We’re still hours away from Apple’s event today in San Francisco, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the company from releasing some changes in its own store. The main thing to note is the prices of the various iPod lines, especially the iPod touch.
Yesterday, a 32 GB iPod touch was $399. Today? $279. Yesterday, a 16 GB version was $299. Today? $249. The 8 GB one is now only $189, down from $229. The nanos are falling as well, with the 16 GB version now only $149, and the 8 GB only $129, down from $199 and $149, respectively. The iPod classic has seen a $20 price cut.
These price cuts were, of course, expected, and very likely point to a new 64 GB iPod touch being unveiled tomorrow in the $399 price point. Significantly, this means that the iPod touch is now cheaper than the high-end Zune HD, set to be released next week. The 32 GB Zune HD will be $289.99, roughly $10 more expensive than the 32 GB iPod touch, now.
The 16 GB iPod touch will still apparently be $30 more than the comparable Zune, but for once, Apple can claim a victory on the high-end price point.
Normally, Apple takes down the store to make these changes, but didn’t tonight for whatever reason. Consider it a teaser of what’s to come.
Update: Interestingly enough, at its event today, Apple listed the 8 GB/32 GB/64 GB as $199/$299/$399, so slightly off from the prices in their store. It’s certainly possible that those are the prices for the older 2nd generation iPod touches, while the new ones are for the as yet unannounced iPod touch 3rd gen.
it’s a good news!
and it’s a spicy meatball!
Awesome, 1 of the current generation touches is TEN DOLLARS cheaper than the Zune HD.. Why shouldn’t it be?! it’s old, outdated and hardware speaking is inferior when compared to the Zune HD that isn’t even out yet.
And speaking of the rumored 3rd gen iPod Touch, if you own a $400 PMP that has a camera and microphone that isn’t a cell phone, you start to look like an idiot for not buying an iPhone, lol. Zune HD FTW!!
Are you kidding me? The iPod Touch has thousands upon thousands of both accessories and apps. The Zune HD has NONE and it costs MORE!
the zune hd is actually cheaper. apple dropped their second gen touches like everyone would figure. They just announced at the apple event that the 3rd generation touch is 299, compared to the zune hd at 289. like i said earlier, touches still cost more compared to the same capacity zune. and the touches didn’t get the camera like all you apple fanboy turds thought! hahaha ZUNE HD FTW!!
Don’t think that Apple’s innovations is going to grab the Zune market. Zune HD still wins over iPod Touch.
I guess if there is something to thank Microsoft for lately, is for forcing Apple into lowering their prices
oo la la la
“Zune” pronounced in Hebrew means “F**k”.
Should be an interesting campaign when they launch in Israel…
And “Zune” in french means “male genitals”
Those softies don’t miss a thing, do they?
Price cuts are always good, but what makes you think this in responce to the Zune ?
I always get a kick out of the Zune bashing from Mac Fany boys like MG. Zune has only sold about one million units compared to the 10’s of millions ipod line..no the reason for the price cuts is because sales are slowing down for Apple.
The iPhone is driving profits and the rest of the line is seeing sales decline because of this crappy economy, as for Zune , I think there may be more to the Zune HD than meets the eye;-)
normally i would say that it wasn’t, but the $279 price point for the 32 GB iPod touch is very interesting. Why not $299? I’ve written about all of this weeks ago
http://www.tech...ly-september-8/
Yes it’s interesting, then again it would also imply that of all the very capable MP3/media devices out there, Apple seems to think the Zune is something to worry about and are reacting accordingly.
The price reductions do add up to few million dollars in reduced profits.
The Zune won’t make a real dent in the ipod market, they don’t have a dedicated retail channel like Apple’s..yet
The last time MS tried a retail store it failed. I don’t see why this effort will be any different. They don’t make laptops or PCs.
That was really only a half hearted attempt at a store, they’ve lined up some impressive talent and resources, this is the biggest reason the Zune
has trailed so badly in the market.
Microsoft needs a dedicated retail channel to market some of its present and upcoming products.
The Apple store is Cupertino’s biggest advantage for selling its products.
MG – why didn’t you mention that the 16GB ZuneHD is $30 cheaper than the 16GB iPod Touch? Seems a bit weak.
It’s in the response to the Zune HD because Apple appear not to have cut their prices in markets where the Zune HD will not initially launch in.
Simples.
Apple are making HUGE profit margins, in the 200% or more per ipod sold. Obviously it’s easy for Apple to lower the prices on OLD ipod models.
Also, Apple hasn’t won anything on high end pricing or anything like that, since competitors are not even out yet. Why can’t a competitor also decide to lower the prices?
