It feels like the iPod touch is the middle child, it’s not as versatile as big brother iPhone, and it’s not as cute and thus forgivable as the iPod. Instead it’s in the middle, and it’s value is not apparent.
None of this is to say that you shouldn’t buy the iPod touch. In fact, based on my early testing, I’d have to say that the iPod touch is by far the most amazing product to ever bear the “iPod” brand name. But be forewarned that the iPod touch is not necessarily the mythical “iPhone without a phone” that some users have been looking for. Instead, think of it as an “iPhone lite without the phone.”
But in addition to the iPhone apps the iPod Touch is missing, it’s also not as good of an iPod as the iPhone. The killer feature of the iPhone-as-iPod is the clicker on the headphones. Hit play, lock the screen, put the iPhone in a pocket, and you’re set — just click the headphone button once for play/pause and double-click to advance to the next track. Without this, I just don’t see how the iPod Touch can be used while in a pocket.
As amazing as the iPod Touch is, you can imagine the number of times you would be asked, “Oh is that one of those iPhones?â€, only to answer no, and set yourself up for a long explanation. I find myself getting this close to ordering an iPod Touch, only to stop, because at that point, I might as well get an iPhone. And just maybe, that’s what Apple wants me to do.
One of the potential opportunities for Apple here is to test their SDK on the iPod touch first, instead of on the iPhone. Apple has taken quite a bit of flak for not releasing a platform level SDK for the iPhone. I for one do not fault Apple, building an SDK is not an easy thing, especially on a new platform. Sure, the iPhone is running OS X, but the reality is that it has constraints; it’s CPU, it’s memory, and video capabilities. All much smaller and less powerful than your average computer. That means Apple needs to provide a framework that protects the device. Now let’s say the iPhone did some crazy critical function, I don’t know, like allow you to make and answer calls? If the SDK didn’t protect the primary functions of the device well enough, a poorly developed application could force you to lose your calling capabilities. The result would be complaints to Apple, even if they were not the ones that developed the application. I can’t say for sure, but I would suspect that AT&T’s own carrier standards require Apple to be extra careful as well to protect any services the iPhone communicates to.
With the iPod touch, you have similar constraits, but you’re removing the critical nature of the device, anything related to calling. Now a poorly developed application knocking out my iPod touch would probably annoy me and I’d reset it. For an iPhone, I’d have serious concerns if I can use this device as my main calling device.
One of the reasons the iPod touch has received mixed reviews is because it lacks some of the applications the iPhone has. Apple has a chance to add these applications back into the iPod touch but roll them out using a SDK they’d like to deliver to developers. It’s win win; iTouch users have additional applications available, iPhone users don’t feel like the iPod touch has more than they do, and Apple has an opportunity to build a solid SDK as they strive to do.