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New iMacs, The Cellphoneless iPhone

July 13th, 2007

A few Apple product rumors bear some comments:

A Redesigned iMac For This Summer

I’m pretty interested in a new iMac as our aging G4 iMac is in serious need of replacement. A month ago I had settled on a Mac Mini, but a new iMac is an opportunity for a cool redesign. I’m interested in the rumor of a slim keyboard, especially if it’s based on the “chicklet-style” MacBook version, which I’ve become fond of. The keys have a smaller distance to travel, it feels solid (especially compared to the old spongy iBook one), and the design prevents crud from getting stuck between and beneath the keys. Our current iMac keyboard is rather disgusting. And if I got a Mac Mini – I’d have to use said keyboard.

Fullscreen iPod Rumors

Post-iPhone, some attention is returning to the iPod. Rumors abound of a full screen iPod (with multitouch) – or even better, a full screen iPod with WiFi – essentially an iPhone without the cellphone capability.

Contrary to most cell phone lovers out there, I’d be willing to give up the cell phone capability of the iPhone for a lower price. I’m way more into my iPod than any cellphone I’ve ever met. I’d especially be into iPod networking – it would be pretty fun to share libraries between iPods and computers. I’d buy the mythical cellphone-less iPhone on day one – meanwhile, I’m still on the fence with the iPhone.

Would Apple cannibalize sales of the iPhone with an iPod? I don’t really see the problem, because either way, Apple would get my money. Some out there might even buy an iPhone and a full screen iPod – especially if you consider the added iPod storage space, other countries, or: (gasp) some don’t carry cell phones with them everywhere they go.

My wife and I own four iPods for no clear reason I can discern – and I just admitted I’m already thinking about number five.

And lastly, as far as a Beatle, Yellow Submarine iPod goes – that would just be icing on the cake.

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  • JC
    That new iMac sounds really cool. I haven't played much with the MacBook's keyboard, but most of what I read about it is good. iMac is still Apple's best bang-for-the-buck product, but it could use a fresh look. I hope we see it soon.

    As far as the next iPod goes, I can't see how Apple could offer an "iPhone without cell phone capabilities" for any less than an iPhone. My guess is that strapping on an 80 GB hard drive, or adding at least 32 GB of Flash RAM to the existing iPhone design would not only make it bulky, but it would also make it far more expensive than an iPhone.

    Keep in mind, Apple gets a cut from AT&T's monthly service bills on iPhone, which it would not get from an iPod. And no matter what iSuppli tells you, there's a lot more cost involved with creating an iPhone than the sum of its parts.

    I don't know what Apple will offer next in the iPod family, but my guess is that at BEST we'll see a touch screen on one model, and that model will be at least $400. It will run OS X, as Steve said it would, but it will almost definitely not have WiFi, Safari, YouTube, Google Maps, etc. Maybe it could have editable contacts and calendars for basic PDA/Type stuff, but that's about it.

    Now a Yellow Submarine iPod—that would be cool. Especially if it were actually yellow. I'm not sure I'd spend the money on the entire Beatles catalog again, since I already have most of it on CD. But it would be a cool product, nonetheless.
  • Hmmm. An 80GB full screen iPod without WiFi for $400 bucks might be just the ticket for me. The extra storage space would really come in handy for storing video files to really make use of the nice screen.

    And at that price some people might consider the extra 1 or 2 hundred for the iPhone no big deal - and Apple sells more iPhones.

    Likewise, I actually would be fine with a WiFi full screen iPod priced at $600 ($500 would be nicer). You wouldn't have a contract with AT&T; and would have a heck of a lot more storage than an iPhone. Even if technically, that's the same price as an iPhone. Maybe this is fantasy today but I'd slot it for sometime in 2008 - along with the "iPhone 2G" that improves that product.

    Either way Apple stands to sell scads of iPhones and iPods.
  • Two things that I would enjoy about an iPhone-like iPod though, should it come to pass:

    1) Built-in Speaker for easy listening.
    2) On-the-Go tag editing. If the iPod were to go the PDA route and include a touch-screen keyboard, I think it would be very cool to edit ID3 tags on the iPod itself and have those changes updated in my iTunes library when I sync.
  • Probably the more they canabalize their own stuff the more they will ultimately earn, right? You're spot on: they get the money either way, but this way they appeal to more people who might not have bought the first item!
  • One of us! One of us!

    While I love my iPhone, the trekkie in me misses clamshell phones. Phoneless iPhone would be pretty good, especially with the touchscreen interface and built in speakers (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children sounds pretty good on the iPhone). The UI on an iMac or macbook though... That'd be interesting. It's gotta be coming.
  • I think more integration between iTunes and the iPhone would always be welcome.

    Derami, yeah, I think about the iPod and how some people griped that the Nano would eat into iPod Video sales or nobody would ever buy the Shuffle because it had no screen - but ultimately Apple knows different people want different stuff (surprise) and some buy multiple devices, or even a Mac.

    DaFerret I assume you want to flip the phone open like a communicator - that would be funny. I wonder if some company is making an iPhone case just like that.

    The potential for multitouch on a Mac is worth a whole post. Although it would be cool the biggest thing I'm wondering about is the ergonomics of leaning forward to touch the screen. Two thoughts - maybe use the iSight camera for something in between (more like Minority Report) or something built into the keyboard (like a tiny LCD screen / trackpad) anyhow, I'm just speculating. I'm sure Apple has something in mind.
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