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iPod Nano 5G


EricBall

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Today Apple announced the 5th generation Nano, including features not available on any other iPod models: video camera & microphone, speaker, and FM receiver. (I think the other features are 90% software, i.e. the pedometer uses the existing accelerometer.) Okay, so the iPhone has the camera and microphone, but the iPod Touch and Classic don't. (And both the Touch & iPhone have a speaker)My question is why the Nano got the goodies instead of the Touch. Maybe it's the price point. Apple wants to bring down the price of the Touch to drive AppStore sales. (Although I find it funny. Apple trumpets they've sold 20M Touches, and Wikipedia says they've sold a similar number of iPhones; for a total of 40M. But (again, from Wikipedia) Sony has sold 56M PSPs and Nintendo has sold over 100M DSs. So the Touch/iPhone has a good slice of the portable gaming market but they are still third.)Where was I. Oh right, price. So the price of the Touch dips under that magic US$200 line, putting it awfully close to the Nano. Why buy a Nano instead of a Touch (given that size isn't an issue)? Rather than drop the price of the Nano, Apple gives it some unique features. Also, the smaller Nano screen also won't show how bad the camera is.I also predict the Classic will be phased out, maybe as soon as next year. The sticking point is physical size of the hard drive. But I bet if Apple asks Toshiba, they can some up with a thin single platter hard drive for the iTouch.I really hope Apple updates the 4G Nano firmware to support some of the new features.

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Reportedly, Apple had the Touch w/camera nearly ready to go, when there were technical problems in the initial manufacturing run. Apparently they couldn't solve them in time, so they went with the minor feature bump instead.

 

The iPod Touch is a gigantic seller for Apple, so I suspect we'll see the camera show up in it sooner rather than later.

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The only reason to own a Nano is for use in sports (e.g. jogging or at the Gym). It is smaller and less fragile than the Touch, e.g. the Touch has a glass screen. I can't imagine why anyone would want a Classic at this point. I suspect the next update will phase out both the Classic and the Shuffle, and will shrink the Nano again. It will be interesting to see what they do next with the Touch and iPhone as it hasn't really changed in 3 years now.

 

Chris

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Reportedly, Apple had the Touch w/camera nearly ready to go, when there were technical problems in the initial manufacturing run. Apparently they couldn't solve them in time, so they went with the minor feature bump instead.The iPod Touch is a gigantic seller for Apple, so I suspect we'll see the camera show up in it sooner rather than later.
I've heard that too. However, it wouldn't have been anything for them to announce it for a November release. They did that for the 17" Al MacBooks. I don't know whether there's any difference in the 8GB and 32GB models, but they would have had to make some changes for the 64GB version - which makes it less likely that there is a camera model.
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The only reason to own a Nano is for use in sports (e.g. jogging or at the Gym). It is smaller and less fragile than the Touch, e.g. the Touch has a glass screen. I can't imagine why anyone would want a Classic at this point. I suspect the next update will phase out both the Classic and the Shuffle, and will shrink the Nano again. It will be interesting to see what they do next with the Touch and iPhone as it hasn't really changed in 3 years now.
The Classic is for folks with huge collections who want to have everything on the iPod rather than selectively syncing. My wife's collection barely fits on her 16GB 4G Nano, while she had space to spare on the 30GB Color. But if Toshiba could make an ultra thin 100+GB drive Apple could put in the Touch, then Apple could get that segment of the market into the App Store. An iTouch with a hard drive would probably also increase iTunes movie sales.And once the Touch annexes the Classic, the Nano's niche is solidified for people who want an MP3 player smaller than the Touch, but with a display.The Shuffle is Apple's answer to the other mini MP3 player, to get those people onto iTunes and into the iTunes store.The iPhone & Touch can't change significantly because they are wedded to the touchscreen display. Apple is unlikely to make the display bigger or smaller so they are stuck with the form factor. Instead, they are going to see how many features they can stick into it without significantly changing the thickness.
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