[Dorian Gray]

Looks like the others answered your question, hobbit.2.

I doubt Apple would sell a shuffle without headphones, not least because the included earbuds probably cost only a dollar or two to make yet are disproportionately valuable to the consumer (as evidenced by the ridiculous price Apple charges for replacement earbuds!). But I agree with oldmacfan that Apple should price the shuffle very aggressively. It would get more people using the iTMS and upgrading to more expensive iPods.

The initial price of the shuffle was good in January, but that was because of the massive pent-up demand for a product like the shuffle. The 1 GB version was priced optimistically, but people bought it perhaps because it was the "best" shuffle money could buy. The price drop for the 1 GB model probably reflected the slow sales of that model compared to the 512 MB version.

Ten months after the launch, the price of both versions could come down a bit.

My 2 cents: Leave the capacities the same but shrink the physical size of the memory so that you can cram in as much battery as possible. That way you're mostly jsut plugging it in to get new songs not charge very often. Oh and price drops are good too unless they undercut the ability to upsell to nanos/ipods

[Luca]

Simple: Kill the 512 MB model, sell the 1 GB one (in white and black) for $99. Also make black versions of the earbuds ship with all black iPods.

That's the best way, IMHO. I think Apple should strive for no more than two of each model iPod, but if they can do just one that's even better. The iPod shuffle could get by with just a single model.

[Robo]

That's what I'm thinking too, Luca. I don't know if Apple would want to bring the iPod shuffle under $99 - some think that it has already damaged the iPod brand enough...

[Matsu]

I don't think it can hurt to turn it into a stocking stuffer. It holds a respectable amount of music. Cutting a little off the price will make for a few more impulse buys, but the real benefit is that those people then buy iTMS trackes. iTMS feeds the iPod, here's an iPod that can fuel interest in iTMS. A nice upward spiral for once. One thing to try might be selling special addition shuffles preloaded with 10-20 tracks. Themes could include, of course, artist albums, artist greatest hits, "music collection" definitive series type stuff. If preloading them is a pain, sell them with a key that entitles the buyer to download a very specific music compilation. This way the buyer is invited, immediately, to interact with iTMS. You don't even have print special packaging, you could make up music cards (like phone cards) that represent these various compilations, call them "concert passes" -- stuff'em into the plastic wrap, make them available in the store, and in the impulse section, along with shuffles, of every major store...

[EmC]

I have been jogging for a while and I recently decided that I wanted to start improving my time before I added any more distance. So know I have my shuffle and a stopwatch. I would like to see an iPod Sport or something to that effect. Integrated stopwatch w/ lap timer, one line scrolling song title maybe the option to load two separate playlists and switch between the two or play from both at the same time. Getting a little more complicated, but I would buy one in a heart beat.

It would be really cool if it could keep track of your times in a text file and import them into excel or a little app that keeps track of times and gives a few graphs.

Hell I've made myself so excited over this I made a mockup, nay, two.

[JayReding]

Nice work on the mockup!

Not so nice for the product though. That screen would be tiny - you'd need a jeweler's eyepiece to read it!

The thing about the Shuffle is its complete simplicity. It plays music. That's it. There isn't a single extraneous function. Adding features takes away from that simplicity. If you want a stopwatch, that's what the nano is great for - you get the screen and a larger capacity without sacrificing the durability of solid state storage.

The Shuffle's one of the most elegant pieces of technology I've ever owned. Other than dropping the price, adding black, and maybe a few more accessories, I wouldn't change a thing about it.

[EmC]

Originally Posted by JayReding That screen would be tiny - you'd need a jeweler's eyepiece to read it!

Yeah, i just realized that when I picked it up to go jog. Damn thing is tiny.