See anything interesting in the image above, plucked right from Apple’s own website? Say, the iPod Touch with the 3G icon in the top left? Did Apple just out a web-connected iPod Touch coming in September?
Although it’s likely just a mistake by Apple’s internal art department, the timing of this mistake — first noticed by the iDownloadBlog — is striking, in that it closely follows rumors that Apple is working on a iPod Touch 3G.
Could there be anything to this rumor? Only Apple knows, but I continue to doubt it: there’s a reason an iPod Touch is so thin compared to an iPhone, and it all has to do with how bulky cellular data modems are. Apple’s committed to keeping the iPod Touch svelte — that’s one reason why its cameras are so terrible, because they’re thin — and even if they weren’t, I just don’t see Apple being willing to fragment their iPhone customer base with a cheaper, contract-free PMP that can easily do VoIP and fit in your pocket.
Needless to say, then, I’m skeptical… especially since we’ve been hearing 3G iPod Touch rumors for years. But what do you think?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
42 responses to “Did Apple Just Out The 3G Capable VoIP iPod Touch On Their Website?”
Or when taking the picture, they used an iPhone 3GS. Or they simply overlaid a graphic on top of the iPod screen for better image quality and used an stock iPhone screen image they had. Doesn’t really mean anything in the long scheme of things as long as Photoshop exists.
As cellular nets go 4G in a big way, why is it that there is nary a word about 4G Apple products?
4G is great but battery life still sucks. Apple doesn’t want to use 4G until it is at a point where it doesn’t degrade battery life.
I just went to the Apple website, and it’s the same picture, but the iPhone 4 is in the place for the “3G” iPod Touch.
I continue to stand by my assertion that Apple will do away with the iPod Touch in favor of a 3G and non-3G flavor of iPhone. In other words, they’ll give the iPod Touch phone capabilities only (again, NO 3G) and call it something like “iPhone Nano”. And you can quote me.
Because they’ve already openly said that they don’t want to use the bulky, power sucking first generation 4G radios (compare current 4G phones’ size and battery life on 4G). The best you’ll get is an HSPA+ iPhone this year (which I think is likely). But I guess depending on your definition, that might qualify as “4G”. LTE will likely be next year as the tech is refined. BTW, Apple did the same thing with 3G back in the day.
Makes perfect sense when you think about it:
* iOS 5 brings free Apple Text messages
* Facetime goes 3G
* last year when iPod 4 was introduced, the page showed a “vibrating alert” feature for the iPod touch for a short while, before it was removed.
It would have free text apple text messaging, and free voice/video call capabilities on the go, also cellphone like vibrating alert for messages and facetime over 3G. Come on, how isn’t that a match made in heaven?
Judging by the surprising number of times Apple’s promotional photos have featured on the Photoshop Disasters blog, I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions based upon such things. It’s somewhat admirable that the picture on the iPod screen is not upside-down!
3G-only makes way more sense than phone only. Nobody needs a phone more than Internet access, which allows for iMessages, Facetime, email, skype, various other VOIP providers and so on. That won’t happen. And you can quote me.
+1 They’re always ‘simulated screens’
That has been their for ages. I noticed it weeks before the rumours
But consider this: smart phones are only half of the cellphone equation. Apple is missing out on 50% of cell phone sales simply because they only make a typical smartphone. And what separates smart phones from “dumb” phones? Mobile data. Apple could release a high-spec feature phone by adding phone only to the iPod Touch. No mobile data required, but it would obviously still have wifi. This would be the #1 feature phone on the market overnight if they did it, and they could make what is really a downgrade seem like an upgrade by having this phone be the evolution of the iPod Touch. This schema also falls in line with another familiar iOS line – the iPads. There are currently a 3G iPad and a Wifi iPad. 3G iPhone and Wifi iPhone maintain continuity in the line, which Apple LOVES. Lots of thought went into my assertion. This is not just wishful thinking – this makes a profound amount of business sense.
That’s been their for weeks I noticed it before the rumours
Anyone notice the screen image is the exact same here (iphone): http://www.apple.com/icloud/ and here (ipod): http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Someone at apple just got a little lazy and put the same simulated image on two devices, nothing to get excited about :)
Sorry to break this to you, but mobile data is not what separates a smart phone from a dumb phone. My last dumb phone had 3G and a webbrowser as well. That doesn’t make it a smartphone.
Nobody wants the phone functionality over the internet functionality. Apple is pushing to introduce their own communication services, facetime and imessage.
That’s also been true of every TV/camera commercial since like, forever.
I think you’re taking your own desires and applying them carte blanche to come up with your “NOBODY wants the phone functionality over the internet functionality” statement. Somewhat revealing about just how much you understand marketing. Fully HALF (or more) of the marketplace still use cheaper feature phones. Although some of them do indeed have internet capability, mobile data is still one of the primary differentiations between smart phones and feature phones. Neilson used this in their recent projections of future smart phone adoption : http://goo.gl/igj2. It looks like we’ll have to agree to disagree until late August/Early September, at which point we’ll know who was closer to the truth. Cheers!
Imagine that you have iDevice with 3g/4g Data Only for $15/month post pay or prepay / as you go and add Skype/Facetime/Vonage, etc. and iMessage and what do you get? Seems like a new class of phone or i’ll call it the iPad mini. You get all the advantages of a phone without paying the $90 or more for Cell+Text+Data, as you can make phone calls that are metered not by minutes but by data consumption… the low end data plan – 250MB/month is over 250 minutes assuming 64kbit/sec audio bi-directional and more if lower bit rate codec is used.
True, but making things simple and accessible has been the halmark of Apple’s creed for well over a decade. If they want to make a phone, they’ll make a phone. What you are describing is ideal for many of the technorati out there, but not for your mom. And let’s face it – Apple is trying to sell a phone to your mom. And your sister. And every other person they can, regardless of their level of tech expertise.
Now the iTunes site just shows the iPod with normal connection, but the iCloud site shows the 3G iPod.
The usual idea is that you would use NFC to set up the link between the two devices and then do an automatic hand over to a different protocol for doing the actual transfer of data – eg Bluetooth,iphone 5