By Victor Karamalis
The clamor at the Moscone Center is loud from all the reporters and other invitees as Apple’s own Steve Jobs announced that all of the iPods will be updated or replaced. But the biggest business deal was the announcement of a partnership with Apple and Starbucks. New iPods will be able to connect to Starbuck’s Wi-Fi network for free without having to sign into T-Mobile’s network. This is huge because for the first time, the U.S. cellular carriers are not between the network and device on a mass scale here in the U.S. Starbucks currently has 7.950 U.S. locations. This essentially transforms every Starbucks into an iTunes Brick and Mortar store. Take that NBC Universal and your $4.99 episodes.
Apple has also renamed its original iPod calling it the iPod classic jumbo sizing it to a large 160GB drive. Jobs also announced the iPod Touch, a device that is 5/16 of an inch thick with 802.11 B/G Wi-Fi — connectivity and 3.5-inch touch screen that will come in almost the same form factor as the iPhone but no calls can be made. The eight and sixteen gigabit versions come at a whopping $299 and $399 respectively. The new, wider Nano now comes with a 2-inch video screen and metal design. A four-gigabit Nano is $149, while the eight- gigabit at $199. The Shuffle will also be available in a rainbow of colors at $79.
According to Jobs, there are now 6 million songs available on iTunes compared to 200,000 when the iTunes service came out about five years ago. Since then, 110 million iPods have been sold and over 600 million songs have been downloaded through iTunes. Apple is the number 3 music retailer behind Walmart and Best Buy. This is nothing but another brilliant marketing ploy by Jobs as he bridges innovation and coolness into these devices. Currently , Apple stock was hovering around $140 a share putting its market cap to just over $120 Billion.
Jobs also announced that Apple will be selling ring tones for its iPhone for 99 cents, plus the 99-cent cost of the song. It will now come with a custom ring-tone maker. Ring tones from more than 500,000 songs available on iTunes will go on sale next week. They’d normally sell for $2.49 but “now you can build it out of any part of the song” exclaimed Mr. Jobs as he made a ring tone from Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’ when his wife would call him.
Tags: Apple Starbucks iPhone iPod Moscone Steve Jobs iTunes venti Howard Schultz
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