Just over a month after rolling out the super-slim iPod nano, Apple on Wednesday unveiled two new video iPods at a special media-only event in San Jose, Calif.
Apple sold more than one million iPod nanos in the 17 days following its introduction in September, according to Jobs. “We could not meet demand,” he told attendees of the special event.
“What about the white iPod?” he asked. “It’s been a huge success, and therefore it’s time to replace it. Today we are announcing the new white iPod, and it’s a stunner. And yes, it does video.”
The long-rumored and highly anticipated new iPods play video on a 2.5-inch, 320 x 240, 260,000 color TFT display. The new iPod features realtime decoding of MPEG 4 and H.264 video at 30 frames per second (FPS). The video iPods come in two configurations. A 30GB model with a $299 price tag, and a 60GB for $399. The new iPod holds up to 15,000 songs, 25,000 photos or over 150 hours of video and is available in either white or black designs. Users can connect the new iPods to a television via the Apple iPod AV cable.
The 30GB model is 31 percent thinner than the 20GB model it replaces, according to Jobs. And the 60GB model is 12 percent thinner than the 20GB model, he added.
“And we make them in black, too,” said Jobs.
“The new iPod is the best music player ever — it’s 30 percent thinner and has 50 percent more storage than its predecessor — yet it sells for the same price and plays stunning video on its 2.5-inch color screen,” said Jobs in a statement. “Because millions of people around the world will buy this new iPod to play music, it will quickly become the most popular portable video player in history.”
The announcements came in conjunction with the news that the new version of the iTunes Music store in iTunes 6, Apple’s popular music-playing software, will sell both music videos and television shows from ABC Disney which can be loaded and viewed on the new video iPods. Apple states that both will begin shipping next week.
Updated 3:49 PM 10/12/05: Removed references to 40GB and 80GB models.