“Next month’s introduction of the new iPod touch will be an important incremental product for Apple in spreading its platform more broadly. By my estimate, Apple’s iPhone OS has been shipping 60/40 between iPhone models and iPod touch models,” Joel West writes for Seeking Alpha.
“I’m expecting to buy the iPod touch 3.0. Why? The main reason is to get a Wi-Fi/Skype (and eventually Google Voice) communications device without the monthly AT&T contract. However, it will also allow access to the wide range of iPhone apps, allow a chance to do iPhone development, provide a handy-dandy PDA and (as a side benefit) replace my long-dead iPod,” West writes.
West writes, “What will be in it? I have no inside information, but many of the details are easy to predict.”
West offers his “educated guesswork:”
• Faster CPU? Yes
• Stereo Bluetooth? Probably
• Voice control? Maybe
• Compass? Probably not
• GPS? No
• Camera? A month ago I would have said no way, but rumors are that it will.
West writes, “When will the iPT 3.0 be announced? That part is much clearer: September 9, the day after the old iPT is discontinued.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “GetMeOnTop,” “Carl H.,” and “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
These aren’t the devices you’re looking for. Move along…
I’m not sure this guy really has any idea at all.
They should add GPS. IF they did I’d be very tempted.
all i know is my daughter has been saving for 8 months for it, and it is all she can do to restrain herself from buying right now. hurry Apple, she wants it yesterday…
ah pre-teen geeks. isn’t it cute?
shen writes, “all i know is my daughter has been saving for 8 months for it”. Congrats, shen. You raised her right. Just think (and shudder) what other kids are blowing their money on.
Apple should offer a higher-end iPod Touch that includes GPS and the compass (as well as the camera, of course). It would tempt a lot of folks. Of course, those who don’t want that could buy the lower end version. They need to figure out how to differentiate the product, and pricing, to cover different ends of the mp3+ market. That would expand the market and protect their control over it for a couple more generations!
GPS should be a no-brained with Apple co-designing and or helping with the software for the TomTom unit. With the huge demand for the touch, I just can’t see it shipping without it.
Remember too that TomTom has a big announcement in September.
Just my musings.
Realistically, the iPod Classic is dead. Apple can make a ton more money by selling an IPT by selling all of the apps for the rest of the life of the device. The Classic is so much more limited that I don’t know why someone would get one when the Touches have come down in price and there are so many apps to choose from. It will be a quick fix to last me until Telus gets 3G and I can scrap my lousy Motorolla and finally get an iPhone. Having Rogers in rural BC is just like having an iPod Touch anyways.
I had a 3rd gen 15GB iPod and a 3rd gen iPod Nano that were stolen from my car a few weeks ago so I am hoping that the is everything that it is rumoured.
I might buy one too… and buy a third party add on to also make a PrePayed phone with it!
These carrer bounds renting just s**ts me off!
My educated guesswork tells me, camera, compass and GPS will only come in a bundle, because they they add synergy to each other. Would you like to sync fotos to iPhoto and add manually GPS data? or only a fraction of Apps could benefit from a magnetometer without GPS and the next big hit in software developement will be augmented reality where you need all three features together.
Multimedia player + internet was yesterday – even the new ZuneHD will do that. Apple must keep innovating to stay in front and bring all iPhoneOS platform devices to the next level.
How about a microphone?
the GPS and compass are most likely going to be in the mix because this is an area in which Apple has shown much leadership. It does not make a lot of sense to leave these out vis a vis the App store, where the environment should be more unified to maximize apps sales.
Location based and downloadable virtual layer maps, plus location tagging and compass orientation are prevalent in iPhoto and iMovie, etc. and throughout apple software, so if it has a camera that does video, it needs the GPS to tag the location for iMovie.
I’d be tempted to upgrade simply for the Skype functionality.
I still use my 5th Gen iPod at the gym for the FM receiver in order to watch some of the TVs. I’ll take my touch for video or an audiobook, but the 5th Gen still holds 5 times as much data I don’t have to rotate on/off as much.
I’m thinking some sort of circuitry, flash drive, battery…. stuff like that.
Anyone expecting to be able to ditch their cellphone and use Touch plus GoogleVoice (or Skype or something similar) is naïve. Here is how I use cellphone.
My wife is in “Bed, Bath and Beyond”; I am in the nearby “Best Buy”. I call to check how soon she’ll be done; she tells me she’ll need to go over to Lord and Taylor (about eight blocks away); I say, fine, I’ll go to that ‘Datamatics’ store on 5th Ave, across the street from L&T;. My daughter calls and asks when we’re coming home, she needs to go to her classmate for a school project and cant leave her little sister alone. I call my wife, who is on her way to L&T;, she pleads with me to go home. I turn around and catch the M-105 bus to 14th St; my daughter calls and tells me that her friend is coming over, so I don’t have to come after all. My wife calls me to ask if I can drop by at Whole Foods on Union Square and get some more milk…
You get the idea. For this type of use (which is pretty much standard use for anyone paying monthly plan for a cellphone), iPod touch is useless, even WITH GoogleVoice number, and even if the native app were to allow direct voice talk and receiving calls.
