It’s that magical time of year again when Apple is set to unveil its new iPods and make all of us cry a little over the ones we already own.

For the past several years Apple has held an event in Sept. to announce the new line-up of iPods.  It is pure coincidence this happens just shortly before the holiday shopping season, I assure you.  The invites went out today to the media for the event to be held on Sept. 1st, and not a lot else was said except for the picture of the invite you see to the right clearly indicating that this year’s event will include information on the iChisel for all of your wood carving needs.

Something I’ve always wondered about Apple and its events is that the invitations always go out about seven days before hand, and yet all of the media is expected to be there.  (Note: I have never received an invite, nor any of the blogs I work for, apparently we aren’t cool enough)  Does everyone realize how expensive it is to book a flight this close to departure?  I know companies cover it in their expense account, but seriously, unless you are a video-based site, just stay home and follow the umpteen live feeds of the event.  You’ll get the story out faster, you’ll save yourself the money and you’ll be free of a lot of stress.

As much as I would love to go to one of these, my practical side would win out pretty darn quickly when I figured out the costs of getting me there at the appointed time.  Am I really going to get enough traffic to make in revenue what I just lost in expenses?  Doubtful.  Just a big old mystery to me.

All that being said, expect the big announcements to be the iPod Touch getting video chat via the FaceTime app, and possible the relaunch of Apple TV as the iTV.  I’ll be covering everything that day over at TechnoBuffalo.

Normally I go all crazy for the new iPods, but this year… this year they have left me totally cold. I’m not tempted to buy a one of them.

I already wrote New iPods For 2008 over at StarterTech, but I figured I can always talk more bluntly about them here.

iPod Shuffle

While nothing new was done to them, they did drop from $79 to $49. I finally can see a point to them and they would make a great stocking stuffer for a kid.

iPod Nano

This got the biggest changes this year with a whole new look, new colors and better pricing.  They doubled the capacity and kept the price points the same as last year.  You can now get an 8GB for $149 and a 16GB for $199 with the added ability to turn them on their side for landscape video and image viewing.  Again, I can see these being great for kids, but heavy iTunes users and music collectors will scoff at the capacity.

iPod Classic

This one worried me. Last year the iPod classic came in a “thin” 60GB and a “thick” 160GB. As loyal readers know, I went for the 160GB, and documented How long does it take to load 119.41GB of music on an iPod?, meaning the 160 was my only choice.

So, this year we are seeing the “thick” eliminated and the “thin” bumped up to 120GB. While 120GB is great for most people, this tells me that the Classic is on its last legs.  I still haven’t filled my 160, all I can hope is by the time I hit that barrier that they have come up with something of a higher value.

iPod Touch

This was probably thebiggest letdown.  The made it thinner, they lowered the price, but the upgrades consisted of an external speaker for casual listening and they added external volume controls.

Whee?

Sure I’ve wanted an external speaker, but it isn’t worth me buying another one this year just for that.  They did drop the prices, but it still doesn’t change it enough for me to want to run out and buy another.

In Conclusion

For once I am going to say Steve Jobs blew it, and he blew it badly.  The reason they have sold tens of millions of iPods is people such as myself that have constantly upgraded.  With the exception of the Nano, which is at best a casual user’s device, they essentially did nothing this year.  There may be some chance of new users hoping on board with the new lower price points, but they sure aren’t going to get their normal upgrade business this year.

While I don’t think this spells utter doom for the product line, it makes you wonder if they are possibly finding the limits of what such devices can do.  Why didn’t the Touch get GPS?  There are numerous apps that use this function, they could have sold more of those apps and still not cut into their iPhone sales.  Why didn’t the Nano go to 32GB?  16GB is still laughable by most people.  Why didn’t the Classic get landscaping?  There are more questions than answers this year, and that is highly unusual when it comes to this product line.

