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Today’s Apple Event Kind of Sucked (for me)

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iPodtouch3Well, there were certainly no shortages of surprises at today’s Apple event. Pretty much everyone’s predictions were off in some way, particularly the one about cameras in the iPod touch (I scored about 0.5 out of 3). The touch got a storage bump on the high end and a price drop on the low end, leaving a hole where the 16GB model was (and shaking up the competitive environment with a different set of variables). They did get the expected processor bump, but the big emphasis was on gaming, even going so far as to compare their game library directly against those of the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

I would guess they are still intent on keeping the touch from competing too strongly against the iPhone, but with the camera addition to the nano, the touch now floats in a weird zone between the two. It doesn’t offer the connectivity or other hardware features of the iPhone. It offers superior software and gaming compared to the nano, but lacks all the fun new nano features, like photo, video and audio recording. If a user wanted to upgrade from a nano, I can’t say the touch would be an adequate choice. I would guess the goal all along was to make both the nano and touch separate stepping stones to the iPhone.

Still, while the event sucked for me as a computing enthusiast, I must admit it did shake up the consumer electronics market. Pocket video cameras are now competing against the iPod. Apple renewed their commitment to handheld gaming and demonstrated with raw numbers that their digital distribution model for games beats physical media, which should have every content distributor taking notice.

Oh, and no tablet, which means more months of speculation. That’s just prime.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. scoobie

    09/09/2009 at 2:36 pm

    Agree
    It was a non event, unless you want a Nano

  2. GoodThings2Life

    09/09/2009 at 4:21 pm

    Yeah, makes my purchase of an HTC Touch Pro 2 and my upcoming of the Zune HD all the better.

  3. Michael Venini

    09/10/2009 at 7:09 am

    I was very disappointed int he event. I’ve been wanting the camera features on the Touch for a while now, and with all the rumors I thought it would be a no brainier.

    I just don’t get it, why not add a camera to a Touch. I would think that would make a better Flip competitor then the Nano.

  4. Nameless

    09/11/2009 at 12:58 pm

    Do they really think that the iPod touch is a serious alternative to the PSP and the DS? It’s a casual gaming platform. More serious gamers (but don’t you dare call them “hardcore” because at least 95% of them aren’t deserving of that label) are still going to go with the DS and the PSP because they have the killer apps.

    Also, they slammed the thought of going to a retail store to buy games. Well, guess what? I LIKE hard copies. Having a hard, physical, retail copy shows OWNERSHIP (as much as they hate that concept of the consumer actually owning anything), not to mention some of the extra goodies you can get.

    Anyway, the new iPod touch lineup is pretty disappointing. I guess they didn’t want to cannibalize too much from the iPhone to still tempt people into selling their souls to pimp-lord AT&T or whatever the iPhone-exclusive carrier is in your given country.

    Samsung Mondi or 4-5″ Android tablets it is for me…

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