Apple quietly launched the seventh generation iPod touch.
Why should we emphasize 2019, because the release of the previous generation iPod touch was on July 15, 2015, and the release time of the two products was separated by a full 1412 days. It’s so long that we have forgotten that Apple still has such a product.
However, you will find that despite the disappearance of the game for nearly four years, the release of the new generation of iPod touch “scams” is not a conscience of four years of grinding a sword.
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The appearance and configuration of the seventh-generation iPod touch has barely changed from the previous generation. Still a small 4-inch screen, retaining the 3.5mm headphone jack and Home button (the Home button doesn’t even have fingerprint recognition), the weight is also 88g, and the Bluetooth is still the old version of 4.1. All this has to be skeptical. Is this the re-release of the inventory of the previous generation? Just as the netizen’s spit, the new iPod touch has three big characters written on it: clear inventory.
The back of the iPod touch is still the same formula, but also the familiar taste. Seeing this makes people feel that time and space are still. I don’t know what Apple and Cook are doing in the past few years, and I don’t dare to ask.
There is no change in the outside, and the internal changes should be large? You estimate that you are thinking more. The new iPod touch is equipped with the A10 biomimetic chip of the iPhone 7 series. Yes, it is the product released three years ago; the camera is equipped with a front 1.2 megapixel and a rear 8 megapixel, which was released in 2011. The level of the iPhone4S.
It may be because the configuration is too inconspicuous and the price does not dare to change much. The price of the new generation iPod touch ranges from 1599 yuan, 2499 yuan to 3399 yuan depending on the storage space. This price segment is the lowest in Apple products that can run iOS. Especially in the context of the iPhone selling more and more expensive, Apple did not raise the price of iPod touch.
Of course, Apple may have another plan to use it as an entry-level product for Apple’s service. So, it can run iOS12 system and support AR games.
In the inconspicuous introduction of Apple’s official website, the iPod touch was placed in the “Music” column. The main highlights were listening to songs and playing games. Jobs once revealed a data in 2010, the sales of iPod touch has exceeded the total sales of Nintendo and Sony handhelds, becoming the world’s first new handheld.
Perhaps this is what Cook has always emphasized, and Apple will transform itself from a product to a service. Apple has accumulated a large number of high-net-worth users in the past ten years, and the sales of mobile phones have reached the ceiling. It is becoming more and more unfeeling to make money by selling mobile phones, and it is increasingly difficult to support Apple’s market value of up to one trillion US dollars. .
Apple’s advantage is that it not only sells a lot of hardware, but also builds a huge iOS software ecosystem. When the hardware encounters a bottleneck, there is still a lot of room for software and services.
According to Apple’s second-quarter earnings report for the 2019 fiscal year, iPhone’s revenue was $31.051 billion, down 17% from the same period last year, setting the biggest quarterly decline in iPhone revenue. However, the revenue from services rose from 13% in the previous quarter to 20%, reaching 11.45 billion US dollars. After breaking through 10 billion US dollars in the previous quarter, it once again hit a record high, becoming the second pillar of Apple’s revenue.
Cook also revealed that the number of paid users currently using Apple services and third-party services has reached 390 million, and Apple hopes to raise this number to 500 million by 2020.
This means that Apple’s revenue growth requires bullets from products other than the iPhone, and users who have weaker spending power use the iPod touch. This practice is conducive to expanding Apple’s user base, and ultimately brings a substantial increase in service revenue.
The problem, however, is that there is no innovative product, will the service pay for it?
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One problem with Apple is that the release of new products is too slow. Basically, there are two or three new iPhones and new iPads every year, and occasionally there will be Mac notebook updates. When the product line of domestic mobile phone brands bombarded consumers, Apple’s large-volume company still sells products that were launched half a year ago or even longer.
But the price of 3,399 yuan can completely buy a domestic flagship mobile phone equipped with Xiaolong 855. In this price segment, you can buy one plus 7Pro, Xiaomi 9, OPPO Reno and Huawei P30.
In other words, users can enjoy the same bangs without the bangs full screen at the same price, you can enjoy the 7nm process of the Snapdragon 855 or Kirin 980, you can enjoy the screen fingerprint recognition, you can enjoy several times zoom camera… If you buy an iPod touch, in addition to having an iOS experience, there are no other highlights to look for.
The latest generation of iPod touch is even more tasteless than the equivalent iPhone. The iPhone7, which also uses the A10 chip, is now priced at less than 3,000 yuan in Jingdong. That is to say, if you spend 3,000 yuan to buy an iPod touch, you can choose to buy a higher-profile iPhone7.
This also reflects the embarrassing market positioning of the iPod touch – the mobile phone can realize all the functions of the iPod touch, and even achieve the effect and experience more prominent. The iPod touch was formerly the iPod, which is an MP3 player that has won great glory in the Jobs era. But MP3 has been eliminated from the market like the feature phone. iPod touch is a derivative of the iPod. In fact, in addition to the iPod touch, Apple also introduced derivatives such as iPod mini, iPod classic, iPod nano, etc., but other models have not continued to push new products, only the iPod touch this time suddenly updated.
Products like iPod touch are no longer necessary. The iPad can at least meet the needs of large-screen video to meet the needs of the display office, but the iPod touch has been hard to imagine which scenes are suitable for it. iPod touch is more like a nostalgic product, but this kind of thing is only suitable for staying in memory.
From the release of this generation of iPod touch, it can be seen that Apple seems to be more and more careless in hardware products. It’s hard to believe that Apple will surprise fruit powder at the Apple Autumn Conference in September this year. Perhaps in Cook’s eyes, it is the first place to mine the rich mines left by Steve Jobs and continue to make money.
