Apple updates iPod touch line, drops prices, adds top-end 64GB model
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 9th 2009 12:49PM
posted Sep 9th 2009 12:49PM
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The 8gb one doesn't sound like a very good deal...
Agree, for $100 LESS you can get an iphone : /
Your math isn't very good.
Why would anyone buy an 8gb touch when you could go to 32gb for $100 more? They really should have put the 16gb version @ the $199 price point.
unless you want people to perceive the $300 price point as a better value and throw an extra $100 at you.
Wow....the 8gb version doesn't even have the faster processor?! At this point they should have just removed the $199 price point....
@Alundre: Where are you getting that the 8GB is the old internals?
@NoAndThen Check the store page....the 32gb and 64gb models list "Faster Performance" while the 8gb model doesn't...
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_touch?intcmp=AIC-WWW-NAUS-BUYNOW-HEAD-IPODTOUCH-080910
Actually, seems even worse. To my understanding, the 8GB version is actually the OLD Touch. Meaning, no 3GS performance.
check the Apple Store page: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_touch
8 Gigs version says 'Updated' while the others are new. The others say Improved Performance, that one doesn't. I hate when Apple pulls shit like this.
You can if you compare the ipod here
http://www.apple.com/ipod/compare-ipod-models/
"Enjoy all the great features of the 8GB model along with better performance, richer graphics and voice control"
you also get free remote/mic with the 32/64GB versions
8GB model is a bad deal.
Wow... if that's true then Apple is really trying to fuck customers [even more] with that 8GB model.
"Why would anyone buy an 8gb touch when you could go to 32gb for $100 more?"
A better question is why would you buy an 8GB touch for 199 when for $20 more you can get a 16 GB zune with Tegra.
Exactly which pulse is Apple monitoring?? Steve Job's or the consumer's?? We know the answer to that question already, Steve has received more attention then what the consumers have, especially in 2009.
Nano = future of iPods??
Apple, put your finger back on the consumer's pulse, please!!
I for one, am glad they listen to someone that that started a multi-billion dollar corporation and was even named "the most powerful person" in business by Fortune Magazine. What references do you have admmck?
So what you're saying is that everything Steve-O says we should have and when we should have it should be enough to satisfy the consumer's wants/desires in a product?? If he says that's all we need then hell, I will never ask for anything more than what he gives us. Long live Steve, oh great inventor/King!
Murmermer, it's obvious you can't think for yourself and that you follow Steve-O with blind faith without thinking outside his "vision". I enjoy Apple's products, but Steve-O doesn't always have the consumer in mind when designing his products. The bottom line is what motivates him (and rightly so).
Would people be complain if he put the Camera, FM radio in like they are now without them?? I think not, fool.
I bought my 8 GB iPod touch back when it first came out, and I paid around $320 dollars for it. Haha.
So $199 is looking like a great deal to me.
The Reason the 8GB isnt a good deal is becuase apple is trying to give people access to the app store for a lower cost, and to get it there, they had to get it to 199 which is the magic number for a price
64gb eh :)
Now where is the 64gb iPhone!
I was like OMGWTFBBQ when I saw that one. Didn't expect 64gb versions this soon. Good to see progress!
I've read in several places that the iPod Touch has double the capacity of the iPhones because they replace the space the cellular radio takes up with another flash memory chip.
Put 64gb into a Zune HD and I'm all over it at $399.
"Good to see progress" gets lowest ranked. "I want a Zune" gets highest ranked despite the fact that it is trolling. (At least, it always is when you shill for iPods on a Zune article, so surely shilling for Zunes on an iPod article is trolling, yeah?)
Yep, the comment ranking system is working well. Just imagine if, on a Zune article, someone had said "give me an iPod instead" - what do you think the reaction would be? A little negative, perhaps?
