Denver resident Zack Cannady only needed to hear one thing from Apple Inc.’s chief executive Wednesday – that the company was dropping the price of its iPhone from $599 to $399.
“I wasn’t coming in without a price drop,” said the 29-year-old Web designer as he walked out of the Apple store at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center clutching a plastic bag containing an 8-gigabyte iPhone.
In a much-hyped event, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the company would immediately lower the price of several of its iPod media players and its iPhone – a combination cellphone, Web browser and media player.
Analysts said the price drop would boost sales, possibly allowing Apple to achieve its goal of selling 1 million iPhones by the end of September.
Apple will phase out its 4-gigabyte iPhone. Both models debuted in June.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company also introduced a new music and video player, the iPod Touch, which contains all the major features of the iPhone – a touch-sensitive screen, Wi-Fi capability, wide-screen display and Web browsing – minus a phone.
Two versions of the iPod Touch will be available, an 8-gigabyte version for $299 and a 16-gigabyte version for $399.
The device can be used to browse the Web in areas where a wireless network is present. Apple announced a partnership with Starbucks that will let iPod Touch users freely access the stores’ Wi-Fi network to purchase and download songs from its iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.
That Starbucks offering won’t be available in Denver until 2008 or 2009. Local iPod Touch users can use other Wi-Fi networks to access the music store, but may have to pay for network access.
The Wi-Fi component of the iPod Touch isn’t that useful because users must be in a designated hot spot, said Tom Samiljan, executive editor of , a technology-news site from AOL.
“The iPod Touch is for people that are happy with their current (cellphone) carrier, have an iPod and want a newer iPod,” he said.
Still, local iPod enthusiasts are interested in the new products.
“The phones have been ringing off the hook,” said Apple Cherry Creek store manager Jen Starry. “We’re not carrying the iPod Touch; you can only get it online for now.”
Cannady, who also owns an older 80-gigabyte video iPod, said he wouldn’t recommend the 16-gigabyte iPod Touch because there’s not enough storage to keep a large library of music, photos, videos and games on the device. According to Apple, the 16-gigabyte iPod touch can hold up to 3,500 songs.
“It’s form over function; Apple is notorious for it,” Cannady said. “It’s not worth it, not for 16 gigabytes.”
Apple did unveil a 160-gigabyte iPod Classic player for $349, which can hold up to 40,000 songs, but that device doesn’t contain all of the new functions of the iPod Touch or iPhone.
Jobs also announced:
A new iPod Nano, with a larger screen for viewing album artwork and movies and playing video games.
The ability to make ring tones for the iPhone from the iTunes Music Store. Users pay for their song from iTunes plus another 99 cents to edit and make it a 30-second ring tone for their iPhone.
Apple stock closed at $136.76, down $7.40, or 5.13 percent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson can be reached at 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
