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Gadgets Apple Bumps Storage Capacity on iPhone, iPod touch
Brandon Hill (Blog) - February 5, 2008 9:54 AM

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31 comment(s) - last by boefus.. on Feb 8 at 11:11 AM

Apple iPhone

Apple bumps the iPhone and iPod touch to 16GB and 32GB respectively

While things have been relatively quiet on the iPhone hardware front since its launch in 2006, the company released a number of firmware updates to add features and address bugs with the phone's software. Likewise, Apple's iPod touch has been available in only 8GB and 16GB capacities since launch.

Apple is giving both product lines storage boosts today with a new iPhone SKU coming in with 16GB of storage and a new iPod touch SKU with 32GB of storage. Both new models are priced at $499.

"For some users, there’s never enough memory," said Apple vice president of Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing Greg Joswiak. "Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world."

Both devices will come pre-loaded with the latest 1.1.3 firmware which adds Mail, Notes, Stocks and Weather applications to the iPod touch. The 1.1.3 firmware also gives iPhone users an upgraded Maps application with position triangulation, improved text messaging and support for web clips.

Apple says that both the 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod touch are available immediately from the Apple Store or any of Apple's brick and mortar retail stores.

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Rip Off

By pauldovi on 2/5/2008 10:33:12 AM , Rating: 2

It is known that adding that memory only costs Apple a few dollars. They really get you bent over on that one (if you are sucker enough to buy it).

RE: Rip Off

By Zandros on 2/5/2008 10:50:32 AM , Rating: 2

Still, two iPod touch 32GB costs as much as the 64GB SSD for the MacBook Air.

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RE: Rip Off

By psychobriggsy on 2/5/2008 10:53:43 AM , Rating: 5

Hmm, a 64GB SSD costs $1000, a 32GB iPod Touch costs $500. Not bad considering the free iPod / internet device / PDA it comes installed in.

(Yes, I'm sure the SSD is using long-lifetime and fast SLC flash, and the iPod is using slower MLC flash with fewer rewrite cycles).

Also, the price is set at what the market will bear, not based upon a function of cost. Competition is what is needed.

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RE: Rip Off

By Polynikes on 2/5/2008 11:32:29 AM , Rating: 5

Either that or consumers need to wise up and make better decisions, but I doubt that'll happen.

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RE: Rip Off

By bpurkapi on 2/5/2008 3:29:29 PM , Rating: 3

I agree. One thing I always thing about when I go shopping is bartering. In the middle east you can barter for just about anything. I really wish I could go to an At&T store and say I'll give you 200 bucks and get an Iphone and a data plan. What has happened? Being a consumer used to mean the ability to get outstanding deals, now we have to sit in the Anandtech hot deals forum and be the first to click buy. The future is grim when consumers don't really have an effect on prices. I miss the art of bartering and trade.

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RE: Rip Off

By theapparition on 2/6/2008 9:39:49 AM , Rating: 2

Capitolism is alive and well. While I understand your remorse, the system is not broken.

You only have to see the disappoinment of initial iPhone sales to see that even Apple is not able to set whatever price they want. The initial round of iPhones were a sales disappointment to say the least (reguardless of media hype). They had to drop prices $200 before they started to meet Apple's internal goals.

That's how the system works. Consumer demand sets market prices. If there are millions willing to pay $500, why should they bother trying to sell it to you for $200. If no one buys it at $500, you can bet that price will drop like a stone until consumers start to buy, or the product becomes infeasable for the market and disappears.

Fortunately for Apple, and unfortunately for consumers, Apple does have a rabid fan base that somehow enjoy being penalized again and again for early adoption and will pay pretty much whatever price they set.

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RE: Rip Off

By ZaethDekar on 2/6/2008 1:34:34 PM , Rating: 2

The 64GB SSD adds 1400 to the cost of the Air. Granted part of the cost is .2 GHz. However pretty much everthing else is the exact same.

