Apple have launched their new, and well rather diminutive third generation iPod Shuffle at a rather awkward time, companies and families are cost cutting to save money in what is a rather bleak economic climate, so it must therefore be a difficult job to try to add value to your products whilst still making them saleable. The general public are becoming a little more shrewd and not parting with their hard earned cash quite as freely, therefore Apple clearly had a bit of a brainwave with the development of the new iPod Shuffle.
The reason why the latest iPod Shuffle is such an interesting design concept and a likely success for Apple is that they have managed to shrink the product down to half the size of its predecessor, yet still whack the price up to £59. Adding to the genius is that the whole novelty value of the tiny, tiny iPod Shuffle which will undoubtedly make consumers want to rush out and buy one to replace their previous model.
The tiny body of the Apple iPod Shuffle doesn’t even have room for the buttons to operate the gadget so these have been added to the headphone cable. It is possible to change track, turn volume up and down, change playlist etc all from the iPod shuffle headset, although it has to be said that it is not possible to use any other headset to operate the iPod Shuffle other than another special Apple headset which uses the same technology but comes at a hefty additional price of £54. Another moot point is that Apple no longer include the mini docking USB charger for the iPod Shuffle instead there is another tiny piece of equipment a roughly 2” long USB connector that links the iPod shuffle headset to the PC for charging and synching.
The new iPod Shuffle will allow up to ten hours of playback on one single charge, will allow for synching to other playlists and will store up to 1,000 songs. There is also a clever voice over technology included in the tiny package which will tell the user what the playlist is and the song being played.
