Touché

I would be damned!
This was my reaction to the Apple event that happened on September 5th. Apple have seriously taken the comment echoed by everyone who know about iPhone.

"Why can’t Apple release an iPhone

minus the phone?"

The main reason why many people didn’t want to (were forced not to) buy iPhone is the bank-robbing service plans from Cingular. 60 dollars a month under a contract for 2 years and another 500 dollars for the device was nothing but robbing you at gunpoint (iPod point here). So when things were so terrible, people prayed for a savior. And now, the prayers answered with a touch. Literally, its answered by iPod Touch. It is everything that the iPhone has except the phone. Now don’t ask about the camera. The camera in the iPhone is nothing but a last minute compliment added with very average quality for 2MP resolution.

And to make you say wow, the iPod touch is just 8mm thick. That’s less than the size of two crackers. Things don’t end there. If you have listened carefully, it has everything iPhone had, which means it includes Safari browser supported by Wi-Fi (802.11b/g). And on top of all these, there you have new iTunes Wifi store to download songs directly to your iPod without the need of a computer. This is yet another proof that Apple is listening to all its customers.

I must mention this is very different than Microsoft releasing WOW Vista and showcasing their product with the VISTA families. If you don’t know what this means, Microsoft brought few families to the stage and said that they developed Vista with the feedback and expectations given by them. Wonder if the whole world’s feedback was represented through few VISTA families. Not even a proper marketing idea.

Ok. So what about the deciding factor? The price. It is obviously apple-priced which means the product is priced higher than its competitors but still will dominate the market.The 8GB model is priced at 300USD and 16GB at 400USD. But it is justifiable to the 500 and 600USD prices for iPhone when it was introduced. And did I mention iPhone prices are slashed by 200USD?

"Something that never surprises me is that Apple never fails to surprise me"

PS: I have to wait for few more months to watch for any price drops in iPod touch before I can give my iPod to my dear ones.