My iPod is Dead to Me

Well, not really but after Tuesday’s announcement of the new iPhone I am feeling a little less than thrilled with what I am left holding. We all drooled over the iPhone and its ability to make calls and access the Internet, but the iPod-like features are crazy. All of a sudden the device that on Tuesday morning was a state of the art digital media player with its iconic click wheel and sleek exterior now looks a little dated and outmoded. I find myself thinking, “using a click wheel to scroll through list of music sucks … I want to touch my music.” I am left asking a few questions.

When will the iPod line be refreshed with similar functionality? I love the iPhone, but not everyone needs the total package. Will Apple make us buy that device just to get the iPod features many of us have craved for quite some time — namely wide screen with both horizontal and vertical orientations? I can say that the iPhone gets me close to eliminating a device, but not really. My iPod is 80 GB and it manages a lot of data (as the image below shows). The iPhone is Nano in storage capacity and I am not going to give up the ability to store and access all my music, podcasts, TV shows, and movies when I am going away for a week. I will still need my old-skool iPod to handle those tasks. But for everyday use the iPhone seems to be perfect. What I really want to know is when can I expect a 40, 60, 80, or 100 GB iPod that has iPhone iPod features? You know touch screen and those dual viewing orientations. I would have dropped down cash on the spot Tuesday for that — just to touch my music!

I am also sort of wondering why Apple went with iPhone as the name … this thing seems to be so much more than a phone … almost in an all new category.  At the same time, it sorts of fits the philosophy of hte iPod naming convention.  I always sort of got the feeling the iPod was named the iPod because it could evolve over time into whatever the market (or Steve told us) wanted.  This iPhone is an iPod to me — just the logical next step in its evolution.  When I say logical, it is only logical now that Apple has shown it to us.  I wouldn’t have dreamed those features on Monday could be real.  At any rate, this thing is my new iPod.

I think one reason it will be a while until we see an iPod that looks and works like the iPhone has to do with Cingular.  Now I don’t pretend to understand how the cell phone industry works, but it seems to me that the carriers subsidize the cost of the phones they carry.  I just have to wonder what the true cost of the iPhone is without the contract?  Anyone know?  I imagine that to pack the advanced OS, larger hard drive, big screen, and all that touch stuff into an iPod would have to cost $500.00 on its own.  At any rate I am left holding the 5G iPod and all I can think about is that Apple has turned their own device into an also ran — sort of like the Rio I sold way back in the day to get an original 5 GB iPod.  Is it greedy to hope I can have all the iPod features of the iPhone without the phone?  Is that silly and where can Apple take us next with their music/video player platform?  There is a brand there that must grow — can it grow next to a revolutionary product or is it now the ugly step-sister?  Anyone …