Wednesday, July 7, 2004
Portable Media Center, Pricing, and First Generation Products
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 07:00 AM
We were having an interesting discussion about the new iRiver PMP-100 a few weeks ago, and I thought I'd get into rant mode a little. ;-) The big complaint so far is the price point that the forthcoming Portable Media Center (PMC) is speculated to be $500+ USD, and that's seen as quite expensive. But I'd ask you to ponder these questions:
How much were the first DVD players?
How much were the first MP3 players?
How much were the first Pocket PCs?
First generation products will always be more expensive than they "should be". Early adopters who care more about getting the product that the price are the people that buy them. No one launches a category-defining device and expects mass-market success with the first version. Judging portable media devices solely on the basis of price is short-sighted. One could argue that the PMC is simply an evolution of other genres, a PDA with a hard drive, but I believe it's a relatively new category with only a few vendors blazing the trail before the PMC.
Let's just wait and see, shall we? I have no doubt in my mind that the first generation products will not sell terribly well due to price and other limitations, but like most things that Microsoft does, it's a long term play that's ahead of where the market is now. Right now digital audio is hot. Carrying digital photos with you is still a fringe scenario for most people, and digital video is even more so. Apple is playing the waiting game by not releasing an iPod that does photos or videos - they're letting other vendors establish the market, and then they'll enter it.
How much were the first DVD players?
How much were the first MP3 players?
How much were the first Pocket PCs?
First generation products will always be more expensive than they "should be". Early adopters who care more about getting the product that the price are the people that buy them. No one launches a category-defining device and expects mass-market success with the first version. Judging portable media devices solely on the basis of price is short-sighted. One could argue that the PMC is simply an evolution of other genres, a PDA with a hard drive, but I believe it's a relatively new category with only a few vendors blazing the trail before the PMC.
Let's just wait and see, shall we? I have no doubt in my mind that the first generation products will not sell terribly well due to price and other limitations, but like most things that Microsoft does, it's a long term play that's ahead of where the market is now. Right now digital audio is hot. Carrying digital photos with you is still a fringe scenario for most people, and digital video is even more so. Apple is playing the waiting game by not releasing an iPod that does photos or videos - they're letting other vendors establish the market, and then they'll enter it.
