[Waterman]

Hi...

I know one of the most compelling features of the iPod is the ability to house your entire CD collection on one device. But... for a lot of people, that can be handled with five gigs or fewer. In the same way that some companies under cut themselves by selling a cheaper version of their product (I remember reading about this phenomenon somewhere before), I think Apple should introduce a low-cost, ruggedized iPod Sport model.

Low cost would be about 150 USD. Ruggedized would mean rubber grips and a high impact plastic casing in lieu of the glorious white and chrome casing of current models. Wishful thinking would be hoping for some sort of secret partnership between Apple and IBM to develop some solid state memory solution in the 3 - 5 GB range. The trick here is to make the size small enough that it doesn't canabalize iPod sales, and large enough so that it kicks every one else's a$$ in the price range.

This iPod Sport would do two things:
1. Open up the iPod market to a whole new class of consumers (those for whom $300 is too much for a portable music player)
2. Give the yuppy yups another beautiful Joanthan Ive creation to lust after.

It seems like a win-win. Any thoughts?

[Link]

You mean something bright yellow with greyish black grips?

Give me a break.

[Waterman]

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about, Link. Listen, not all of us are sitting at home playing Zelda and eating Cheetos. I was hoping for some more intelligent responses since I think this idea would really make sense for Apple.

I, for one, would love a smaller, possibly solid state, sport model iPod, to use in addition to my current iPod. Why? Well, if I'm running, biking, or snowboarding I would want something that I could drop or land on without worrying about it.

Color doesn't matter so much at this stage of discussion, but I would say something that still uses the iPod's characteristic white would make the most sense brand-wise. Change the materials, give it some rubberized corners, make the screen smaller, make it rounder and smaller, etc. I'm interested in discussing the concept, though, not the asthetics of the device.