“Have you had a chance to touch the new iPod touch? It’s a beautiful gadget–slim, shiny, with the comfy, curvy feel in your hand like it just belongs there. When you’re holding the iPod touch, it’s impossible to be jealous of fellow subway denizens clutching Nintendo DSes, Sony PsPs, or for that matter, iPhone 3Gs. Because even though it’s not a smartphone, the touch is a portable entertainment and communications device par excellence. It does the Web. It does email. It does IM,” Leslie Ayers writes for Mac|Life.
Ayers lists five reasons the iPod touch blows the iPhone 3G out of the water:
1. Cost
2. Form factor
3. Sound: built-in speaker and volume buttons now standard
4. Apps mostly the same as iPhone (except GPS)
5. Battery life
Full article here.
Let’s not get too carried away: until Wi-Fi becomes ubiquitous and unless iPod touch grows GPS, it has no chance of making iPhone irrelevant for most people.
I will disagree with MDN take this time. While the iPod touch relies on WiFi alone for internet/email and no GPS, it costs $229 vs $2000+/2 years for an iPhone. Hope you like the GPS!
When you are standing in Manhattan trying to find a free WiFi spot other than the Apple store, you will understand the futility of this article saying the iPhone is irrelevant.
Meh. I have a 1st gen iPod touch and although some of the arguments make sense, it’ can hardly be “better” than an iPhone 3G when it’s features are actually a *subset* of the iPhone 3G. This guy/gal needs to take a logic class.
Also, he/she completely lost me with the dig in the very first point about paying for updates on the touch. This is just juvenile and has no real basis. It shows that the person writing the article is both unclear on the various concepts involved and willing to exagerrate wildly about things.
Hmmm not sure # 3 counts, both of my iPhones have/had vol buttons, and a built in speaker
Cheers
-wsn
But I couldn’t make phone calls on my old iPod touch. I can on my new iPhone. I sold my touch for $200 on eBay and bought the iPhone. I think the comparison is silly, they’re two devices with different purposes.
The iPhone is great, but it comes at a price. Its wireless data plan may be competitively priced (or not), but it is still expensive for “most people.” The touch feels so much thinner when you hold it, compared to the iPhone (which is by no means “thick”). And a lot people can’t use AT&T;as their wireless service provider, but they would still like to experience using a true hand-held computer of the future.
I disagree mr_matalino, I’ve been paying £35 a month for the last 5 years so the cost of the upgrade was £100, so the iphone cost me £100. The £630 it cost me over 18 months (in the UK) would have been spent anyway, unless I decided I didn’t want a phone anymore.
Also worth noting, since AT&T;and Apple changed their revenue deal on V2, now corp discounts apply to V2.
As somebody who is able to get a corp discount thru my employer (not at&t;) my iPhone 3G monthly plan ends up being $5 less than my v1 plan for the same mins/etc.
What I want to know is will the vol + & – ever make it into the iPhone3G… that would be nice
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Cheers
-wsn
I was just in a car accident and I tried to call 911 on my touch and nothing happened – guess an iPhone would have been relevant.
At least people are asking the question. Before it was almost as if the iPod touch didn’t exist.
@ trollfu
I travel to both coasts frequently (especially SFO and NYC) and have never not simply turned on my iPod touch anywhere and not been able to find at least half-dozen open WiFi connections to use. I don’t even think about not finding one anymore. Or did I misunderstand you?
if i hear one more person say that the iPhone costs $2000, i’m going to shit myself.
if you don’t need a cell phone, get a iPod touch. if you do need a cell phone (i don’t have a home line and i am starting a business on the side so i don’t have to work for “the man” any more), then the concept of a separate cell phone and iPod touch is really a dumb idea.
the data plan for the iPhone is equal or less than plans for other phones like the Blackberry.
so STOP with the how much the iPhone costs.. its a cell phone, and they ALL have recurring costs… ass.
If you don’t want or need the phone option its a better deal. If you want to us it as a phone its not so good. Argument over.