I guess Microsoft could, but that’d be a bit odd since they just announced the prices a few weeks ago and it comes out next week.
Huge redneck spelling mistake –
‘than’ not ‘then’ in the phrase :” roughly $10 more expensive then the 32 GB iPod touch, now.”
ha ha thanks. it’s funnier that google made the same one earlier. at least i have the 4 AM excuse.
Pretty strange move. It makes it look like Apple are going to release an ipod touch “S” at a premium price rather than upgrade the existing model…
I got mine for $359 ….
I believe the reason the store hasn’t been taken down today is because Apple won’t start selling these new iPods for a few weeks. There has been quite a bit of discussion about problems in production.
Hmmm – the Aussie Apple website still has the ipod touch listed at the insanely expensive prices: 8gb- $329, 16gb- $419, 32gb- $549 !
Prices looked the same on the UK site – are these expected to fall too?
Hope so – my lad keeps suggesting one for Christmas….
I may have to concede – if only to spare the battery life on my iPhone.
Still expensive compared to a Netbook that comes with the same amount or more memory (and display and keyboard)
You’re kidding, right? Netbooks make lousy iPods, and can’t run the apps.
For the money, I’d much rather have the iPod.
Oh, I get it, buy the netbook and use it as a ZunePhone!
http://www.yout...amp;feature=fvw
still $550 for a 32GB ipod touch in ireland
I agree with Joe. Zune is not the substitute of iPod.
Oh look. Apple is going to start selling an iPhone without the phone. Way to continue ripping people off, Apple.
Zune HD here I come!
This is a reason so many other companies can’t keep up.
They keep releasing new stuff while lowering price of the old stuff. It’s obvious but…everyone else takes forever in their development cycles so by the time they release something “new”, Apple is doing price cuts.
What’s a Zune HD? Microsoft’s pathetic attempt to keep the Zune line going after many analysts told Microsoft they should just kill off their money losing PMP venture. Zunes will basically be bought by iPod haters and MS employees which undoubtedly add up to at least a few thousand people. Even Melinda Gates and family will be forced to carry Zunes when all their friends will have iPods. I’ll be very surprised to see anyone carrying a Zune HD in Manhattan, which is the promised land of Apple and iPods.
Farewell Zune. You’re likely to be gone completely by this time next year.
You’re ridiculous. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it should go away. Zune already is and will remain an amazing device combined with amazing software and service. Microsoft has what they need to make it successful and they will when they want it to be. They have a HUGE following with the Xbox and can easily push the Zune onto millions of those globally. They already introduced the Zune services with the Video Marketplace on Xbox Live. If you knew anything about the Zune its primary purpose is the service, the device is extra. It’s not going anywhere. You’re likely to see the Zune on tons of devices by this time next year.
I hope not. The Zune is definitively a better device. And the software experience it brings is years ahead iTunes.
The iPod “fashion trend” is driving people toward the Apple product and this is mostly by ignorance.
Damping
That’s nice, but still nowhere near the $9.99 2GB MP3 player/voice-recorder one of the big-box stores had over the weekend.
Zunes rock. Anyone who bashes really hasn’t tried them. Loving the sound quality, Zune software, subscription model (unlimited downloads/plays), as well as wireless syncing. I bought a 4 gig Zune from Fry’s on closeout for 59 bucks w/car kit. Superb. Will buy the Zune HD when released.
Apple finished their event today.
Your prices are wrong.
We bash the Zune because only MS would come out with a 2-YEAR OLD TECHNOLOGY product and plow hundreds of millions into it. And REPEAT now 2 years later after ONE HUGE FAIL with a touchscreen that does much less than the iPod Touch and costs more! And all the reviews point out that Zune’s sonic capabilities are below par to the iPod so what exactly is the point? Again, MS shareholders don’t seem to care that they will spend a BILLION dollars to lose money – what EXACTLY is the point? Same with the XBOX. What is the point? It’s fine to want to own a pice of the “living room market” but $15 BILLION dollars later, they are NOWHERE with NO HOPES of ever making the money back or that the return-fail rate is @55% – THAT is why people question WTF MS is doing. The point of expenditures is you want to make more money – not pour it into a hole but no one at MS is EVER questioned on that – for instance, MS is not embarassed that their internet division lost money last year? Hello?
actually the guy who posted this got the prices wrong, the zune is cheaper and the chip inside of it is more powerful…
” 2-YEAR OLD TECHNOLOGY”
So Tegra, OLED, HD Radio is 2 year old technology, yet your new 3G iPod Touch, with the same 1G design and some marginally improved specs/capacity is brand new tech?
“does much less than the iPod Touch”
It has HD Radio, 720p video output, subscription music service, wireless sharing/syncing, a browser, games, xbox integration, and it’s been confirmed Apps are coming. Where is this “doing much less” part?
