“If you want to know what the next iPod will look like, go to Apple.com and watch the demo for the coming iPhone,” Eric Benderoff writes for The Chicago Tribune.
Benderoff writes, “Since Steve Jobs earlier this month introduced the iPhone, which goes on sale in June from Cingular Wireless, much has been said and written about how revolutionary it will be. That’s all well and good, but one aspect has been overlooked: How will this impact the iPod?”
“The answer is, quite a bit,” Benderoff writes. “Already, Apple executives are calling the iPhone the best iPod the company has built. Do you think all that really cool technology, particularly the touch screen, only will be used on a phone that starts at $500?”
Benderoff writes, “Hardly. Put me on the record as saying you’ll see a touch-screen iPod this fall, a few months after the buzz of the iPhone launch settles and a few months before the key holiday sales season kicks in.”
“Apple cares about being an innovator, as well as protecting its bread-and-butter product line, so it would behoove Jobs to include iPhone’s nifty new features in his top-of-the-line video-playing iPod,” Benderoff writes. “Before introducing the iPhone, speculation was rampant that Apple was working on a wide-screen version of the iPod, with touch controls. The speculation was right, but the product was wrong: That’s what the iPhone looks like. But so will the next iPod. And I would expect a bigger screen that will be sharper than the iPhone.”
Full article here.
iPhone’s wireless widescreen iPod demo: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ipod/
I think there is going to be a separate iPod, and sooner than the iPhone rather than later. It is way past time for it…a release now will not take away from the iPhone as much. Also agree that the hard drive size limit on the iPhone will keep it more as a different device. I am now wishing I got bigger than the 30 gigger. The new iPod will have wifi, since it is in the iPhone, and also, just to shut up Zune Tang, if for no other reason. Anyone considering the Zune has to only touch its fisher price plastic pretend click wheel button and then the iPods, and their decision is instantly made. I love the click wheel and hope to see a form of it in multitouch, but I am interested in software specifically places controls for games in the iPod as a possible alternative. Their is a slice of small pie out there for more games, as the couple I have bought are really cool graphic and soundwise.
Screw the touch-screen iPod. It’s as bad as all those other failed interfaces on every other iPod wanna-be. Remember why we love the iPod? It’s the interface. Take away the scroll wheel, and the thing becomes harder for many people to use. Me? I leave the thing on shuffle most of the time, but click forward to tracks I want to hear (or back to ones I want to listen to again) without looking at the device, especially when snowboarding. How would I do that without buttons? Even the phone concept in the iPhone is screwed up by multi-touch (but forgiven for the internet communication features). I don’t have an iPod with video. It doesn’t add anything for me. And if they screw up the iPod concept by making it harder to use, I can’t imagine buying a new one. Ever. btw, I’m still using a 5GB first-gen, original battery, and a 30GB 3rd-gen (one in each car), and a 1st-gen nano. There are a lot of us using iPods for music and podcasts only. Give us more battery life, and don’t mess up the interface, and maybe I’ll buy again one day, but not for video, and not if it’s multi-touch.
The one advancement I might accept? Make the control wheel on the full-size iPod the size of the nano’s (after all, that’s all the larger it needs to be), and either reduce device size, or increase screen size.
Technology should improve function more than flair, or the device will fail in the market. Like the Zune and virtually every other mp3 player.
Oh, and my ‘one more thing’? Put a shuffle on-off button on the outside of the device (all music players). Ever get to a song by a band you suddenly find yourself in the mood for? Rather than have to pull the thing out, unlock it, advance to the shuffle menu setting, and change it (and later change it back), there should be a simple button or switch like the hold switch to turn shuffling on and off. That’s the only feature I’ve envied on non-Apple devices.
I really would really like a new interface. Tiger it up a bit.
Too linear and 2D.
Wish I could reach the menu screen instantly rather than the menu button now bringing you back, back, back to the main screen.
Oh yea, no iPod for you!!!!!!!!
Not until September!!!
Along with new Flash based Zunes
<i>”…If you want to know what the next iPod will look like, go to Apple.com and watch the demo for the coming iPhone…”
Wow…what a concept! If you want to know what the next Administration will be like, take a look at the previous one…er, not the latest one. Or vice-versa depending on your political leanings…?
> “</b>won’t</b>”
MDN, now that we can’t do a ‘preview post’, how about letting the software you use do some work besides checking for “Paris Hilton” nicknames and the like. I’m talking about an html tag balancing algorithm – an easy addition that should trap or correct errors such as the above.
The alternative is to set a cookie expiring in say, 10 minutes, that allows a poster to edit a post.
Shove your remarks up your @$$, Mr. Ballmer!
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Grrrilla
“there should be a simple button or switch like the hold switch to turn shuffling on and off.”
There is on my 2G Shuffle, so I don’t know what planet you’re on!
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@ Grrrila,
I wouldn’t worry about the interface you love. I think we’re going to have something like a Nano with a real click-wheelin the lineup for some time yet. You’re right – the tactile feel is important to some users. But don’t discount that similar functionality could be built into, a remote for your snow-baording glove, for instance, or some such other add-on. The phone has a touch screen because the phone *really* needs one. The video iPod does, too.
I went to the apple store online and all of the pictures and links were gone….
Can anyone else report the same thing?
Apple Store working fine for me…
<b>DON’T GET YOUR HOPES UP, GUYS. AFTER ALL, THIS IS ONLY A RUMOR!”
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Hmmm,if I wanted to drum up some viewer hysteria, where would I go…?
I knew nothing would happen!
off topic – but the order status for my new airport extreme shows that it was shipped on Feb 3rd – cool beans
and it’s coming from Shanghai
I don’t think Apple has the interface software and all of the various apps that would be on both the iPhone and new iPod finished yet, which is why it hasn’t been released. Remember, iPhone runs OS X, not some other OS that has been proven in its current form and with the new interface. I’m sure Apple’s working out a variety of bugs, and once those are ironed out, the iPod will be ready to manufacture.
Once the software is finalized, the new iPod will be released. I would expect it in mid-to late April, maybe early May, but definitely before the iPhone is released.
Anyone who is disappointed that Apple did not release the widescreen touchscreen iPod via a Super Bowl ad is crazy. Apple had only about 5 or 6 prototypes of the iPhone at MacWorld less than one month ago. It worked remarkably well, but it was obviously incomplete in terms of software. Usually there are rumors and leaks about the Asian company that has been contracted to start manufacturing new iPods. There have been some about the iPhone, but none about any new iPod.
Apple needs to focus on getting the iPhone released. As the author of this article speculates, it will probably be a few months after the iPhone release that the new widescreen touchscreen iPod will be released. It deserves its own fanfare. In the meantime, Apple’s colorful new shuffles and Apple TV should take up some of the slack while the full-size iPod is forced to languish.
If the stock does drop, it would be an excellent time to buy.
Who cares about the iPhone? BRING ON LEOPARD!
New Macs would be nice. I need more power, Captain.
Um… the iPhone is an iPod.