September 9th has always been a special day for me as, said before, it’s my birthday. So it put a little skip in my step when the latest announcement from Apple came out that coincided with the date that ALL should remember with a special reverence’¦oh blah, blah, blah. Shut up already and give your predictions.
September in the recent past has meant one thing to most Apple followers, iPod announcements. This event will most likely feature a lot of that along with some change up in the world’s most popular digital music store iTunes. Let’s begin with that and we’ll move on to a few other topics before I’m done.
iPod Classics. The words are carved in the gravestone for this iconic device. Apple has been moving towards flash memory throughout the iPod line and it’s really only a matter of time before the full-sized device goes to meet its doom. It’s bereft of life! It’s gone to meet its maker and will join the choir eternal! This iPod is NO MORE! Actually I doubt they will kill it off during this event but it won’t receive any updates and probably won’t even be mentioned. Once whatever they have in stock is gone that will probably be it.
iPod Shuffle. It wasn’t that long ago when they did a major update and considering that it doesn’t have a screen I doubt they’ll add any more memory to it. They may mention it in passing but if they don’t I wouldn’t look at it as a sign of it also going away. Just that it’s not that important.
iPod Nano. This was also updated recently but that doesn’t mean they can’t tweak it a bit. I expect that they will add a still camera (no video), but that will be about it. It’s already at 16GB of memory and if they bumped it that would possibly eat into sales of a (ahem) slightly larger device that I won’t mention until the next paragraph. This is the iPod for those that just want a music player, but still want the control that they don’t get with the Shuffle.
iPod Touch. OK NOW we’re getting into something serious. The Touch is the device for those that want to get the apps that the iPhone has without dealing with a monthly contract. As such it’s more expensive out of the gate (not being subsidized and all that), but really harkens back to the device that so many still hold near and dear to their hearts; the Newton. The Touch is a near perfect PDA that also lets you listen to music, watch movies, and play some games. Since it doesn’t have any 3G, Edge, CDMA, or whatever radios, Apple can fill that space with something the iPhone won’t have until it either gets bigger or something else gets smaller. That something will be 64GB of storage. THIS is the device that Apple wants you to buy instead of a Classic. Quite frankly other than the price, there isn’t anything the iPod Classic does any better than the Touch. OK so more memory big whoop and so what? Well that won’t be all as I look into the future. The Touch will also get the same (if not better) camera that the iPhone has along with a microphone for recording video. Lastly I think there will be a special model to coincide with a certain long missing group’s catalog FINALLY being added to the iTunes Store. Yes, a special Herman’s Hermits model will be available! I’m kidding of course.
The Beatles will be added to the iTunes Store for all of those people (at least 2 I think) that don’t already have all the songs they have any interest in. The entire Beatles catalog is being re-mastered (again) and will be out for sale tomorrow as well, but since we’re talking about 256K AAC files as compared to the same songs on CD, will you be able to tell the difference between what you may already have on your iPod? Another prediction from me is that you WON’T be able to buy individual tracks. It’ll be the whole album or nothing. For much of their later works (say Revolver and on), this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as a mot of the album tracks roll together or have a common theme that can be lost without a greater understanding of the pain and suffering the arteeests we’re trying to convey (SLAP!)’¦sorry, got lost for a minute.
The big thing to remember is that the Beatles are really the last major group (sorry Led Zep and Metallica fans) that isn’t on iTunes and EMI is probably holding out for album sales only. Somewhat understandable as this is the only time this might work and they want to maximize whatever profits they might see. Apple wanting a piece of that action as well will sell at least two special iPod Touches (possibly an iPhone model as well) with Beatles album art. NOT Yellow Submarine but Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road would be my guess and possibly the White Album’¦oh wait, they’ve been selling that one all along.
iTunes will be bumped to version 9 with the sole intent of making life difficult for those of you with Palm Pre’s still trying to leech off iTunes! Actually I think Apple is going to begin to lay the groundwork for the future of their company with iTunes (or something very much like it) delivering Mac software (something Tim actually predicted a while ago) along with whatever future devices they may have up their sleeves.
SPEAKING of that. No, there will not be an Apple tablet of any kind available for sale after the announcements are over. That doesn’t mean that Apple may not give a sneak peek at such a device though that’s not something they typically would do unless’¦they want to get developers busy making software in advance for when such a device may go on sale.
No new Macs for sale or even speed bumped. That’s not what an event like this for though I am seeing something hazy in the back. It’s sooo close..it looks like’¦it may be’¦some kind of AppleTV announcement. I don’t think it’s a new model but a partnership with a major TV maker to include one built-in.
We’ll see how close I am tomorrow, but just remember that if I’m wrong about every single thing I’ve talked about, it’s also my birthday so be nice.
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