iPod touch, first thoughts.
IT SHOULD BE CLEAR BY NOW that Apple innovates and they’re here to stay. There was some doubt a few years ago as to Steve Job’s intentions with the company, whether or not OSX was really going to be able to compete, and whether or not the consumer market would take to Apple’s charm.
The iPod may have saved Apple from doom, destruction and grim death.
From the beginning, Apple shook the world with a breakthrough music player with an awesome set of controls. The wheel is the paragon of simplistic, near perfect design… something that they achieved six years ago that “we” thought would never get better was then again impoved upon with the patented click wheel (simplifying the iPod controls once again). After getting over some early battery issues and offering AppleCare protection, Apple trailblazed a music revolution and arguably saved music itself.
The iPod isn’t responsible for inventing what a “podcast” is at heart, but the name comes from Apple’s player. iTunes is the clear 500lb gorilla of music and podcasts, the dominant player on both Mac OS and Windows for good reason—it works really well.
The iPhone is the revolutionary device to phones, just as the iPod continues to dominate the music player market. I see this technology as being important because it’s actually starting to become a life-modifying factor; people are changing routines and behavior to include the use of these tech-toys, it does and will continue to influence where people shop and eat, it will proliferate throughout other industries and change the way people send and receive information, and it shapes criminal trends as much as consumer trends.
There’s a criminal category for iPod stealing, and Apple has chosen to address this as well with a technology that stops the device from recharging if ownership cannot be proven, thus turning the super-high-tech-LCD-screened-toy into an ineffectual paperweight. This should help to legitimize at least a good part of the resell market, and make people with an quick, dirty impulse think twice before taking someone’s ‘Pod… as long as they know that the tech won’t work.
The iPhone is now cheaper. And yes, all of us who bought the damned thing on or near the release are feeling a bit chumped, and all y’all with the 4GB version must feel even worse about it. The 8GB model is the only version available, and is now priced at a very reasonable $399, now placing it around and underneath other much crappier mobile phones. (For instance, the Motorola RAZR and the Nokia 8801 phones were both around or over $599 at release… smart phones are still around $399-499)
The iPod touch is essentially an iPhone that can’t call. I need to think a little bit more about the new iPods before writing about it, something doesn’t make sense to me because it seems like Apple wants iPhone owners (the type of consumer who would purchase the 16GB touch is the same person who likely owns the iPhone and an 80GB iPod… thus would be torn between buying a “call-less-but-larger-HDD-iPhone” and/or the 160GB iPod) to feel cheated.
That’s sort of how I feel. Apple is releasing technology that integrates and changes the world in ways that have never happened before and people will start to connect on more levels. The iPod will likely start sharing music much as Microsoft’s Zune and the Sony Mylo have tried to do, but not enough people own those luxury-toys. People seem to put iPod’s (and soon, the iPhone) into the “necessity” category, not the vanity (unnecessary) category. Many people interviewed during Dateline’s exposé said that they “couldn’t live without the iPod,” and that “life wouldn’t be as fun.” People use the device to run, get through commuting (especially on subway/BART/bus/etc), during work and workouts… the new tech-generation likely owns more than one iPod, and many people have started to either get or plan to get a shuffle for running/workouts and a larger iPod for video and TV shows.
Apple has very intelligently filled the vacuum and power-gap left in music and content when Napster went south, and with the prosecution and media-slam on file-sharers, many people decided that it “wasn’t worth it” to break the law. Many teens simply don’t take these Federal Laws seriously, in part because of how easy it is to break the laws and the anonymity of the offense. Some kids aren’t aware that it’s illegal, although that was more of a phenomenon from a few years ago—I don’t think that that excuse would still work. However, Apple’s iTunes has demonstrated how to legally allow people to get the music that they want through the computer, how to allow users to get just the songs that they want, and how to prevent people from stealing music from stores and the industry itself. It’s now just as easy to get music and video legally as it is to steal it, and doing things the “legal way” is safe.
Instead of DVDs of TV series’ there are digital files now. People are able to just get the episodes that they want, and they’re able to do it from their desk instead of Best Buy or Target. Broadband connections have allowed for decent quality files to come across at reasonable speeds (for the “instant gratification” factor) and Apple even created the Apple TV device so that TV owners/lovers can now watch their prized content on the big box. Adding YouTube and video podcasts has now created an entire new industry, as well as a brand new, gigantic pastime.
Apple has literally aided the creation of a mind-numbing, time-wasting hobby for people, and has done so in the most stylish and attractive way possible. Being a geek/nerd can now be sorta sexy. High-tech stuff is now attractive, and the hottest celebrities and trend-setters are shown to use Apple products. Apple’s screens and machines rules the silver screen and most of the TV shows, and now in turn people are using Apple products to watch people use Apple products.
I just don’t know why Apple didn’t make the iPod touch 160GB… (I think that they’re trying to force people to want the iPhone for a phone, the shuffle for exercise, the iPod classic for TV shows and podcasts, and the touch for extra movies—and as they “force” people to want to get everything, people end up getting none of ‘em. Apple has opened the door for another company to step in and make a device to fit in this gaping hole. But again, I need to think about it more.)