March 1, 2006
New Apple iPod Hi-Fi player…Sorry Bose!
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Seems Apple has had enough of watching Bose SoundDocks fly off the shelves at a bone-jarring $299 each and getting only retail margins. They’ve just announced their own SoundDock killer. More features, more price, more margins at $349.
Sound quality is the wild card, and I’d put my money on Bose for that, but does John Q. iPod-Owner really care? Anything will sound great after listening to your iPod through earbuds.
They’ve got just what the SoundDock is missing:
- Portability - can be powered with D batteries
- Analog/Digital input port - accepts analog 3.5 mm stereo minijack or S/PDIF optical digital miniplug.
- Nice short URLs on the website ( sorry, but I am an SEO guy.)
Personally, I could do without the battery power, but shame on Bose for missing the input jack. First thing I did was turn it over and over looking for it.
And ironically, with the lack of the input jack, the Bose SoundDock is more a special-purpose iPod accessory than the Apple Hi-fi player. It is the only way to support the Shuffle which has only a USB adapter on it (like a thumb drive).
Bose does have the price in their favor, and even a better looking product (in my opinion, the Apple product looks more like a boxy Volvo).
And here’s what a search for “sounddock” produces on the Apple store:
That’s downright ruthless. That placement is likely no accident.
