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Why a 3G iPod Touch Would Rock the World

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Though based entirely on “sources” from a Dutch blog, the whispers that Apple could be preparing to launch a 3G-capable iPod touch this Fall are worth listening to. If true, this could have the potential to shift the smartphone landscape and pave the way for the data-only offerings that many customers have been waiting for.

The Scam

As it stands, the wireless carriers are running the show. While competition among them may keep overall prices from going higher than they are, they have agreed upon certain pricing structures that don’t benefit customers – and no longer make any sense. Chief among these are a) text messaging plans, and b) the failure to offer data-only plans.

Maybe in the early days of SMS – when having data capabilities on a phone was a novelty – charging extra for texting made sense. Maybe. Today it is absurd. On a line that already has a voice plan and a data plan, tacking on another $15/month for unlimited texting (which, in the highest use scenarios, might add up to a few MBs of data) is the ripoff of the century.

The problem is – your average consumer doesn’t even know he’s getting hosed. After all, that’s how he’s always been charged, so “I guess that’s just how it is.” The carriers feed on this mentality like vultures on carrion.

The Data-Only Holy Grail

A 3G iPod touch would give people the opportunity to have the biggest thing that carriers have been withholding – a contract-free data-only plan on a high-end phone. This would be monumental.

iPhone Lite

If Apple keeps the same formula that they’ve been using, and keeps the iPod touch a notch or two behind the current iPhone, it would likely be almost an iPhone 5. The 4th gen. iPod touch has several major differences from the iPhone 4:

  • an inferior camera
  • a somewhat cheaper display with worse viewing angles (though it keeps the stellar “Retina” resolution)
  • no GPS capabilities
  • no earpiece above the screen
  • the microphone is positioned farther back

A 3G touch with those handicaps would serve as the low-cost “iPhone lite” that has been rumored. It would not only offer a low-cost way to get an (almost) iPhone, but it would be contract-free, and the monthly costs would be affordable for nearly anyone.

iMessage

Apple has already taken a swing at the carriers by introducing iMessage in the upcoming iOS 5. iMessages are free to other users on iOS, and only messages to non-iOS friends count as regular text messages. This iPod touch would have iMessage built in. Users can easily text all of their buddies on iOS using their data plan. Apps like Google Voice, Textfree, or any one of a zillion others could handle the texts to people on other platforms.

Skype

Skype’s business would boom (and Microsoft would look brilliant for buying them), as people would turn to the most popular VoIP provider for their calls. Other services like Fring, Line2, and countless SIP clients would be options as well.

Cheap Bills

If data plans were priced similar to those on the iPad, monthly wireless bills would sink like the Titanic. This chart (worked up several months ago by AllThingsD) compares AT&T’s and Verizon’s iPad data plans:

If you can live with 3GB or less of data per month, you would be paying no more than $35 (before fees) for your 3G iPod touch. That’s $100 less than what some people pay for iPhone plans with voice/data/SMS. If you want an extra cushion and would like 5GB, you’re still saving big at $50/mo.

Upgraded iPod touch?

Of course, if Apple really wanted to go for the carriers’ jugulars, they’d make this the year that the iPod touch catches up with the iPhone. We’re talking the same camera, same screen, GPS, earpiece, and proper microphone. It would essentially be a data-only iPhone. Unfortunately, there are many factors flying in the face of that. The first among those obstacles is cost. If Apple churns out an iPod touch that’s the equal to the iPhone, how are they going to sell it for several hundred dollars less than they sell an unlocked iPhone 4? The answer is simple: they’re not.

Will it happen?

What would suffice would be an iPod touch that keeps the same qualities as previous generations, only it would need two things: an earpiece and a microphone in exactly the same places as they are on the iPhone. Users can live with a worse camera, no GPS, and shoddy viewing angles – if everything else is there. At $300-400 with no contract, it would be the best buy in wireless.

A 3G-capable iPod touch would finally put some power back in consumers’ hands. It would provide a low-cost iPhone alternative, and – perhaps more importantly – it would help educate more customers that data is all you need. More people will question why they’re being billed for voice minutes, text messaging and data. And when the consumers realize that, they will demand it, and carriers will be forced to oblige. It will happen at some point, and Apple is one of the few companies that can help spark that change.

… then the only problem would be preventing the carriers from doubling the cost of those data-only plans.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. matt

    07/10/2011 at 3:07 pm

    No just no

  2. Josh Einstein

    07/10/2011 at 6:24 pm

    I think someday we’ll see phones that can only use data and no voice become popular but that’s because guys like me that are sick of the assumption that we’re available to be bothered 24 hours a day. But the situation you describe is an absolute mess. A hodge podge of services that Apple would never slap in front of their users. It reeks of Android.

  3. Anonymous

    07/10/2011 at 9:09 pm

    apple will never do anything that may hurt its iphone sales. A 3g ipod will most likely be just like the 3g ipad but smaller of course

  4. Rockxhero

    07/11/2011 at 4:05 am

    I want GPS on the ipod touch, in fact that’s what I’m waiting for, & why I have’nt bought one yet! I’m hoping..

    also, Apple seems to be to want to get as much money out of consumers as they can, I doubt they’d do anything that might lessen overall profits for them, such as monthly bills.

  5. Rsgert

    07/11/2011 at 10:58 am

    3G already exists. I have a pocket wifi with 12gb which I can use over 12 months – I video call my wife every day and have hardly made a dent in my data usage. Cost – $99 for the wifi and $150 for 12 month prepaid. I like the fact that the iPod is thinner and lighter than a phone.

  6. Anonymous

    07/12/2011 at 2:56 am

    Sprint already offers a case that adds 3G to an ipod touch. If you are in the US, you can get it on Sprint and Virgin Mobile. On VM right now, it’s onlyl 30 bucks to buy the 3G case, no contract. Loads of people I know have them.

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