Quote:
Originally posted by andViolins
But why kill off your best selling iPod when you announce it? I understand that they are, in essence, two products going after the same market share, but when you have something that works, why change it? Seems like a New Coke kind of move to me.
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They killed the Mini because their studies showed that the vast majority of people who buy iPods have far fewer than 1,000 songs on them. They also didn't want to hear another five years of criticism because their HD-based iPods weren't shock-proofed for running, etc. Add in the always-diminishing cost of flash memory, and getting rid of the mid-market HD-based device was a no-brainer. It makes no sense to have HD capacity for 2,000 songs when only 200 of them are being synced. Do you really need 12 days of continuous-play music when 3 days will suffice, and battery life is less than that anyway?
Consider also that iTunes 5 tweaked the shuffle feature to be a little bit "smarter." People are using their iPods on random sync, random play to create customized radio stations, not to make their entire libraries transportable. The people who want to fit their entire music libraries on a portable device weren't buying the Mini anyway.
