New numbers out Friday suggest Apple’s iPod Touch may become a threat to sales of the pricier iPhone. The Touch is gaining fans while the iPhone may reportedly be suffering during tight economic times.
Ads sent to the iPod Touch nearly tripled in December, compared to November, mobile ad firm AdMod announced Thursday. The Touch was served 292 million ads last month, up from 86 million in November. The Touch is now the No. 2 mobile device in the ad company’s network.
At $399, the iPod Touch is more expensive than the $299 iPhone, but the device actually costs less by avoiding monthly contract fees required by AT&T in the United States. AT&T charges between $69 and $130 per month for a required two-year iPhone contract.
Keith Bachman, a BMO Capital Markets analyst, reports Canada’s Rogers Communications sold 130,000 iPhones during the quarter ended in December, more than 100,000 fewer than were purchased over the previous three-month period. Rogers subscribers pay about $60 per month over a three-year contract.
Apple is positioning the iPod Touch as a gaming platform able to compete with Nintendo or Sony. At the App Store, gaming is the top-selling category.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
