Is the iPod Touch dead? Well it is still alive, at least until the annual September iPod event. I believe that the iPhone's little cousin will be retired this year. Many people don't want the iPhone's annual contract to have a pocket sized iOS computer, so what are they going to do?
Apple will announce a new device this fall. This device will give you the portability of an iPhone with brains and brawn of an iPad. What will this product be called; the iPad Nano of course! With all of the hype surrounding the iPad, it makes perfect sense to call the device an iPad since it is more of an iPad than iPod.
What will the iPad Nano look like? The overall "look" of the product will stay the same. There will be one major design change to the Nano, its size. The iPad Nano should have its screen size increased to 4-5 inches. This form factor in currently being used in some of the top Android smartphones and many people are happy with the additional screen real estate. I've had an iPod Touch since it was released and the only thing I would change is the screen size. Web browsing is great on the device, but another inch of screen space would be perfect.
How can Apple benefit from rebranding the Touch as an iPad? Besides the obvious marketing benefits, calling the iPod Touch an iPad can help sell more Apple products. iBooks would certainally benefit from a larger screen and since the iPad is seen as an eBook reader (amongst other things), this would help Apple gain more market share in this category. In addition, the iPad Nano may help Apple sell more iPods. The iPod Touch is a good size for an mp3 player, but the iPad Nano may be too big. Is the iPod functionality the most important feature of the Touch? No, the application enviroment is the winner here. New iPad Nano customers might end up picking up an extra accessory with their purchase, an iPod Nano.
What will this new device cost? I don't expect to see any change in the cost of the iPad Nano over the iPod Touch, at least in the base price. We may actually see a 3G/GPS version of the iPad Nano. If we do, let's hope it's not a $130 update. Could this be another reason AT&T killed the unlimited data plan?
What do you think? Could this really happen? Leave a comment below on what think about the possibility of an iPad Nano.
I think something like this could happen, though it's hard to predict. I'm not sure how I feel about the new size. Apple would certainly sell more "iPad Nanos" than "iPod Nanos," but we'd be left with three similar products in three different sizes. We have the pocket-sized iPhone, the portable iPad, and the iPad nano, somewhere in the middle. My problem is that there are some people who buy the iPod Nano as a substitute for the iPhone. If the iPad Nano is too big, it ceases to be a substitute for the iPhone. Therefore, Apple may actually lose some of these customers.
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