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RE: Rip Off

By daftrok on 2/5/2008 11:57:21 AM , Rating: 2

Agreed. It would have been nice if they had a microSD expansion slot but when was Apple fair on prices? There is one player out there that simply wipes the floor with the iPod Touch and that is this:

http://www.archos.com/store_us/product.html?countr...

Ten times the storage, bigger screen, higher resolution screen, more video capabilities, online browser with flash video support AND 100 bucks cheaper. Yeah...

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RE: Rip Off

By Commodus on 2/5/2008 12:40:01 PM , Rating: 2

Ever try to stuff an Archos 605 in your pocket?

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

The iPod touch is actually pocketable and is much easier to use (I've tried both). You can also buy music directly, use Google Maps with triangulation, and check your e-mail in a dedicated client. Let me know when Archos catches up on those fronts!

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RE: Rip Off

By theapparition on 2/6/2008 9:42:06 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Ever try to stuff an Archos 605 in your pocket?

I guess that depends on the size of one's pockets....

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RE: Rip Off

By Oregonian2 on 2/6/2008 4:19:49 PM , Rating: 2

That's been the only thing holding me back from that Archos because featurewise and pricewise it blows away the touch (not to speak of the Archos larger and much higher resolution screen). Touch has a wonderful interface and size, but it's very spendy and is nearly feature-free compared to the 605 wifi (and even some "equal" features such as "wifi" are much better in the Archos with much fewer limitations). Sigh....

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RE: Rip Off

By plewis00 on 2/5/2008 2:01:58 PM , Rating: 2

This is that whole 'why buy the Asus EEE PC when you can get a widescreen laptop for the same price' argument.

Comparing a flash-based slimline player to a much thicker, hard-disk based player is exactly the same thing. You failed to mention you can also get an iPod Classic 160Gb for less money than a 16Gb Touch, it's not like Apple is forcing you either way. For what it's worth, I use both my iPod Touch and Classic but find I take the Touch around a lot more as it's so much nicer in operation, design, size and durability.

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RE: Rip Off

By iSOBigD on 2/5/2008 6:24:18 PM , Rating: 2

Right, but why the hell would you want 160GB worth of video on a crappy 2 inch screen with a terrible resolution? Apart from using it a portal hard drive, I don't see any point in having so much storage space on an MP3 player with a tiny screen.

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RE: Rip Off

By winterspan on 2/6/2008 8:17:05 PM , Rating: 2

HA. The Ipod Touch is not a god damn mp3 player anymore. It's becoming a full function Wifi mobile device. I want you to browse the web/use google maps/download apps with an iphone or iPod touch for a week and then tell me what you just wrote with a straight face.

There is absolutely no comparison. However, if all you want is a big thick 5" video player with a harddrive, then go right ahead. Just don't try to compare the too as if they are anywhere near the same market.

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RE: Rip Off

By Arribajuan on 2/5/2008 12:03:59 PM , Rating: 2

With Apple you buy fancy not value... it has always been like this.

Other posts suggest that consumers need to wise up, but unfortunately this is not the way most people buy stuff.

iPod is nice, and iTunes is easy. Not the best value but it is easy enough for the masses.

You pay for easy and trendy, the value most users put on this devices does not correlate directly to BOM.

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RE: Rip Off

By Hare on 2/5/2008 2:45:14 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
It is known that adding that memory only costs Apple a few dollars. They really get you bent over on that one (if you are sucker enough to buy it).

So what? Do you think that Apple is somehow different than e.g. Samsung or Creative? Do other companies offer additional capacity without profit for just production costs?

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RE: Rip Off

By boefus on 2/8/2008 11:11:57 AM , Rating: 2

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RE: Rip Off

By retrospooty on 2/5/2008 8:46:00 PM , Rating: 2

It would be far more important to have...
1. Corporate Email support (MS exchange or Blackberry server)
2. Removable battery
3. 3g data speed

Add those items and more carrier support and the iPhone will be an unstoppable force.

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Now the question is...

By TheDiceman on 2/5/2008 10:08:14 AM , Rating: 2

How long before they discontinue the 8GB model of both products?

RE: Now the question is...

