foolhandy

I have been toying with the possibility of getting an iPod, so when I heard that Apple were releasing the iPod Touch I was eager to find out more. And now I know more I’m a bit disappointed…

Yes it’s lovely, and yes that means lovelier than the (newly re-christened) iPod Classic, but look at the stats :

iPod Touch : $399 and 16GB memory

iPod Classic : $349 and 160GB memory

I know one’s a flash drive and one’s physical so there’s a reason for that difference in memory size. I know that the Touch is based on the iPhone and has wi-fi and internet capability and that’s why it was going to be costly. I know that the Touch has that fantastic touch screen interface rather than a simple click wheel.

But.

It’s a device for playing music. Sure it does other things too and Apple is to be applauded for adding features that lift the iPod beyond being just a digital Walkman, but in the end it’s core function is playing music. The beauty of an iPod Classic is that you can store every song you’ll ever need (and much more besides) on one device you can take anywhere. That’s why I want one. So what is the point of the iPod Touch? It’s an iPhone without the phone bit. It’s $50 more for 10% of the storage capacity. It’s taking the reason for buying one an awful long way down the road away from rational towards purely emotional. I’m sure it’ll sell like hot cakes…

For me though sometimes lovely - even this lovely - isn’t enough…