competitor in the toughest of markets, the rest will have to find niches in which to succeed. PMPs have really lose their allure in this market, as every smartphone can perform that function. However, with 400M iDevices already sold, I can’t imagine that 100M more won’t be sold (many of those before the end of this year).

This post by RyanKamauff was first published at CTOvision.com.

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