By Commodus on 2/5/2008 10:23:37 AM , Rating: 2

Probably right around when a 3G iPhone is released, making this seem old and busted!

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RE: Now the question is...

By Chaser on 2/5/2008 12:56:58 PM , Rating: 2

Thats the one I'm waiting for to even consider an Iphone and with stereo bluetooth profiles as well.

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RE: Now the question is...

By Darnell021 on 2/5/2008 2:52:11 PM , Rating: 2

I think thats a bold statement. Edge is good for loading pages quickly or sending emails and even pictures taken on the phone. There are so many other reasons that are more important which justify "waiting to even consider buying" an iphone. GPS would be nice. Also, I read that Jobs originally wanted to make the phone with x86 architecture so that apps would integrate well with the phone and mac OS, but there just wasn't anything low power enough at the time of engineering. Prolly make sense to hold off until that major switch takes place.

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RE: Now the question is...

By HrilL on 2/5/2008 5:40:38 PM , Rating: 2

Umm as an iPhone owner, edge is crap. Pages load slow even with full bars dailytech is one of those site where you can really tell how bad it really is. As for email when they are loading and you want to delete mail at the same time it freezes up and youmust wait. My old phone was 3g and it was by far faster. Too bad I lost it. I was also going to wait for 3g but I needed a phone so I got one early. Gps would be nice but that is definately not something to wait for. Oh and loading sites like myspace is really slow on edge. If it didn't have wifi I would have taken it back within the first week.

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RE: Now the question is...

By ZaethDekar on 2/6/2008 1:45:51 PM , Rating: 2

The reason why they didn't put in the GPS + 3G is because of how quickly it kills the battery in the iPhone. They chose to allow you to be able to use your phone longer then loading a webpage in 5 seconds instead of 10 but cutting the battery life down by 40%.

However I was just waiting for the 16GB iPhone because 8GB just doesn't seem to fit me well. I currently have EDGE on the Walkman w810i and I havn't had any problems. Sure some sites take a while to load, but honestly when I am waiting for it to load I have other stuff I could be doing. Most the time I use it for finding phone numbers for resturants or movie times, which after the initial search, I just add the showtimes to favorites and as for numbers I just keep www.whitepages.com. Works like a charm every time.

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The world all yawns at once.

By imaheadcase on 2/5/2008 10:57:46 AM , Rating: 1

I bet the person who reported this also refreshes the apple site every few minutes the whole day and things every outage means new products.

RE: The world all yawns at once.

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 2/5/2008 11:36:16 AM , Rating: 3

Me? Nah. I use a refurbished 30GB Zune that I got from Woot.com for $100. It serves its purpose as a music player for my car.

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RE: The world all yawns at once.

By Runiteshark on 2/5/2008 1:34:10 PM , Rating: 2

No no, thats Jason Mick, not Brandon.

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Still no 3g!!

By HrilL on 2/5/2008 5:55:42 PM , Rating: 2

I was waiting for the 3g iPhone to come out but I guess thats for another year. That is my number 1 complaint about owning the iPhone. When you have no wifi to use and you have to use the edge network its like going back to 56k or even worse. I know edges max speed 384kb/s but the most people seem to get is 200kb/s and it doesn't seem like I even get that on the iPhone. Pages like dailytech take a long time to load sometimes 2 minutes for some arictles and thats with full bars of connection. Myspace takes even longer. It took me almost 3 minutes to get to where I can post this comment because you have to wait for the page to fully load before you can click the post comment button or you'll be sent the error page. At least I don't feel bad with no new 3g iPhone this month since I got one in November. Just the thoughts of an owner.

RE: Still no 3g!!

By intogamer on 2/5/2008 6:48:54 PM , Rating: 2

You probably live in a less denser area. What are you chances of 3G? Other than that, your EDGe network is constrained.

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RE: Still no 3g!!

By HrilL on 2/5/2008 7:25:59 PM , Rating: 2

We got upgraded to 3g in august so the edge capacity should be good and on my old phone with ie network seeds were good as well. Since that upgrade I pretty much always have 5 bars.

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