What Will the Next iPod Touch Offer?

When it is announced next month, the iPod Touch 3.0 may very well be lost in the tidal wave of interest in the new Apple (AAPL) tablet. If rumors are correct, the iTablet (iPad) is a 10" touch-screen tablet that (as I expected) is based on the iPhone OS — and (more questionably) is being released this fall.

With or without an iPad, 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 iPT models.

I’m expecting to buy the iPT 3.0. Why? The main reason is to get a Wi-Fi/Skype (and eventually Google Voice) communications device without the monthly AT&T (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.

What will be in it? I have no inside information, but many of the details are easy to predict.

From the previous iPhone/iPT pairings, the software story is obvious. (Or as we like to say in social science: inductively proved — “1, 2, … n”.) The new iPod Touch will include the iPhone 3.1 software, which provides better copy/paste, better email and other tweaks. Most important for iPhone Lite users, the 3.x OS offers better Wi-Fi that will make the iPT a more practical substitute for a smartphone, when carried between home, work and other sources of handy (or free) Wi-Fi hotspots.

What about hardware features? This is 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.

When will the iPT 3.0 be announced? That part is much clearer: September 9, the day after the old iPT is discontinued. As the Apple ad says:

Buy a Mac for college, and get a free iPod touch.
If you’re a student or a faculty or staff member, purchase an Apple computer and a qualifying iPod from May 27, 2009, through September 8, 2009 and receive a rebate up to $229.

However, like all iPhone (and iPT) users, the big downside will be that my app choices are at the mercy of Apple and its seemingly arbitrary application rejection process.

For example, if the iPT is my main holder of my music library, I’d like to play the music directly from the PDA rather than having to use my laptop or desktop. As it turns out, I own an AirPort Express, Apple’s low-end base station that supports AirTunes, streaming audio to external speakers. Apple allows streaming to AirTunes from a Mac or Windows running iTunes, but nothing else.

However, Rogue Amoeba (as have others) has done a good job of reverse-engineering how to stream arbitrary audio to AirTunes, and sell their Airfoil product is available for Max OS X and Windows. But since the only way to distribute this to iPT users is through the iPhone App Store — where Apple has made controversial decisions to ban key third party apps — I can’t see Apple ever allowing such an app. (Perhaps Apple will sometimes add this feature, but why do we have to wait for Apple?)

The other interesting thing is that the main thing holding back adoption of the iPhone OS jailbreak is the ATT threat of shutting down or otherwise retaliating against these phones. None of this applies to iPT owners, so the incentives for trying jailbreak is much higher for these owners. Would this be enough to create a market for jailbreak-only apps for iPT users?

Disclosure: none.

Comments

[sleepy]

Move on - nothing to see here. What was the education that informed the guesswork?

It's true that the back to school promotion helps clear inventory of the current iPod model, but there's no rigid link synchronizing iPod transition; could be before or after.

You can play your iPod touch through external stereo speakers several ways: wired from the headphone socket; wired from the dock connector or wirelessly via bluetooth. Most dock solutions also recharge the iPod.

App approval isn't arbitrary. Here's a kind-of-obvious starter for what you can't have: apps that replace Apple-designed core functions (eg email and iPhone telephony); apps that are illegal (eg stolen content); encourage illegal activity (eg unlicensed music broadcasting); may be offensive (but now there's a rating system).

Anyone desperate to do any of these things can write a Palm Pre style web app to run under Safari - there are no Apple controls over that. These days web apps are pretty powerful.

Not keeping your main copy of your music in iTunes is perverse in the extreme. The way normal humans play their music at home using their iPod touch is to use the free Remote app to stream it from iTunes to (multiple) external speakers. Also check out Simplify on the App store.

2009 Aug 12 09:34 AM

[jmmx]

It is hard for me to imagine the iPT NOT having the camera. Now that the iPhone cam is of sufficient quality to replace the simple point & shoot, it is too compelling to avoid. Besides, it is
1- not that expensive to add
2- something (above processor speed) is needed to differentiate from the previous model.

(Voice control is just software - though it may rely on higher processor speed).

There is a possibility that the camera will bring GPS along with given the importance of geo-tagging these days. (I hope I hope)

2009 Aug 12 10:02 AM

[Alan D.]

Do you understand what Google Voice is? It's a way of CONSOLIDATING your phone numbers & phone devices. It is NOT VoIP, it does not route 'normal' telephone calls to VoIP. It WILL route 'normal' telephone calls to a SkypeIN number if you have one, but then you are again paying someone for minutes (Skype or the equivalent).

Yes, an iPod touch running a Google Voice app (including their updated mobile web app) will allow you to make calls from and receive them at whatever (registered) phone you're sitting near. But that won't help you at Starbucks or Panera...

2009 Aug 12 10:58 AM

[JohnB]

Will be interesting to see how the imminent Zune HD matches up against the iPod Touch. Feature-wise, it looks pretty attractive.

2009 Aug 12 12:26 PM

[Apple Diner]

Another completely ill-informed bit of analysis. If you actually bother to talk to a person or company involved in application development for iPhone, you'll quickly discover that apps written for iPhone (and iPod touch) are created for one format only. They cannot be magically "resized" for another screen format. Pick up a book on programming that refers to the iPhone SDK, look into it for yourself and don't waste time parroting what AppleInsider tells you. They don't know any better either.

2009 Aug 12 01:03 PM

[User 470673]

The comments so far are actually much better than the article itself; you wonder sometimes how these "tech" journalists get their jobs. Thank goodness for the ability to comment on these articles to keep these guys honest!

2009 Aug 12 03:57 PM

[jsk]

Here's hoping it comes with more/better storage. 32GB is laughable for a device built around video. Especially at the premium price they charge for solid state memory (I'd go for HD storage in a heart beat - I can take of my toys TYVM).

Been waiting two years to replace my early 5G iPod. Hope I don't have to wait another year AGAIN.

2009 Aug 12 05:38 PM

[Apple Diner]

Incidentally, I made my comment because I am one of the thousands of new developers working on their own iPhone apps. If I had no working knowledge of the hard reality of creating apps, I might have made the same errors the author of this piece made.

2009 Aug 12 06:54 PM

[Westminister]

Im just glad Apple is around to determine what is offensive to my nature.

2009 Aug 14 12:29 PM