People don’t use their cellphones when they’re at home or office (where there’s wifi); they use their land line for that. We have learned to rely on cellphones when we’re mobile, and in vast majority of these situations, we are NOT anywhere near a WiFi network. Even if our cities end up blanketed with WiFi coverage, you’d still have to keep connection alive at all times in order to be able to receive calls. If you think current cell network reliability sucks, you haven’t tried connecting to WiFi and moving around (more than just from room to room, that is).
Until an iPhone is offered unlocked, without a contract (or a carrier), you’ll be stuck with a monthly voice/data plan. Personally, I believe it is worth every single penny; some may not agree with me, though.
@Predrag: People don’t use their cellphones when they’re at home or office (where there’s wifi); they use their land line for that.
Don’t be so sure. More and more people, especially younger people, have no land line. The only reason I have a land line is to receive calls, so I don’t have to give out my cellphone number to businesses. I have no long-distance on the land line.
As for the iPod touch, if, as their commercials imply, they want to position it as a handheld gaming device, at some point they need to add an external speaker.
——RM
LordRobin:
…”More and more people, especially younger people, have no land line.”
I have notice that trend. Those who only have their cellphone are even less likely to be able to ditch that cellphone in favour of iPod touch for phone communication needs.
In my case, my home land line is our family line; cell lines are private, when someone needs a specific person directly. In addition, dialing long distance (i.e. overseas) from cellphone is obscenely expensive, unless you do the complicated song-and-dance routine with independent long distance providers. When I’m mobile, I have to do that when calling overseas. I don’t want to have to do that every time my daughter calls her grandfather in Belgrade (which is almost every day). On my land line, I have a long distance carrier with international rates at pennies per minute to most of the world. And with the increasing number of my daughter’s class mates moving overseas (she goes to UN school, kids move around a lot). If all of my land line overseas calls were made on a cell line, my monthly bills would most likely bee around $5,000 or more; with a land line, they are no more than $80-100.
Anyway, the point is, it is too optimistic to expect an iPod touch to replace a cellphone. It just can’t.
Camera = very yes
GPS = they wanted to, but it would have made the device larger, and they didn’t want to do that
Places in iphoto is BEGGING for a GPS in the ipod touch… We’ll see… one thing is for sure, Apple never goes backwards, so this device will NOT be larger, therefore unless they are using one of the new $$$ GPSs it will not have it.
Throw in 64gb, GPS, and a mic and I’ll pre-order mine right now.
“As for the iPod touch, if, as their commercials imply, they want to position it as a handheld gaming device, at some point they need to add an external speaker.”
only the first gen iPod touch lacks a speaker. The one released last year has one.
OJake
Apple does not use MP3.
An I.C. (“chip” to the neophyte) is mostly packaging. the actual silicon chip containing the circuitry is a small part of the device. All that one needs to do to keep a device such as the touch small is to incorporate more circuitry into the same package sized I.C. It takes lots of money to do it but it is doable.
Agree with Predrag that people won’t ditch their mobile phone for an iPod Touch. The iPT would be cool to save money on international calls, etc. when you’re at home (or Starbucks?). The decision is probably centered around whether to (1) consolidate with an iPhone or (2) get an iPT (for a number of compelling reasons, including Skype) and *keep* their current mobile phone (they may prefer a non-AT&T;phone service).
I won’t buy one for myself because I have an iPhone, but I’m happy to see enhancements and more storage coming to the iPod line.
Would like:
* camera (fully expect)
* mic + voice control (new headphones are no-brainer)
* more storage (fully expect)
* faster processor (fully expect)
Don’t expect:
* GPS
* compass
The current iPod touch has stereo bluetooth. That came in with the OS3 upgrade. i’m surprised at how many people still don’t know that. So, yes I’m sure that iPT3 will have it. One nice thing would be to allow the iPT to access the internet via bluetooth to other bluetooth phones. Then you would be very close to the functional equivalent of the iPhone w/o AT&T;or a contract.
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Rike: of course Apple uses Mp3! Go to iTunes/Preferences/General/ImportUsing/Mp3.
An easier way to make and describe the prediction is to say, like the iPhone 3GS:
Minus – Phone, GPS, compass
Plus – Higher storage capacity option
Although it would be cool if the ONLY minus was “phone,” Apple does not get a huge subsidy payment for each iPod touch, so they need to economize as much as possible.