By SteveJack

For all I know about advanced polymers, Apple’s iPod nano screen could be made of clear Jello-brand gelatin. All I know is that the screen surface seems very similar, except for size, to the iPod and the iPod mini’s screen. I could scratch the iPod or the iPod mini’s screen to the same effect as I could scratch the iPod nano screen, that much seems “clear” to me. Not that I’m going to go scratching up my screens. You see, I keep my iPods in cases right out of the box. I’m funny that way; I like to protect my tech gadgets and I don’t expect them not to get marred up if I mistreat them.

Now, I’m not saying that people are mistreating them, but from using iPods, iPod minis and iPod nanos (and cell phones, Palms, etc.), I can tell you the screens can be scratched. And scratched pretty much with equal force in my opinion. I wonder, have the alleged iPod nano owners who claim to be having problems with their screens ever owned an iPod before?

Much is being made of iPodReqQ’s note on their webpage: “We are experieincing [sic] a temporary price increase on the nano LCD repair due to LCD availability and overwhelming demand.” Imagine if the overwhelming demand is due to the massive amount of iPod nano’s being sold and not the alleged “screen issue.” Imagine further that “due to LCD availability” actually means that it’s hard for iPodResQ to get screens because Apple’s using up all of the screens of that size and specification to make iPod nano units, not because iPodResQ needs so many screens to correct alleged iPod nano “screen issues.”

Now let’s get crazy! Imagine that you work for one company or another that’s staked a large part of their future on competing with Apple’s iPod and/or iTunes Music Store and is staring at the same fate as Rio square in the face. You know that you can’t compete and you know you’re about to be out of business sooner than later. Would you and your coworkers actually stoop to anonymously posting on Apple’s support and other websites that you’re having so-called “iPod nano screen issues?” Would you? Who knows? I just bring it up because I’m sitting here looking and poking at a 3G iPod screen, a two-month old iPod mini screen, and a 4GB iPod nano screen and they all seem pretty much the same “hardness” to me.

Hey, maybe I just got lucky and got the one nano with a super-hard screen. Maybe I’m just a conspiracy theorist. Maybe I just enjoy corporate espionage novels, iPod cases, FUD dissemination, Evangeline Lilly in blue (or any other color), and thinking about what people might do to stave off pink slips for awhile longer.

Yeah, maybe I’m crazy and Apple totally forgot to test the iPod nano during development and before they committed the design for the manufacture of tens of million of units. That would be bad for Apple, huh? I wonder how bad the negative publicity will be for Apple even if this is all just ginned up nonsense? Maybe even worse than if it were true? Maybe not, who really knows? Anyway, all of this this iPod nano “screen issue” stuff sure does make for a good story or a thousand variations of a story, though, doesn’t it?

SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews and iPodDailyNews Opinion sections.

[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of MacDailyNews or iPodDailyNews. MacDailyNews and iPodDailyNews are Apple Store and Apple iTunes Music Store affiliates.]

Related articles:
Alleged problems surfacing with Apple iPod Nano screen – September 26, 2005
Site reports iPod nano screen failures – September 23, 2005
Speck unveils nine new cases for Apple iPod nano – September 14, 2005