The iPod Touch: Apple’s secret ‘game-changer’
GigaOm.com has an article that asks the question, is the iPod Touch actually more “disruptive” than its iPhone sibling? The The Touch does, after all, do nearly everything that the iPhone can do, except place phone calls and take photos—and if the rumors about what’s coming to the third-generation iPod Touch are true, it soon may take photos and make WiFi VOIP calls, too. Everybody talks about the iPhone, but lots of iPod owners are moving up to the iPod Touch.
Having owned an iPod Touch for about a year now, I must admit it’s certainly been a “game-changer” for me. As long as I can get a wifi signal, I can check mail, Twitter, Facebook, listen to Pandora.com, open a terminal to my home Linux box or VNC to my Windows box, even hop on Internet Relay Chat. And of course I can download e-books anywhere I get a signal, too
More and more places are starting to offer wifi connectivity—some of them fairly unexpected, such as select Springfield Missouri city buses. Thanks to the handy gadget in my pocket, I’m able to stay in touch far more often (though sometimes it seems like a curse as well as a blessing).
The iPod Touch starts at $229 (or less for refurbs)—and unlike the iPhone, the iPod Touch does not come with pricy smartphone fees, or cell-phone contract lock-in to AT&T. And while I admit annoyance at Apple’s asinine app approval apparatus, I have no complaints about the way the device itself has performed for me so far.
I find it interesting the article says that 45 million iPhones and iPod Touches have been sold altogether—but this Wall Street Journal article says AT&T has reported 10 million iPhone activations. Of course, the iPhone has been sold elsewhere in the world…but even if we assume another 5 million iPhones, that still leaves 30 million iPod Touches sold—that’s twice as many.
Not everybody can afford a smartphone—but the iPod Touch offers most of the power of a smartphone, disguised as a music and video player. It’s a remarkably effective and simple combination, and may end up doing more for Apple’s market share in the long run than even the iPhone. And as the impending new-model upgrades show, Apple is certainly paying attention.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:35 am
“…it soon may take photos and make WiFi VOIP calls.”
It already does make VOIP calls, using Skype. So that just leaves the camera.
September 1st, 2009 at 10:23 am
i love my touch. wish it had a camera, but love it even so. (and really. do i *need* a third camera?) never wanted iphone because i hate phones. the last thing i want when i’m doing stuff on my touch (playing a game, doing a sudoku puzzle, reading, listening to a podcast, audiobooks or my tunes) is a dang phonecall coming in. turning the phone off won’t do it for me. just knowing it’s that close to me would be a distraction. i want my phone to be in a different *room*.
September 1st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I guess the appeal of the iPod Touch is that it has remained a combination of both the basic and the modern. iPhone can carry on lots of complicated apps that some users don’t want. iPod Touch has kept its simplicity, which is what really matters to people who plainly and simply love to have music on their hands.