Apple moved the goal posts in the music market yet again with their new generation of iPods last night. Realising they could tear yet another chunk out of the up and coming holiday market it was time for them to capitalise on their success and revamp their range (yet again).
The big noise came courtesy of the new iPod touch, essentially a scaled down iPhone with a new tweaked user interface and an impressive film capability. This new version even boasts a wifi connectivity option that allows your iPod to take on some mini computer functionality and of course synch wirelessly with your libraries on your home Mac or PC. Of course Apple weren’t the first to market with this feature, that honour goes to Microsoft’s Zune but then again, did anyone actually buy that device?
Elsewhere the more traditional iPod (now dubbed the Classic) gets a little tweak in the aesthetic department but its big news is the fact that its storage capacity rockets to a storming 160Gb in its largest incarnation. That’s 40,000 songs in your pocket folks (or a handy external bootable drive for the geeks out there).
The Nano gets a nice rethink with a tasty little 2” screen and the ability to play movies. Its new body is a pleasing little “square” form factor and the display technology is amongst the most advanced that Apple have ever used in a portable device. It might be smaller than the iPod Video but allegedly you don’t lose any quality because you are squeezing more pixels into the smaller space.
The shuffle gets a little colour overhaul but lets be right, there’s not that much you can do with that particular model is there. Also of note is Apple’s entrance into the ringtone market. Presently only for the iPhone Apple are allowing people to make their own tones for the iPod using songs from their library, its quite nifty to see in action but boy does it signal Apple’s pincer movement to grab every share of the music market going.
