If you miss the news from Apple PR today, they have added mic and camera capability to their iPod line up. That is a quiet storm brewing if I ever saw one.
Why? You may ask.
Well considering that more than half of the AppStore download comes from iPod Touches (see AdMob report on the matter), I am starting to see a trend emerging. Granted that the iPhone already does what the iPod and iPod Touch does, the message from consumers is clear: "we want more capabilities and we cannot afford to pay $70 per month to get them!"
So what is the storm I see coming? With the introduction of push notification and VOIP there is really little that an iPod Touch device has to envy to an iPhone and...it costs $0 per month. If you are in a urban environment where you can pick up a WiFi signal, well, chances are you really do not miss having an iPhone at all. You can call with VOIP, you can IM instead of SMS and now you have your camera too. The best part, it costs you nada. If you are a student or a teen, that is the right price for you and your parents, is it not?
So, is this the dawn of a new class of devices? Is an iPod Touch device the next "pager" whereas it is a more limited device but considerably cheaper than the full fledge smart phone?
Food for thoughts.
NOTE: why do I always talk of iPod or iPhone and never of the competitors. Because they are the ones breaking new ground. With that said, assume I am referring to an "iPod Touch like" device and an "iPhone like" device from now on. Sooner or later Apple will do what Microsoft did, license the iPhone O/S and then history will repeat itself (see what happened to PC in the 1980s).
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You know what else will keep the cost down is the new beta soon to be released Google voip.
ReplyDeleteSo far it is free to use for US numbers and the rest are quite reasonably priced.
They seem to be using the same business model they use for advertising to have carriers bid to have their services offered on Google, pretty smart eah?
Currently it is in beta and has just amout all the features you get with a cell and more. You get your own nifty number, call fowarding but to multiple devices all at once or filtered etc, etc
Ciao
Rocky