Apple Slashes iPhone Price And Dials Up An iPhone-Like iPod

Apple Slashes iPhone Price And Dials Up An iPhone-Like iPod: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Sep. 5, 2007 (Investor's Business Daily delivered by Newstex) --

With an eye on the holiday shopping season, Apple Wednesday refreshed its lineup of iPod portable media players and slashed the price of its iPhone by a third.

Apple's AAPL new slate of iPods includes a high-end model that borrows the looks and features of the i- Phone. That model, the iPod Touch, has the same widescreen display and touch-screen controls as the i- Phone, which debuted in late June.

Apple also introduced new models of the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and the original product, now called the iPod Classic.

Plus, it announced a new wireless music download service for the i- Phone and iPod Touch called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. And it started selling customizable ring tones via the iTunes store.

"They have a very deep and complete lineup for the holiday at very aggressive price points that their competitors are going to have a hard time matching," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "It's looking like another very strong holiday for Apple."

Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the new products at a press and analyst event Wednesday in San Francisco.

Apple's lineup of iPods covers all parts of the market, he says. From the low-cost iPod Shuffle, which sells for $79 for a 1-gigabyte model, to the feature-rich iPod Touch, which costs $299 for an 8 GB model and $399 for a 16 GB model.

The iPod Touch is basically a "phoneless iPhone," says Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. It has Wi-Fi for wireless Web browsing and the same multi-touch interface and applications as the iPhone. But the iPod Touch is only 8 millimeters thin, compared with 11.6 mm for the iPhone.

"We think it's one of the Seven Wonders of the World," said Jobs, describing the iPod Touch.