“costs more”
32GB is $10 less than 32 GBiPod Touch, and 16 GB is only $20 more than 8 GB iPod Touch. Can’t compare to a 16 GB because Apple inexplicably got rid of it. GG with the facts.
“Zune’s sonic capabilities are below par to the iPod”
I would LOVE to see your sources for this. I’ve never heard this, and my personal experience is Zune sounds much better.
You do not know what you are talking about, so you should probably stop bashing Microsoft with false facts, and possibly read up on 2009. OLED came out THIS YEAR (to public). NVIDIA Tegra was just put in devices THIS YEAR.
ah .. not really … i had an OLED sony noise cancelling player more than 2 yrs back … but no one else came out with that …. i agree on that though …. but it is a 3 yr old tech for sure …. btw, that OLED screen was awesome … except i gave to my sis as it was too pinkish on one of its sides (the metal side)
Hey MS Zune fanboys (shills),
MS and the Zune only have 1% of the market. MS and the Zune are “wannabes”. Windows 7 is a Vista SP2.
Snow Leopard is great. My Apple Mini computer is a 1080p device. Cool, and it runs great and fast.
wannabe’s of what? the zune hd has better features and is cheaper. if its anything, apple is the wannabe’s, the nano has an fm radio now…hmm.
he’s like a machine that produces the most common apple trash talk in random order!
Hey Apple fanboys (shills),
Apple and OS X only have 5% of the market. Apple and OS X are “wannabes”. Snow Leopard is Leopard v2.
Oh, and have fun playing 1080p Bluray movies on your 1080p Apple device. ^_^
i own a mini … so, just to be fair, Win7 is a new OS the same way SL is a new one …
These prices did not stick. What do you think the purpose of having the prices above posted for such a small amount of time was? Why bother?
I guess the Zune is still a more sophisticated piece of hardware at a lower price point.
Perhaps you’re looking at the prices in an Apple on-line store for education, not the on-line retail.
Huh?
Steve just announced the prices:
$399 64GB
$299 32GB
$199 8GB
It’s now reflected at the store.
http://store.ap...mily/ipod_touch
Correction:
Schiller announced.
I don’t give a damn how much market share something has or how much a company spent making it work. All I know is that I’ve tried both the iPod and Zune and much prefer the Zune. How many of you can say that?
The prices this guy mentioned are a lie, goto apple’s website if you don’t believe me.
Anyways the ipod touch is actually a little more then the zune hd (and is cheaper a lot cheaper if you’re planning on getting the 16g model)
Microsoft don’t get it. No apps, no games, no gps and no phone. Zune HD is very impressive for 2007 not for 2009. If palm,creative,google can come up with something, why not microsoft. There is something wrong with MS strategy. Palm released SDk in few months after pre release. Microsoft I am not sure. Window mobile sdk needs full professional visual studio. I don’t think that will attract developers.
Microsoft has apps and games. It does everything the Ipod Touch does and more, for less money. Talk about playing catch up, Apple slapping radios in there players now? What an original idea. Funny all the Apple sheep talked abut how worthless radio on a PMP is, and now that they are getting it they act like its some new great feature. We’ve had that on our Zunes since 2007. Maybe in two years Apple will have OLED screens and HD Video capabilities?
Everything? Sorry for the late reply but it doesn’t do a fraction of what my Touch does. The Zune is a PMP my Touch is basically a mini laptop. It’s a whopping $10 less *WOW* and all the main things I use my Touch for, cannot be done on the Zune HD. Let me list.
1. Calendar/Contact list, I use my Touch like a PDA. *MAYBE* this will be added to the Zune HD in the future, but I doubt it.
2. Play DiVX, yes I had to jailbreak my Touch to add this. But this isn’t a feature on the Zune, and there’s currently no way to add it. And knowing MS there never will be.
3. Speaker, hummm I can’t listen to music on a Zune HD without headphones. don’t care how crappy you think the speaker on a Touch is, it’s there and the Zune doesn’t have one, period. Something is better than nothing.
4. I HOPE Apple doesn’t EVER add OLED screens, I’m almost always outside and OLED screens are nearly impossible to see in the sunlight. OLED isn’t even that good in a bright ass room. I hate OLED, who uses their PMP mostly indoors? I’m outside when I use mine and I need to screen the screen. I don’t care about radio, and HD video capabilities is awesome, I mean nothing like 16 gigs of video, which would be what a 5 hours? lol.
Touch > Zune HD for everything I do. Even if MS add’s an app store that can compete with Apple (impossible, but for the sake I’ll mention it…) they can’t fix the fatal flaw. OLED + Sunlight = worse looking screen ever.