Said it before, saying it again, will keep saying it until it changes: the comment ranking system is not working. The rankings do not reflect the quality or worth of the comment. It is just a tool that is used by trolls to make dissenting opinions disappear and to make it appear as though everyone here believes the exact same things. It is fascism - there will be one opinion and one opinion only and we will not acknowledge that other opinions even exist.
At least stop the fading of low-ranked comments, so readers can see for themselves that the rankings reflect bias, and not content. They'll see that they reflect people's subjective opinions of companies, rather than objective assessments of products. And then they'll realise that the rankings are just rubbish and that the only thing they reflect is how completely and earnestly the comment follows the party line.
Now quickly, fascists - low rank me and get this dissenting opinion buried before anyone sees it!
r u kd'nk
Wow. Look at that. I wait for a camera and a mic.. and they pull out a faster iPod Touch? And 20 dollars cheaper?
LAMEEE.
None of these improvements are exciting or innovative. Everything that's announced is just a natural progression of the device. And that one more thing? Sorry, that's just kind of lame. I use to remember the time when everyone's heart is at their throat when "One more thing" comes out... Now it's just kind of "Meh."
Apple's really gone down hill on the innovation part... Maybe they have no more tricks in their hat?
Actually it's "a faster iPod Touch" OR "$20 cheaper". The $20 cheaper one is not actually faster.
Oh and how ridiculous is it that they eliminated the 16GB version instead of the 8GB version? The 8GB version is essentially the SAME as the one you could buy earlier today for $189 before the store went down . . . .
Co-sign...Lame!
exactly. a cam could have made the ipod touch definite choice . But now i ll wait for ZuneHD.
The 8GB iPod Touch is the SAME OLD ONE. IT DOES NOT have the FASTER PROCESSOR / BETTER GRAPHICS that the new iPhone 3GS does. Only the 32GB/64GB iPod touch does.. There are going to be a lot of confused, disappointed people.
Hmmm... so the only hardware upgrade is a better processor (is this confirmed, because the live blog didn't talk about this being the same processor as the iPhone 3GS... at least not yet). It looks like the Zune HD will have a decent shot at being competitive.
1.1% to 2.2%? ;-)
so according to you apple small share compared to microsoft OS means Windows is always better?
Market share means nothing, Zune HD does have better audio quality, HD video output and the 16GB version sound like a VERY good deal now for only 220$~
I was considering replacing my iPod Touch with a Zune HD. Then Apple had this event, which I was hoping they would announce something that would compel me to buy another iPod. It's a total disappointment at this point.
Now I would consider Zune HD more because
-OLED
-output HD
-better sound (?)
-about the same price
Things I worry about getting a Zune HD
-heart, "I like it" or "I hate it rating". I like the star system and have invested in rating my songs
-playlist, I heart there is no smart playlist?
-my stats and playcount probably won't translate over to zune software
I don't really know what you mean by smart playlist. There is a way to set parameters to generate a playlist if that's what you mean. For example, I have a 90s rock playlist, which I set to only include music from the 90s and in the Rock genre. It goes through my library and chooses only those songs.
So, they were having quality issues with the camera, or something like that, and instead of saying, "lets wait and release this when its ready", they decided to only marginally bump the specs and take out the one version (16GB) that was directly competitive with the ZuneHD (price and feature wise). Sure, Apple isn't going to go down the hole just from this one mistake, but they certainly are going to give MS a better opening with the ZuneHD, since it is clearly better than the Touch, and the camera issue doesn't come into play.
They'll be partying in Redmond tonight.
phil said "doubled" twice in the keynote...was there a typo on the slides? should the "8" have been a "16"?
I noticed that too....good to hear I wasn't the only confused that 32 is somehow double 8.
The 16 doubled to 32 and the 32 doubled to 64.
@Mark...yeah I thought of that....just sounded awkward the way it was presented.
Thank god. If those rumors had been true of no new iPods, they would have just completely ate it against the Zune HD. Looks like there'll be some halfway decent competition against the Zune.
