Apple made a great approach to iPhone worshipers outside of the USA!

Apple put on a special event yesterday to announce and introduce their range of new iPOD's. Except for the iPOD shuffle, it is just new colors that have been added. I'm sure most iPOD lovers and related business people are eager to know whether the iPOD Touch will be introduced during this event. They did introduce a beautiful slim iPhone without a telecom module inside, and name it iPOD Touch. Right, it's a 'new' product category from Apple, but its way similar to others. Haha?

I think Steve Jobs made a decision to focus the iPOD shuffle, Nano and Classic models on the USA market since iPhone has the same features as the iPOD Touch - even menu outlooks. I don't think this Touch will become a best seller as previous model iPODs. Their potential customers are having fun with iPhones already. Steve released the iPOD Touch to target customers outside of the USA who are waiting for the iPhone release as well as other new iPOD models. Releasing a new mobile phone with no previous sales history to those major mobile phone network providers is a very hard job and they have to deal with each market individually. Also, the current iPhone doesn't work on 3G networks, which most of Europe and Korean market are heading to, so they need to come up with something to solve two issues at the same time with the best item - and it is the iPOD Touch.

In Korea, the Apple iPOD didn't take more than 40% of the MP3P market share, compared to strong results among most of markets in the world. This is because Korea was the first country that released the MP3P and there were more than 50 manufacturers currently in Korea already, so this business was booming here. This meant there was very big competition going on with all Korean made MP3P, and all had strong Korean support. There was not a lot of room for Apple to get in, and also iTunes was not available until today. However, Apple came out with new iPODs, with a great outlook and feelings. Slowly, iPOD users in Korea started to be recognized as early adopters. Young and talented guys started to buy iPOD's to differentiate from others. (Yes, its very common device at overseas but wasn't in Korea due to a lack of features and services). Apple did a great job from 2006, and they are starting to lift market shares slowly from the bottom lines. They are really close to 10%e and this should be exceeded this after the new models are released.

Also, as the Korean mobile market is one of the most advanced markets in the international scene, Korean's were disappointed that the iPhone wasn't available for their market. Many hackers broke through the iPhone's sim-card security, which is meaningless seeing as the GSM network isn't available in Korea anyway. Some people instead use it as a PDA or PMP.?They would not be impressed with this, seeing as the new iPOD Touch has all the same features as the iPhone, but it is much cheaper.?The only benefit that these people had, was to be able to play with a new gadget a few weeks before anyone else.

iPOD Touch will pulling in all those iPhone and iPOD worshipers all over the world, plus Nano and Classic will hurt other MP3P manufacturers with their very low price ranges, which is a result of their strong buying power. Toshiba have also announced their new 1.8inch HDD with 80GB and 160GB capacities - just after the Apple announcement on the Classic. I don't think other manufacturers will have a chance to get stocks into the marketplace as the same date as Apple. Since Apple will take up many weeks or months of their whole production.

New iPOD line ups will be available in Korea from the middle of October to gain EMI test. Let's see how they are getting on with here in Korea. I'm still concerned as to why Apple didn't open their iTunes online stores in Korea and China markets, seeing as they have great benefit potential to Apple.

Can anyone try those new iPODs? I heard they have already arrived in Korea. Apple Korea's warehouse?Do I have to make a secret hidden deal with them to get my hands on one and play with it earlier? Haha