The Beat Goes On

New gear from Apple today, announced at a press event called "The Beat Goes On". New chubby nano, iPod with new facelift is now the "iPod Classic," and the iPhone without the phone - aka the iPod Touch. I'm digging the classic - well priced, new interface, thinner chassis, and up to 160 gigs (wow). The nano is ok - I'm not a fan of the squatty design, but it's a smart move on apple's part to introduce more functionality into their best-selling player. Since all those crazy kids these days are downloading singles instead of albums, this should be plenty of place for the casual listener, and have some room to spare for some tv shows.

Onto what I don't understand: the iPod Touch. Apple opted for Flash memory, which isn't quite ready for primetime. As a result, storage is only 8/16 gig. What we're left with is a player with, in my opinion, a fairly weak marketing position. Is it for high-end users? Well, it has video, wifi, the ungodly touchscreen interface from the iPhone, a huge screen, and Safari. In short, it's an iphone, without the phone, with more storage. It would seem to be aimed at the high end user, but what it comes down to is this - 16 gigs is not enough. I feel like the average high-end user is going to have at least that in music, and is going to want to watch videos on the gorgeous screen. It's not for low-end users either (see my thoughts on the nano above). Basically, it seems to me that the Touch is aimed at folks jonesing for an iPhone but are either unwilling to switch to Cingular or can't. I don't think this applies to a very wide demographic, but it doesn't matter - I doubt R&D costs for the iTouch were very high, considering its almost an exact replica of an iPhone. The final blow was Steve's obligatory "one more thing" - they're axing the 4gig iPhone and slashing the price on the 8gig by $200. That's 200 bucks folks, which means the iPhone is selling now for $399, which happens to be the price of the 16gig Touch. I'll be interested to see how the Touch does, but I'll be passing on it.

Still, these are bar-none the best media players around, and you gotta hand it to Steve for the sheer ability to create a buzz. Even my mom knew about the announcements, which she heard on the news, not an ad - now that's what I call PR.