When I first talked about the iPhone 3G, I mentioned as long as the phone was exclusive to AT&T, I wouldn’t be getting the device for myself.  Well, it seems things could be far, far worse… I could have to deal with Rogers in Canada.

It seems that Rogers of Canada went so overboard with their pricing, raising so much ill will that over 53,000 people have signed a petition at RuinediPhone.com stating they will not purchase an iPhone under the Rogers plan.  Unlike American contracts that run for 2 years, Canadian contracts run for 3 years, and the current contract runs $60 for 150 minutes of daytime minutes, and 400MB of monthly data transfer.  As much as I dislike AT&T, at least their $69.99 plan gives you 450 minutes with unlimited data.

So, in light of people being angry with Rogers, Apple has decided to cut supplies to the Rogers’ stores, and they have also announced that the Canadian Apple stores will not be carrying the phone, so Rogers won’t receive any contract sign ups from that venue.

I understand why Apple signs these exclusive deals, better revenue sharing for them, but do they not check out the pricing plans before they sign the contracts?  How could they let Rogers be the exclusive carrier when they are offering such horrible pricing?  This reflects poorly on Apple as well as Rogers.  And, I’m sorry, but 150 minutes for that price is just highway robbery in my opinion.

Hopefully Apple will learn some lessons from this, such as when going exclusive with a company, make sure you read what is going to happen to your customers before you sign on the dotted line.  Sorry, Candians… you got screwed.

Who are these analysts, and how do I get their sweet job?

Craig Berger at FBR Research has issued a report that he expects an iPod line refresh in the near future, especially on the iPod Classic and on the iPod Touch.  This is something akin to saying, “the sun will rise in the east tomorrow.”

According to my records, for the past two years the iPods have been updated on September 12th, 2006 and September 5th, 2007.  Gee… any one thinking September again?  Maybe that’s just me.  Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, likes to do it then because then it gives time to ramp up for the holiday sales.  Well, okay, that’s my “analysis” of why he does it then.

For years now, I’ve been hearing these proclamations from “analysts” about new Apple products coming down the road.  “They’ll update the MacBook Pros this year.” er… Yeah, they will, what’s your point?  “The iPods will be getting a line refresh soon.”  Yes, they will… and the Earth will continue to rotate.  What I found amusing, and shows that they truly are guessing, is how many times they have predicted the death of the Mac Mini.

Pretty much every time an Apple event comes around, someone will say, “Well, they’re going to kill off the Mac Mini this time, and replace it with such-and-such.”  Take this post from AppleInsider on May 24th, 2007 as an example.

Ladies and gentlemen, AppleInsider believes in all sincerity that the Mac mini is dead.

True, this is an Apple blog I am quoting here, but it is just one of many examples of people thinking the Mini was dying off.  Well, funny, the Mac Mini is still here, and has even been updated in the past year.  It may very well die off, most products usually do, but it is still here, and analysts keep saying it’s doomed.  Doesn’t this tell us something about the value of their “analysis”?

Essentially analysts are doing nothing more than making educated guesses, and yet people act like it’s some sort of message from on high.  Mr. Berger’s report is burning a path across the blogosphere with people reporting on it, and I just have to scratch my head.  We all know the iPods will be updated, it’s a given, so why give so much free publicity to some guy stating the obvious?

To be honest, I think it’s a little disingenuous on the part of the analysts who make these types of predictions about Apple.  It’s almost as if they take a look at the clock on a Friday, and say to themselves, “ugh… I didn’t get any predictions out this week, I need to get an easy one out… new iPods are coming!  Brilliant… let’s go hit the bar!”  It’s a softball prediction, there’s no risk in it, and yet they are able to spin it into coverage all over the Internet because it’s about Apple.  Sure, it’s their job to make predictions, and maybe they should be thankful there is the occasional no-brainer such as this one, but it just comes across silly when it makes it out to the general public.

In short, yes, new iPods are coming, and trees will continue to produce oxygen.