iPod touch Someone explain the market for iPod Touch?

[BiikeMike]

I'll throw in one for that is in the market for the iPod touch.

I travel, A LOT, for business. I spend countless hours in airports and on airplanes, and having the wireless in airports to be able to geek out and browse macrumors and all the other forums I frequent is a major plus. Start the boarding process, load up a movie, and I have a big beautiful display to watch it on.

What I do now is pull out my MBP in the airport for the internet, then pack it up and pull out my 5.5gen iPod to watch videos on, and after a long flight, that hurts my eyes.

Now, I get to my business trip location. I am an avid Mountain biker (who would've guessed that?) and I like to try and stay in shape on the road. People keep saying the iPod nano is ultimate gym-pod, I disagree. With the touch, I'll be able to listen to my music whilst doing weights, and when I switch to the machines, (elliptical, bike, etc) I can watch House

Now, fast forward to the next day. Business meeting in hotel. There is WiFi in every hotel now, so I can get on the 'net during breaks in the meetings. (OK, who am I kidding, DURING the meetings )

Get back to the airport, repeat

Can an iPhone do all this? sure can, but I am locked into my VZW Blackberry

 

[ddrueckhammer]

I'm a college student, and I don't know if I'm typical, but the iPod Touch is so sweet to me. I'm in love with my 2nd Gen Red Nano ,but I am going to get a Touch for my girlfriend, as she always likes to 1up me in the technology department and her 1st gen Pink Mini is starting to get sad.

If you don't have Wifi everywhere then I imagine you aren't in a city. There are tons of Wifi hotspots here in Tampa. Half of the hotels and restaurants have it and the university, downtown area, airport etc. all have large areas of 802.11g reception. I mean c'mon, Starbucks are on every corner on and off campus and they all have Wifi access... I see tons of students in my classes browsing the web while the professors lecture. Personally, I find taking notes a bit of a waste of time since the material is covered too fast to learn it while copying and (at least my classes) aren't memorization based. The internet on the iPod touch is completely useful to me when traveling (airports, hotels, etc.), at school (almost all universities have it), and even on the couch as laptops are a bit bulky to have out while watching the game...

As far as storage, I don't think I would ever need more than 15 Gb with me at one time anyway. I just looked and I have 12 movies ripped into iTunes so far and they are all around 800-1200 Mb, MPEG-4/H.264, 720x340...I ripped them with default setting in Handbrake from discs I own thinking I might want to stream them to our TV using an Apple TV or Xbox 360. This means my girlfriend can carry 5 movies or so and 10 Gb of music with her at one time. (and if I optimize movies to fit the iPod Touch screen, I can shave a few Mb off of the filesize...) We don't have huge music libraries ( I have 25 Gb and she has 30) but really there is alot of stuff I don't really care about listening to because I just ripped entire CDs and there are songs I don't like in there. Also, I doubt if I or my girlfriend will ever listen to more than a few thousand songs in a day anyway Its not that big of a deal to change the music out when you get tired of it.

Finally, there are tons of people who like us who are happy with their current carrier and don't want to do business with AT&T. I am happy with T-Mobile and have used all of the carriers at one time or another and don't want to have to switch just to get an iPhone. My girlfriend and I use Gmail so who cares about the email we can get to it from a browser.

Also, I think it is kind of rude to get a gift for someone that requires a subscription. iPod Touches will make much better Christmas gifts than iPhones...

The one thing I think would make this the killer app for college students is texting, but since it isn't a communications device maybe someone will come out with a browser based web 2.0 solution.

 

[Evangelion]

I just don't get who is the market for an iPod touch? With only 8gb/16gb of space, wouldn't most people prefer a nano as their "walkman" since it is cheaper?

Touch has bigger screen, superior UI and more features. And I have a gut-feeling that touch will be expanded with new features in the future, whereas Nano will not be.

oh, and how is multi-touch convenient to use when running or using the ipod at a gym.

What if you are not planning to use it then? And why couldn¨t I just hit shuffle, and not touch the device at all while working out?

I'm planning to buy the touch just about as soon as it becomes available. Why? It fits my entire music-library with ease. It has more than enough space for video and watching those videos on that big screen is a lot better than watching them on a smaller screen. It also has WiFi, so it can replace my Nokia 770 as my portable internet-device. And I feel that touch is a lot more versatile device than nano is, making it a better fit for my future needs.

