Apple has announced a new iPhone but what about a new iPod Touch? Though for iTouch owners, the iPhone 2.0 software is only $10 away, they are still faced with the inescapable truth that they are 100% stuck with the same hardware… and pricing. Why invest money on a 16GB iPod Touch and an added $10 for iPhone 2.0 when you can get iPhone 2.0 plus a GPS- and 3G-capable device with calling and a 2MP camera for half the price? A ray of light: supplies of the Touch are dwindling, AppleInsider suspects, due to another announcement from Apple? The most logical upgrade is a storage one, but it’s also entirely possible Apple is going to give up on its PMP business.
[appleinsider via techradar]
June 20th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Why invest money on a 16GB iPod Touch and an added $10 for iPhone 2.0 when you can get iPhone 2.0 plus a GPS- and 3G-capable device with calling and a 2MP camera for half the price? Because you will make up for it in subscription fees. Because you already have a phone. Because you are happy with your phone plan. Because you don’t want it to be your phone too. There are numerous reasons. Those of us to whom these reasons don’t apply have already picked the iPhone over the iPod Touch. Also, buying an iPod touch doesn’t qualify as an investment.
June 21st, 2008 at 9:43 am
give up on its pmp business? are you insane? why would apple give up on the ipod? they literally revolutionized the mp3 player with it and it was pretty much responsible for their spike in popularity. sorry… that was just a stupid prediction
June 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
So maybe the prediction about giving up on the PMP business was a bad one. . .all his other predictions have been golden! For example, the Instinct really is an iPhone killer, assuming you’ve 1) never used or even seen an iPhone, 2) hate Apple, 3) are deaf and dumb, and 4) have a Sprint contract. If all of these 4 apply to you, go get your Instinct right now. It is the phone of the future! (But only if by “future” we mean the best phone coming from someone other than Nokia, LG, RIM or Apple that makes phones for Sprint customers).
June 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
iPod are still bought mainly for its music-playing. Nano video sales are nowhere near Nano 2G sales. But all I’m implying is that Apple might want to concentrate on the phone business and leave the high-end PMP business for now until they come up with a player distinct enough from the iPhone.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Instinct is a much better phone than the Iphone, and I say this as an Iphone owner/user. That said, the iPhone is a far better PDA/Media Player than the Instinct. It’s really a matter of preference. There are lots of basic phone features missing from the Iphone (voice dialing, a camera that would be cutting edge in *this* century, video recording on said camera, picture dialing, MMS, etc). I think, in general, the iphone mostly appeals to a different demographic — but I’m certain there are some out there for whom the instinct is most certainly an iPhone killer. It’s a really good phone . . .
At any rate, Apple’s main failing with PMP’s is this stubborn, and frankly baffling, refusal to support DivX/Xvid decoding. Having to transcode your video files is something you normally have to do only on a sub-100 dollar player (and even then, only if its not one of the newer chinese ones) — it’s not something I’d expect to have to do on a 300 dollar PMP. It’s just not befitting a top-end player to be so format restrictive.
The thing is, if you think of the ipod touch as a PMP, its a failure. If you think of it as a PDA, which it really is, then it’s media capabilities are pretty damn good for a PDA. I really hope apple makes a second generation touch (I’m actually pretty sure they will) and that they improve some of its weaknesses. With support for more formats it’ll really be a top notch PMP (a bit expensive, but hey, all apple products are overpriced — If it can do something other players can’t, then people will pay for it).