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Apple slashes price of iPhone,
revamps iPod
7 September, 2007
Apple Incorporated has reduced the
price of its hot-selling iPhones and
also unveiled a sleek, touch-screen
iPod as a part of overhauling its
product line.
According to analysts, the moves are
aimed at boosting year-end holiday
season sales.
Apple has remodeled its high-selling
iPod line by adding video, memory, or
other coveted features while not
pushing prices.
IPod Touch models feature Apple’s
Safari Web browser and a built-in
wireless antenna, enabling users to
connect directly to the internet at
Wi-Fi ‘hot spots’ the same way they
might with a laptop computer.
Apple has built customized Google and
Yahoo search functions into iPod Touch
models, along with YouTube
video-viewing and an iTune Wi-Fi Music
Store that permits shopping at the
online store without going through a
computer.
The iPod Touch models have been
localized to an array of languages and
will be the first part of the new
product line to ship worldwide,
according to Steve Jobs, chief
executive of Apple.
IPod Touch will be available by the
end of September 2007 in an 8-gigabyte
model priced at $299 dollars and a
16-gigabyte model costing $399. The
devices are essentially iPhones
without the mobile phone capabilities.
Apple is cutting the price of the
popular 8-gigabyte iPhones by $200
dollars to $399 in a surprising move
that some analysts said will give the
company
“a lock” on the market. They described
the Apple’s move as being “bold and
aggressive.”
Apple’s overhaul includes
matchbook-size iPod Shuffles in new
colors and iPod Nanos built with video
and game capabilities.
A 4-gigabyte Nano is priced at $149
and an 8-gigabyte model is priced at
$199. Nanos are the most popular model
in the iPod line and users clamored
for the addition of video-viewing
capability, according to Steve Jobs.
He announced that the original iPod
model, the Classic, would be available
in 80- gigabyte and 160-gigabyte
models, with enough memory capacity
for
users to take entire video or music
collections with them daily.
Steve Jobs also announced that Apple
has an alliance with Starbucks to let
iPod Touch or iPhone users link
wirelessly for free to iTunes Wi-Fi
Music Store at any of the ubiquitous
Starbucks chain’s coffee shops.
When iPod Touch or iPhone users are
near a Starbucks store, a special icon
will appear on the iTunes music store
page and enable people to buy whatever
song is playing at the coffee shop for
the standard 99-cent price.
The Wi-Fi iTunes store will be added
to iPhones as a software update later
in September 2007.
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