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Every time Steve Jobs announces an upcoming Apple event, the hype that builds in the weeks prior always makes it a challenge for Apple to meet expectations. When the iPhone was first announced back in January, the rave that followed was overwhelming. Many Mac fanatics, however, balked at the fact that the next Mac operating system, Leopard, received barely any airtime. Likewise, customers who weren't in the market for a new cell phone were disappointed that the long-rumored widescreen iPod would continue to evade Apple store shelves. This is indeed one of the pitfalls of Apple's widespread presence. Their products and marketing strategies, though clearly successful, tend to be polarizing as well.
At the latest Apple event Wednesday, the hopes of some gadget enthusiasts were met while the fears of others were simultaneously realized. The widescreen iPod is finally here, dubbed the iPod Touch. The "touch" moniker stems from the MultiTouch technology, made famous by Apple's iPhone, which the new iPod features as its main selling point. The similarities between the iPod Touch and the iPhone don't stop at the touch-screen surface, either. For all intents and purposes, the iPod Touch is the iPhone … without the phone. For those like myself who aren't prepared to drop everything and sign an AT&T contract (and also aren't daring T-Mobile customers willing to take soldering irons to their new $600 toys), the iPod Touch sounds like a remarkably fair compromise. Available in 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) models, what it lacks in storage space it makes up for in user interface and Wi-Fi capability.
Additionally, both the original iPod (now known as the "classic") and the iPod Nano have been upgraded to feature iTunes' CoverFlow functionality. While the name may seem unfamiliar, I'm sure you would know it if you saw it: it's the feature in iTunes that allows you to choose a disc by graphically flipping through album artwork. Lastly, the Nano has gotten shorter and stockier, now able to play videos just like its big brother. The Nano's stubbiness is a little much to those familiar with its former sleek design, but it's pretty hard to complain about any of these new iPod developments.
Apple must be given credit for continuing to take initiative towards regularly improving the entire product line, rather than simply riding the wave of the iPod's success.
On the flipside, there's a good chance you've already heard about this past week's Apple event, but failed to take in any of the new iPod developments that I just finished explaining in detail. This is due to the customer outrage that bombarded media outlets mere moments after Apple announced that they would be dropping 8GB iPhone prices by a whopping $200, and removing the 4GB iPhones from production. Many who've already bought their iPhones outside of the exchange period are furious over the sudden price shift, feeling they were tricked into paying an extra 30 percent just to be Apple's guinea pigs. In response, those iPhone owners are being offered $100 worth of credit to the Apple store.
While general sentiment seems to be that this is a hardly enough, it's certainly better than what Apple was initially offering: a whole lot of nothing. Buying a brand new technology as soon as it comes out is always going to have a degree of risk involved.
It's hard to feel too bad for those in this situation. Sometimes patience is a virtue; others sing a different tune as iPhone owners themselves. Rest assured that if I weren't enslaved to Verizon, I most definitely would be an owner myself.
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