iPod Ha-Ha

The decline has begun: Apple has run out of creative ideas to fuel the sales of the iPod product line. Yesterday’s announcement of the $350 (!!!) “iPod Hi-Fi” shows that Apple is grasping at straws, trying to maintain buzz around the iPod. But for the first time since the release of the iPod, Apple has come up with a lemon.
First, the obvious: no all-in-one speaker system has a “large soundstage” or “precise imaging and separation”. You have to succumb to Apple’s reality distortion field to believe these claims. Separation depends on the distance between the speakers, and you only get real stereo separation when the speakers are further apart than your ears. The further you are from the speakers, the further apart the speakers must be. With the iPod Hi-Fi, you’d need to have the gizmo in your face to get any kind of stereo separation.

As for “audiophile-quality sound”, well, there must be a great deal of laughter among “audiophiles” who now find that for $350 they can replace their multi-thousand dollar systems. The speakers may be good, even very good, but two factors come into play: first, the lack of separation, and second, the fact that the iPod Hi-Fi is playing compressed music. Audiophile-quality sound would be possible, perhaps, with lossless music on an iPod, or with music compressed at very high bit rates. But with compressed music, no matter how good AAC files sound (and I use them myself, albeit at 160 kbps, not the default 128), it won’t be audiophile quality.

But Apple also made a serious design error with this device. The iPod sticks out the top of the iPod Hi-Fi, just waiting to be knocked off or even snapped off the dock connector. This rules out the use of the device outdoors, where the protuberance will certainly lead to damage: flying frisbees, bouncing footballs, babies and dogs will all be a threat. It’s hard to imagine what Apple’s ace designers were thinking when they came up with that one: it shows off the iPod pretty well, but it’s certainly not safe. Other devices have the dock connecter at the front of the unit, which is much safer and more practical: you couldn’t even walk down the street with the iPod Hi-Fi on your shoulder for fear of your iPod falling off.

So all this leads to the only practical use for the iPod Hi-Fi: that of a small speaker system for a bedroom or office. Unfortunately, this is where the biggest mistake comes in. At $350, the iPod Hi-Fi is well above the cost of excellent quality powered speaker systems. Take for example the JBL Creature, an astounding set of speakers that sells for as little as $65 (Amazon.com), and that will rival other powered speakers at five times the price. If you want to turn your iPod into a mini-stereo for home or office, you wouldn’t go wrong with these speakers. For outdoor use, you’ll never hear stereo separation anyway, so check out the Tivoli Audio iPal, a single-speaker unit, but with such beautiful sound that you will be astounded.

In any case, this device will likely be Apple’s first resounding failure in the iPod product line. (The smaller accessories that are often impulse purchases don’t count.) The iPod has started to reach saturation, and Apple needs to come up with new products that revitalize the product line. This is not the way to go. But what’s left? After all, the iPod does music, photos and videos. All that Apple can do is increase the capacity of the iPod, something that many iPod owners are clamoring for, or come up with new, innovative form factors. It’s time to start thinking about the future of the iPod, but this device is not the future: it is merely a placeholder to get some media attention while Apple tries to figure out what to do next.