I'm just happy this means there's going to be a 64gb Zune HD, probably by year end.
Unfortunately I might have to save my money until October for confirmation. :(
It should be a 16gb for 199 not 8gb
That's what I'm thinking... And this was the quote from the liveblog:
"8GB $199, at $299 we're doubling the memory... and at $399 we're doubling to 64GB"
Math fail?
@acj154: Wasn't the old 16GB one $299? So therefore it doubled the memory up to 32GB at the same price point.
Yeah, I have to admit I'm a little confused as to why they are keeping the 8 gig around and dropping the 16.
But not the 8GB one which people can actually afford.
The iPod is a toy. It will be obsolete in a year. Who wants to pay $300 for a toy?
EPIC FAIL APPLE.
EPIC FAIL.
Oh, that's possible. Though I think that just made it more confusing... and I would have expected them to drop the 8gb all together and just go with 16gb.
you damn right joseph, i feel like my soul has been raped and camera in ipod touch :(
It's all about marketing to the masses. When the average joe or jane sees that an extra $100 gets you "so much more," they'll perceive the 32gig model as a better value. Basically it's apple's way of squeezing an extra $100 out of buyers who wouold have been happy with 16gig, but find 8gig just a little too limiting.
Yay now my iPod touch can spontaneously combust in my pocket too!
the camers are coming ,... hold up
I'm thinking the same thing. I think that rumor this morning about camera problems was right and Apple pulled a fast one by pulling the camera out. I think that before or just after the new year we'll see an update only to the touch and it will be a model with a camera.
So I'm going to hold out for that. I certainly don't want a touch without a AF (video + 3.2MP stills) camera. Be nice if they added the FM radio too.
$400 for a PMP.
no camera? what an outrage.
Yeah...strange to see them put a camera on the Nano but not the Touch.
As much as I hate to say it, Apple lost a sale from me with this one. I'm looking to upgrade my first gen touch to a 32Gb model but without the camera functionality there really isn't enough to justify the price. And it feels really strange that the Nano now has features that the Touch doesn't, especially considering all the software development work would already have been done on the iPhone. Very strange decision by Apple.
They sure as hell lost a sale from me too. I was ready to buy a 16GB Touch with Camera and faster processor for $230. Fail on all counts.
Fo' real. I was even ready to sell my XBOX 360 in order to grab one of the new gens iTouch. Look at the BS they come out with...
I would have bought a 64gb version with a photo/video camera as long as it had the same features as the 3GS. But I now have zero interest in buying any new iPods this year. I guess I should say "Thanks Steve you saved me some money, now I can buy that new video card for my PC."
Now that I think about it, there is actually a pretty good reason why there is no camera. See, if there were a video camera in the device, there would also have to be a microphone. And if there were a microphone, there would inevitably be a VoIP app. And if there were a VoIP app, AT&T would blow a fuse and everything would go downhill from there (because of iPhone ability duplication without contract).
In fact, it may have been AT&T who told Apple not to put a microphone in the Touch to begin with.
Too bad I didn't think of this logic beforehand, I could have predicted this.
@DeoWulf
Yes, let's completely ignore the ability to do VOIP with the current iPod Touch with the new headphones w/ mic.
It actually doesn't bother me that there's no camera & mic in the new Touch. I'm actually glad they didn't place them in there. The new Ipod Touches have a new processor that's bound to produce more heat within the device, add the 64GB of the high-end ver. to that, and your already risking overheating issues. I don't see how it would be smart to add a camera and a mic to that environment, well...unless Apple wants the new Touches to change color from overheating like the Iphone 3GS does. There's also the problem of there not being enough space to accommodate the camera & mic in the new Ipod Touch. Especially in the 64GB model's case, since it uses two memory chips instead of one. The 64GB touch is smaller than the Iphone 3GS and it uses two 32GB memory chips, so essentially there might not be enough space to "safely" add a camera and mic to it. And there's no way Apple is gonna give a Camera & mic to the low-end touches and not the $399 high-end version. Well, that's just my 2 cents on that issue.