“no apps, no games”
Microsoft has said there will be games just as on previous zunes. As for apps, menu options have been spotted several times and reps have been hush on the topic, but from the looks of it they’re coming.
“no GPS”
iPod Touch doesn’t have GPS
“no Phone”
iPod Touch doesn’t have a phone.
I’d say Apple doesn’t get it. When their customers are clamoring for a camera in the iPod Touch, they slap one in the Nano. When Zune is moving on to HD Radio, Apple is just adding FM. While the Zune HD can output 720p video, Apple is noticeably wallowing in standard def output.
yes!
Some startup could make some money developing a ‘fanboy filter’. Seriously – the ‘your player or the company that made it is crap’ has nothing to do with the original article.
I don’t think there is going to be a 3rd Gen Touch and only a price drop, But the Nano’s now record video! Take a look at this catalogue for them in Au http://www.jbhi...3-players/ipod/
Over the years apple has just put crap into something that was made for music. If i want to play games and check facebook i would use a laptop. Apple is off gone off an original idea and created the ipod for people whose lives revolve around screen. At least the zune has been true to is origin as music device. My zune is my music and the ipod is apple’s attempts to make millions of lives lazier. Your pmp tells us many things about the owner and the ipod a crappy excuse for your laziness. So get over the ipod and go back to the basics, MUSIC. P.S. get a life
Apple is sooo far ahead of MS with its great variety of Fart apps for the iPods.
Gee, I’ll be disappointed if the Zune HD doesn’t have a Fart app.
Zune HD has (some) superior technology compared to the iPod Touch.
For one, the NVIDIA Tegra is a fascinating chip, even though it has an ARM processor in it, like the iTouch.
That in itself is an advantage for Microsoft, but just because they have that doesn’t mean much.
Like Apple fanboys have been saying, it has tons of apps, where as no one knows the app count on the Zune HD yet (yes, it has apps if you didn’t know) and from what I know, there is an SDK, it just may not be as public as Apple’s is.
Also, for many people that didn’t know, Microsoft made Xbox to lose money. Oh wait, that turned around big time. Now Xbox 360 is the best console on the market (PS3 has great technology but is not comparable). So they made Zune.
Sorry Zune fanboys, but they have lost money there. And now that they’re going all in after canceling all of the other Zunes, it’s going to be hard for them to compete. What if someone wants more than 32gb? Well for $100 more, there’s 64gb iTouch, or 160gb classic.
I’m not trying to be bias, unless we’re talking Mac or PC, but from public knowledge, it seems like the iTouch has the edge. Even though they both do the same thing, and one might have features that the other doesn’t, the iTouch is much more popular. And here in America, popularity is the thing.
As for myself, I will be getting a Zune HD. I’ve thought about it a lot, and if it’s not good enough, I’ll be getting the iTouch.
So, if anyone has a problem with my post, comment, but don’t be stupid about it because I just posted something to educate everyone else since none of the comments seemed to have intelligence.
Oh, Apple fanboys, you can thank Microsoft for the price drop, it WAS because of the Zune HD.
I’m in the market for a new MP3 player, all I’m looking for is the best sound quality and a good amount of storage. Currently I have a 30GB 5.5G iPod Video and the battery is on it’s way out, and I don’t feel like replacing it. I would like something bigger then my current 30GBs, which makes the 64GB iPod Touch appealing, but for $400+ it’s completely out of the question. I also want something with flash memory so the Classic is out too. This pretty much leaves me with 3 reasonable choices. The iPod Touch 32GB is the most expensive, and is fun when jailbroken, but I really don’t care about apps. The Microsoft Zune HD 32GB comes with nice HD features at a lower cost then the Touch, just waiting for a sound review. Then there’s also the Creative Zen X-Fi 2 32GB, the cheapest of the 3, features aren’t as impressive as the others perhaps but is apparently supposed to have great sound and I think a card slot for expandable memory up to 16GBs. I’ll have to wait for the reviews to some in… Right now I’m leaning towards the Zune HD, but could pick up the Zen if it sounds better. I put the Touch in third for now just because I don’t like Apple anymore, I think they focus too much on their iPods instead of their computers now and it’s annoying.
ok. you got it right. its annoying for sure. although I am not so sure about the Zen … give the Zii EGG a shot if you are willing to experiment … it looks promising to say the least but beware of all the things that comes with it (its for the developers now …)
Hi guys! In the spirit of this article, just wanted to share with you a link to an offer that features the 3rd gen. of Ipod Touch at the incredible price of $75. The link is bit.ly/1xgIlP and i hope someone can actually tell me if that is a real offer or it’s a joke.