iPod Touch, 5th Generation (image: Apple.com) The invites have been sent out, the blog posts have been written, and it's time for the expected second-punch from Apple as the Cupertino-based company is set to update its product line up once more. Both myself and Gordon Kelly have put up some predictions on what to expect, but there's one part of the portfolio we both missed.
I can't help but come back to that phrase 'It's been way too long' on the invites. It has been a very long time since the iPod Touch has been updated (the fifth generation was announced in October 2012). Even when it launched alongside the iPhone 5, the hardware specifications read more like an iPhone 4S – the A5 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 16/32/64 GB as storage options.
Apple's formal invite (image: Apple PR)
If Apple were to launch an updated iPod Touch for the festive season, using components from last year's design should result in a lower bill of materials through a lower cost as the part design is an older specification. Last year's iPhone models are still being produced, lending an economy of scale without disrupting the lead time of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.
Which means that I'm looking at the iPhone 5C production line and wondering if there's anything missing. Well, pretty much all of the iPhone 5C portfolio is missing if I'm honest. The iPhone 5C is currently available in a single memory size, 8GB, and it's almost unworkable. Once you knock off around 4 GB for iOS to be installed, pop a few apps and some music on to it… that's it, it's full. Don't even think about trying to do an over-the-air software updated, you simply don't have the space.
The iPhone 5C is currently a hobbled curiosity. The 8 GB version has never been announced on an Apple stage. It quietly appeared in March this year and was promptly pushed by carriers as the 'free' iPhone (outside the US the subsidy race is a little different, and less generous) while Apple carried on producing the other storage sizes.
Apart from the 'carrier mandated' model, the iPhone 5C has essentially been relegated out of Apple's product line.
But it fits the historical footprint of an iPod Touch perfectly. It uses technology a generation behind the current flagship (arguably two generations behind), it could run the latest version of iOS and the majority of applications currently in development, it has the expected range of fashionable colors, a solid and dependable camera for media capture and FaceTime, and it promotes Apple's cloud services. Once you take out the cellular hardware.
iPod Touch, 5th Generation (image: Apple.com)
Hand on heart, I still think this is a long shot. Apple has never been about continuing a product line because it is already there. While I don't think the iPod Touch is going to die like the iPod Classic in September, the small specifications update in June to the 16 GB model accompanied by a slight price drop was probably the last hurrah for the line. A hurrah that should see it through the festive season, and not much further beyond.
Launching an iPod Touch 6th Generation would keep the iPod Touch in Apple's domain for another year, probably two. Does Apple need a standalone media player alongside its smartphones, tablets, ultraportables, and desktops? Does Apple still need a price conscious piece of iOS hardware to act as an on-ramp into the ecosystem? Does Apple still want to be in the media player business when there is no apparent growth in the iPod market? Can you justifying saying yes to each of those?
I think I could. And it has been way too long…
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