Kill or Cure the iPod Touch Platform
by Ewan Spence
I wonder just how much a headache the iPod Touch is causing Cupertino? Essentially the Touch is the iPhone without the phone circuit, but it’s also more than that. It’s not the ongoing revenue stream that the iPhone devices are, it’s not out there challenging for column inches in a fight with the telcos and smartphone manufacturers. It’s the forgotten brother of the line up.
Yet it’s arguably exactly the same hardware, and it’s definitely the same platform as the iPhone. Yet iPod Touch users are getting a rough deal at every turn. Flash software updates are being charged for, just to add in the same software that the iPhone carried originally, it seems to be the forgotten product, and as the iPhone gathers all the press and marketing push, the Touch is left forgotten in everything except the financial reports.
The Touch could be, with some focus, a fantastic platform for Apple and the mobile space. It’s well positioned to be the first truly mainstream successful internet tablet. Yet it continues to be crippled. The upcoming iPhone SDK will also allow applications to run on the iPod Touch
The Touch may well have the potential to be a new type of device family, but it could also signal that Apple are losing site of their audience – news that the January 2008 upgrade was going to be chargeable drew (admittedly muted) boo’s from the audience at the MacWorld Keynote… and with the upgrade to allow third party SDK developed applications due to incur a further charge, I wonder if Apple really wanted the iPod Touch in the first place?
When you have a product you should be 100% behind it, or kill it. I wish Cupertino could make its mind up.