The transformation of the iPod Touch into a Gaming/Entertainment Device was the smarter move from Apple, the Touch wasn’t getting its own space because the iPhone is taking all the spotlight, but now that Apple is positioning against DS and PSP it really has the change to become a cash cow. Nintendo and Sony are selling billions in dollars only with the DS and PSP. The iPod Touch if keep getting the same level of marketing could give them a fight and if Apple pours some money into mobile game developers to guarantee more exciting games, this could only help the Touch.
The Camera.
That’s the make or break proposition for me.
I love that they added the external speakers and the volume button but the camera makes the biggest difference for me. I can’t carry my SLR every where and the whole of the touch/iphone is that I don’t have to carry a pda and an ipod so I can save space. Getting rid of the small camera I have to carry around completes the device.
It’s a phone/ipod/revolutionary internet device and a camera.
Thought I do wish it was a better camera.
I was waiting until the end of the summer for them to come out with the new touch and if it had a camera I wouldn’t have hestitated to replace my old touch with it but the camera was absent and so I went out and bought an iPHone.
I just bought an unlocked iPhone in Italy. 569€. End of. I put any SIM I want in it. It’s the iPod Touch and a phone in one and I can use great data bundles where available…..such as here in Spain where a local YOIGO SIM cost 10€, comes WITH 10€ credit and unlimited internet access per diam is 1,39€.
The comparison between the iPhone and the Touch sounded much like a hyperbole to me. This person was so enthusiastic about the Touch, she (he?) wanted to make a point.
It is obvious that they are different devices. As has been said here, if you want a phone, you have to get an iPhone, the Touch just won’t do. If not (for whatever reason), the Touch is an amazing device.
And the argument about iPhone costing $2,000 is so blatantly misleading it drives me nuts. It implies that it is that much more expensive than any other cellphone, which is just ridiculous. Even if you get an ordinary voice-only plan, you’re still paying close to $1,000 over two years. For iPhone that amount is around $1,700 (plus the $200 for the phone itself). The difference between a cheapo (free after rebate) Nokia and iPhone ends up being ONLY $800, over two years (i.e. around $33 per month). It is impossible to argue how iPhone is overpriced — it’s just downright silly.
The iPod touch plus two cheapie flips on a family plan is my solution. I don’t yet have to have unlimited data in my car, mall, etc. The long-term cost is still too high.
The iPod touch is my extra couch computer.
How does the iPhone cost $2000 a year? My bill is like $96 a month……..So….is that the new math or something?
I don’t know how you compare a portable media player and a smart phone. While they are about 60% similar… you can’t take away the access to cellular networks. If you don’t need Edge or 3G access – FINE, get a Touch. However, to say one replaces the other is not true, even if the touch supported VOIP calling.
When I am 30 miles from a city center and the nearest Starbucks with wi-fi, I need a data connection. Well, “need” is a strong word – how about a strong desire for a data connection.
MacDailyNews Take: “Let’s not get too carried away: until Wi-Fi becomes ubiquitous…”
WiMax is being built out, and is available in many test areas right now. It has a range of 20 miles vs 200 feet for WiFi. Clearwire/Sprint hold frequency licenses for areas that will reach 70% of the US population and more in Europe. The WiMax system in Portland, OR, for instance is operational now, and is scheduled to go commercial THIS calendar year.
What I’ve been saying for the last 12 months is that WiMax connectivity on an iPod Touch will not only make the iPhone irrelevant, it’ll make AT&T;or any other charge-by-the-minute cell service/carrier irrelevant.
This is truly stupid. What the hell?
It’s like saying your trash can makes your toaster irrelevant because you can put toast in both of them but the trash can is cheaper. Dumb dumb dumb.
Maybe some day in the future ten or twenty years from now, when I can drive down an Interstate highway and maintain a WiMax connection for a hundred miles without interruption, VOIP will be feasible. Maybe. But why should I believe that the monthly bill for such a WiMax system would be lower than that of EDGE or 3G?
Stupid with a capital Stoop.
Really dumb premise! The iPod touch is indeed an amazingly elegant device. But it’s not a phone, stupid!
I agree with Kelly on the camera. I had not thought much about it when I bought my iPhone but I now use it all the time. The picture quality is also a lot better than I expected.
There is no where near enough open wifi out there to make the Touch a replacement for an iPhone.
Who wrote that headline?