Apple definitely has my monies now though, I can pass on a 32GB touch, but I can't pass up a 64GB one. (>_>) Really, 32GB is not enough for device like the touch, especially since Apple refuses to add a memory expansion slot to any Ipod. I guess there's no hope for that or a removable battery to happen, since Apple's motto is to make their devices as thin as possible.
I guess at least we're getting a 64gb version of the ipod touch, but I was really hoping for a few extra goodies with it. Well, we do get the "faster" processor I guess.
I don't get it? Wouldn't the camera in the touch be the more logical choice? Or both even. Is this one of those arbitrary keep the iPhone and iPod Touch separate things?
No camera? So we went from 533 mHz to 600+ with absolutely no other upgrades? This is a joke, right? "Ha ha, gotcha, we really added a mic and camera too!" NO? dangit. Just get the 2G
Also has the updated GPU.
What a complete let down, Apple just keep letting customers down.
Roll on the Zune HD
...There's a voice recording icon on that iPod Touch.
How's it going to record without a mic?
That was on the 2G. It accepts mic input on the headset Jack (if you plug in a 3.5mm headphone/mic combo, you can use that to do Skype and audio and such).
I am a little dissapointed by the lack of camera...of course NONE of these shots have shown the back. could be another "one more thing"
Appel store is up. If you look closely, they come with the same headphones as last year ipod nano so the headphone comes with volume control and microphone.
@Guibs
Only the 32GB and 64GB come with that. The 8 GB just comes with standard headphones.
From the Apple Store:
"8GB model: Earphones
32GB and 64GB models: Earphones with Remote and Mic"
Not happy.
No camera on the touch? Guess that sames me a couple hundred $$$'s.
I think that must be it... keep the voip and and sweet features on the iPhone. Wow, what a let down... I have been watching for the past hour and a half for... nothing. HUGE let down... :(
I don't get it either. It doesn't make sense to get a camera in the Nano if you aren't doing it for the Touch.
adding a camera to the ipod touch could have swayed people on the fence
I can't believe there's no camera... I was so planning to buy one if it had a camera. That is the only thing I am missing in my portable device!
no camera? god damn...why does the nano have one and not the touch???
becuase it would detract sales from the iphone, and the camera in the nano probably sucks anyways. apple is actually smart specifically toward the nano demograph which is usally teens, instead of buying a nano and a flip you can get one device that does both
One more "one more thing!" Come on, Steve, give us a camera. I don't want to be walking around with a nano filming things. I want to use a 'Touch!
Lol, their stock actually went DOWN after the announcement. Watched the stock in real-time the whole event and it went DOWN after the iPod announcement. LOOOOOL. Serves them right, I guess.
It'll probably go down further unless there is another "trick" up their sleeves.
what a rubbish improvement, i wanted a camera with video capabilities and GPS, no way i'm going to get 1 now, you're loss apple, Zune HD for me!
Oh my god. There was just a firmware update! My iPod Touch now has a camera on the back of it!
I wish.
Thanks for making my decision easy, Apple. Zune HD it is.
True that, I was about to buy that 16GB ipod touch for $229 with a camera that was all but confirmed, but now I'm going zune.
? okay... kudos for the effort apple... pathetic
Yeah, cameras on a nano, not the Touch is really bizarre and almost pointless.
So, what, the Touch is the red headed step child to the iPhone?
I totally agree. Why would you want to wait to sync the video and pics with your computer when you can just process them on an iPod Touch. I mean, the processor makes it fully capable - why not? Dang this really is crud. I think I will go ahead and buy the 2nd gen at discount. What's to lose, really without the camera?
