David Emery OnlineLots of new iPods
5 September 2007
So.
Not exactly a massive surprise on any counts, but what Apple announced today does have some interesting aspects to it, despite having mostly been utterly spoiled by the spot-on rumours that had been circling around. I did find it quite interesting how comprehensive the event was, though, leaving no iPod-stone untouched.
Lets run though the announcements in the order they came. First up came an completely dull iPod Shuffle update, the only changes being different – worse – colours, including a ‘Project (RED)’ model. Wow – thanks guys, really amazing update you’ve done there.
Luckily, the iPod Nano update is a little more substantial – it’s a completely new model, looking very much like a shrunken full size iPod. The new interface, which adds all sorts of animation and artwork-based additions along with the now obligatory CoverFlow mode (which is quite nifty to see on an iPod) looks like a pretty solid upgrade. The bigger screen, video viewing and games are all very nice but I do feel they’ve made it a bit too big – I’m not sure if anyone was crying out for a Nano that played video Vs a smaller Nano.
And the colours are worse.
Onto the full-size iPod, almost the only thing that wasn’t predicted previously. It’s essentially a bigger iPod Nano (or the iPod Nano is a smaller full size iPod…), although it at least doesn’t have the nasty colours. The 160GB option is nice to have for people with really big libraries. On a naming note, I think Apple, with the iPod, is in a rather unique position that they can call a product ‘Classic’ and kind of get away with it without it being hyperbole…
Onto what is probably the main event in many people’s eyes – the iPod Touch (which I’m sure in the next revision will just be called ‘iPod’). It really is just an iPhone without the phone; it looks almost identical, and has almost exactly the same UI. I find it slightly odd that it doesn’t have exactly the same UI – witness the reflective dock on the iPod Vs the metal grating dock on the iPhone. Very odd they went to the trouble to change it – Apple can’t even keep 2 near-identical products UI in sync…
Otherwise the iPod touch is slightly disappointing; the lack of Mail is odd considering the inclusion of Safari, and the lack of storage space is mystifying. If you want to buy the top of the line iPod what do you get; an iPod Classic with 160Gb – plenty of space to fit video on, but a small screen or an iPod Touch with all the bells and whistles but only – up to – 16Gb to fit all your content on. Why they didn’t make the iPod Touch HD based is beyond me – I guess it must come down to cost issues, as Apple must get Flash storage for next to nothing. Of course, all that said the iPod Touch is still a massively impressive device.
By far and away the most interesting announcement however, was the mobile iTunes store, which allows you to buy songs direct to your iPod Touch or iPhone over WiFi. It has the full iTunes catalogue, and judging by the videos on the Apple site the shopping experience is – unsurprisingly – pretty flawless. This announcement is, I think, a bit of a game changer – the possibilities of being able to seamlessly buy tracks direct to your iPod are enormous, especially considering that the price is the same.
Currently in the UK 3 mobile represents about a third of digital singles downloads, so I think the precedent has been set for this to be enormously popular. Digital music works exceptionally well with impulse buys, which is why radio plays effect the digital download chart so heavily and also why singles work digitally so much better then albums do. Apple – with the number 1 download store – entering this market could be very, very interesting. I also think it’s a wise move to make it WiFi only as well – while in the UK WiFi coverage is pretty poor, downloading over 3G (let alone EDGE) would be pretty painful.
The other announcements were fairly lacklustre; iTunes ringtones looks like a great feature for iTunes, crippled by the lust for money – it simply should not be limited to purchased tracks, and it should definitely not cost more. The Starbucks iTunes store integration is kind of interesting, but I’ve never been in a Starbucks that’s been playing good music. What would be much more interesting is a built in radio that had the same store integration; I guess we’ll have to wait a while for that.
Oh, and one last thing – where are videos and podcasts in the iTunes mobile store? Seems like a pretty major omission to me…