Apple Rumors - iPod

There is no news about any new additions to the iPod family, or any memory upgrades. The rumors around the web are that we might see the return of free music being bundled with the iPods, similar to the U2 iPod a few generations ago.

I don't believe that sold very well, and I don't think anything like this will sell either. There is a small niche market for each band, and I'm not sure that people wanting iPods will buy these over standard iPods. I am a huge Nickelback fan, and I have all their music. I might be temped to get an iPod Nickelback edition, but I already have all their albums. Why pay for the same songs twice?

If you're Apple, you will be looking at the big name bands that have a lot of albums out that you can preload onto an iPod. But most people already have the songs they like from their favorite bands. If they already have those songs, why buy them pre-loaded on an iPod? 

The other idea I have seen is that Apple might consider preloading some top songs onto an iPod. This might be a better seller than the one band edition iPods, but again, it will probably fail. The first question is, what songs are you going to load onto the iPod? Do we do some older songs, or do we throw the latest top 50 countdown onto it? What do we do if the top songs are sold through iTunes or contain explicit material?

There are too many questions and too much uncertainly here. The only real option would be throwing in a free iTunes gift certificate. All in all, I would be very surprised if we see any more preloaded iPods for a while.  

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