 

[Evangelion]

without a phone to provide internet service 100%, this is just a cute gadget and not a must-have.

All iPods are just gadgets, and not "must-have"....

Why shouldn't I get the touch? Suggestions anyone?

 

[Mr. B]

I just have to chime in here.

I'm a college student and the ipod touch really is *exactly* what I'm looking for. Sorry Unspeaked, you really don't know the college student mindset.

First off, I want the absolute cheapest cell phone I can get. I want one that does *nothing* besides allow me to call someone and send a few texts. I want it to be small, and I want it to be cheap. Thus, the iphone is not for me.

But! I really really want a nice portable internet browser with a beautiful screen...

the largest ipod I've ever had was the fifteen gigabyte one and I never even used its full capacity, and I am currently using the old school shuffle since my old ipod broke down.

I live in New York so there are hotspots *everywhere* and most parks have free wifi. Also my campus has free wifi.

This means I'll have almost continuous access to the internet wherever I am, I can store my entire music collection on it, and it's so sleek and small that I don't have to worry about it weighing me down like my ibook would.

And so, the answer is simple, seriously, the ipod touch is like a college students wet dream.

 

[fafner]

Touch ofcourse

We now have a complete new device, that can be used for an array of interesting things. Not just now but applications will come.

HOME
Here I think we will have many nice applications in the future:
- As a media extender browse your music collection via cover flow, stream from an iTunes server.
- As a remote control for media (lightning, DVR, TV, cinema with video and audio preview) can navigate between different types of media, controll your apple tv etc.

ON THE GO
This has been explained in various posts above, so I will not go into this.

BUISNESS
- Reading mail on meetings
- Surfing
- Awareness and informal communication device (chat, forums, conferencing etc).

WHY 16G is enough for me
And regarding the storage capacity, my JPEg photos is about 4G, I have about 4G of music 2G of books and then place for 4G of movies (about 5 movies at good quality) and still 2G over...

If I travel longer than that I always bring a laptop.

 

[Evangelion]

And think about this: touch provides top-notch web-browsing experience. It also provides best-of-breed mediaplayback. It weights 120g and comes with 8-16GB of flash. And it does all that for 300-400 bucks.

Now, on the other hand we have Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. It too offers great web-browsing experience, mostly due to the large-resolution screen. But it's mediaplayback is not that good, and it ships with 256MB of flash, and it weights about 200g, and it's UI is not as refined as touch's. And it costs 400 bucks.

Granted, N800 is an open device with lots of apps. But still: looking at the two, the touch is NOT a bad deal, far far from it. In fact, I'm planning to use my upcoming touch as a replacement for Nokia 770 (N800's predecessor). If I want the functionality touch will give me, I would have to carry three devices with me: my phone, iPod and 770. With touch I need just two devices: phone and the iPod. And since I already carry iPod with me, alongside my phone, there's not change.

 

[8bitrevolution]

What about car owners, some companies have started to fit cars to be ipod ready. So the ipod touch...in CARS, nuff said.

The "iPod ready" cars I've seen simply dock your iPod somewhere out of harm's way (center console or glove box) and then you control it through the stereo.

So why would having touch in the car matter?

 

[nirvana06]

WiFi is the key for me. Living in a city where wifi is everywhere, great to be always connected. If it did not have WiFi maybe i'd go for classic.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Interesting replies.

I still wonder how it will do as you guys represent a very tech oriented group who love Apple and it's gadgets and find this stuff exciting.

Guess time will tell.

 

[BiikeMike]

All iPods are just gadgets, and not "must-have"....

Why shouldn't I get the touch? Suggestions anyone?

Because the one you order might be just before the one I order, and they might run out right after you leaving mine on back order. That's why

 

[ctakim]

If you want a video iPod with a beautiful screen the touch at 16GB is just what you needed. I have a iPhone 8 gb and can carry a decent music library and 3 feature films (ripped from my legit DVDs by Handbrake). You do have to switch out the films and music for long trips, but hey, that is easy with iTunes.

The iPod nano is a great device, but the screen is way small and if movies are your main ticket, the touch/iPhone screen is the way to go.