@Jim
I definitely understand this rationale, but disagree with it. There have always been minor differences between the two devices, with some being by lack of necessity, and others being simply out of sync. For example, the iPhone by nature of the fact that it is supposed to be a phone, needs a microphone. And until the 3GS, Nike+ could only be found on the touch.
The camera, however, is material and actually represents a solid move for Apple capturing a major segment that simply doesn't want, can't afford, or doesn't need an outlandishly expensive and, for many, unreliable subscription service. Believe me, there are millions -- millions more, I contend, than are in my situation, where an iPhone is had, and will be eliminated in lieu of a suitable touch. But this is not cannibalization. After all, I've already purchased the phone, and am enduring the applicable contract (which I honestly don't mind given the significance of the original subsidy). It's also worth noting that the desire to defect has everything to do with AT&T and nothing to do with Apple.
Speaking of AT&T, imagine your scenario is true to a material extent -- that is, imagine it makes a dent in sales -- it stands to reason that AT&T would miss the additional subscription revenue (and Apple per whatever, if any, sharing agreement exists) ... this is obvious. However, what they would be losing in terms of goodwill for their continued inability to properly manage the network deluge might actually be more significant an economic loss as compared to that of missed contracts -- though it's arguable that much of the damage is already done, given people like me.
Which, of course, brings us full circle. The point is, I believe it doesn't matter. While the iPhone 3GS represents the ultra-luxury segment, the touch is certainly no slouch. As suggested above, Apple has a history of having the two devices duke it out Rock 'em Sock 'em-style in terms of feature sets. It stands to reason, then, that we are to expect an enhanced feature to come to the touch. HD video would be a perfect example of this. If that is indeed the case, I am more than happy to wait. In the meantime, I'll remain disappointed that Apple failed to address this. At the same time, who knows, perhaps there was some truth to the rumor on touch camera delays and they simply shoved what parts they could into the current touch's casing in favor of a new, more convoluted product segment, the iPod touch HD.
Time will tell.
No camera and mic on the touch is an ABSOLUTE disappointment. There is no way this thing is a true gateway to "all" the apps on the app store ("no subscription") without those features. I was planning to get rid of my iPhone 3G in lieu of this update, but now I'm thinking twice. Looks like I'm just going to have to wait.
I appreciate the camera on the Nano, of course, but I'll never buy one. It's too limited in scope and overpriced (duh) for what it is. If I were in need of a compact player, however, this might be it. The local gym might disagree.
Wow, in my eyes, this event totally bombed because of this.
Perhaps that's exactly why it has no camera? If the iPod touch is too similar to the iPhone, it would cannibalize sales. The new Nano is actually a pretty good refresh and will sell in droves.
@Jim
No Jim, because there are a ton of people like me who don't want to have to pay $90 a month for an iphone in this economy. We'd rather have a cheap voice plan somewhere else and use a touch with all it's wifi goodness. But the camera is one of the coolest things on the iphone and sadly not on the touch. So we'll see if they add it later this year, otherwise no new touch for me.
@Jim
I mistakenly replied to the comment above by yoko1324 when meaning to reply to you. Scroll up if you're so inclined. Apologies.
I cannot believe it... I waited for the camera, only to be completely let down... I am shocked, truly shocked. O.O
No camera on the touch?
Unbelievably outrageous !
It makes no sense that they put the camera and the mic on the nano and not the touch !
The iPod touch has no input capability except of the touchscreen...
The nano has more input devices than the touch ? what a joke !
Go get Zune ! it looks cooler anyway !
Solid price points on that new(ish) iPod Touch, but... I won't be upgrading this time, as it really is just more of the same - especially that same old tired design.
Bring on the Zune HD! (especially in 64gb guise)
This was a complete waste of time... I'm off to class this is crap. No camera, no mic, NOT PURCHASING. Utter BS...
FAIL
i wanted camera ;_;
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (BS)
Apple Store is back, and the 8gb version doesn't have a "Faster Performance" so it looks like it's just a price drop..
LAME