Looking Back on this Week's iPod Announcement
Sound and Vision, posted: 12-Sep-2009 10:21
Now that the dust has settled there are two major new features that have stuck in my mind from this week's iPod product launch event. One of those is the hotly anticipated camera, and the other is FM radio. Curiously both of these have been added to the Nano, but neither has been added to the Touch.
The esteemed leader of the Mac cult has been widely reported as stating that these new features were omitted from the new Touch in order to drive down prices and hence make it more accessible as a gaming platform. This is somewhat believable, but given the bargain basement price of the components required to support these features I couldn't help but come up with a theory of my own. Let's say I buy an 8Gb Touch at the new price point with a low end phone handset also thrown into my shopping basket, and consequently empty $500 from my wallet. That's little more than half the price of an 8Gb iPhone, yet the product differentiation here comes down to the lack of a camera and GPS on the Touch. Having the two seperate products makes sense though, as the Touch can be pitched to teenagers looking for a gaming platform while the iPhone appeals to those who object to carrying two seperate devices and who have the opportunity to benefit from generous carrier subsidies. There is no doubt in my mind that this market segmentation is extremely healthy for Apple's bottom line.
As for the FM radio, in many respects this is a more interesting move than the video recording camera by which it appears to have been overshadowed. Historically Apple's philosophy appears to have been based around the idea that iPod and iTunes users should obtain all of their content from iTunes itself, though they did ease up a bit on this when they released the now defunct radio remote accessory back in 2006. Meanwhile, consumers have been demanding the addition of FM radio as a standard feature since podcasts simply can't match the live and always available nature of traditional broadcast radio when it comes to obtaining up to date news and information. Limiting this feature to the Nano is curious, but I suspect that we will see it added to the iPod Touch and the iPhone in time assuming that there are no technical barriers associated with coupling the headphone socket as an antenna.
Prior to the event I had been contemplating buying either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, but given that I want a lowest cost solution and an FM radio it seems that the Nano is now the way to go.
Other related posts:
Why Freeview is a Dead End Technology
Don't Over-Accessorise
Some Old Technology Still Has its Place
The esteemed leader of the Mac cult has been widely reported as stating that these new features were omitted from the new Touch in order to drive down prices and hence make it more accessible as a gaming platform. This is somewhat believable, but given the bargain basement price of the components required to support these features I couldn't help but come up with a theory of my own. Let's say I buy an 8Gb Touch at the new price point with a low end phone handset also thrown into my shopping basket, and consequently empty $500 from my wallet. That's little more than half the price of an 8Gb iPhone, yet the product differentiation here comes down to the lack of a camera and GPS on the Touch. Having the two seperate products makes sense though, as the Touch can be pitched to teenagers looking for a gaming platform while the iPhone appeals to those who object to carrying two seperate devices and who have the opportunity to benefit from generous carrier subsidies. There is no doubt in my mind that this market segmentation is extremely healthy for Apple's bottom line.
As for the FM radio, in many respects this is a more interesting move than the video recording camera by which it appears to have been overshadowed. Historically Apple's philosophy appears to have been based around the idea that iPod and iTunes users should obtain all of their content from iTunes itself, though they did ease up a bit on this when they released the now defunct radio remote accessory back in 2006. Meanwhile, consumers have been demanding the addition of FM radio as a standard feature since podcasts simply can't match the live and always available nature of traditional broadcast radio when it comes to obtaining up to date news and information. Limiting this feature to the Nano is curious, but I suspect that we will see it added to the iPod Touch and the iPhone in time assuming that there are no technical barriers associated with coupling the headphone socket as an antenna.
Prior to the event I had been contemplating buying either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, but given that I want a lowest cost solution and an FM radio it seems that the Nano is now the way to go.
Other related posts:
Why Freeview is a Dead End Technology
Don't Over-Accessorise
Some Old Technology Still Has its Place
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Comment by thefatmould, on 12-Sep-2009 12:48 , user id: 45486)
Yeah FM radio would be nice but camera is not really important to me - with or without it i am not going to complain unles the price goes up.
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Comment by sbiddle, on 12-Sep-2009 11:28 , user id: 1387)
Interesting story here on the register talking about the new touch actually containing a chipset that supports FM radio.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/11/apple_ipod_touch_broadcom_chip/