iPod 6G iPod Prediction

[iWinnipegger]

I have a feeling that the 6G iPod will NOT have Wi-fi. Why? Think about it, steve jobs streesed at macworld that the iPhone would combine...a PHONE, and INTERNET COMMUNICATOR and an iPOD.

If jobs stressed these as 3 different things, wouldn't the iPod not have an internet communicator becasue it's an iPod. It's soooo hard to explain but hopefully someone will get my point! hehe..anyways yeah, iPods are for music, movie...media! not surfing the web, checking emails, i think apple will stick to wi-fi with the iPhone not to hurt sales at first.

just my opinion...

 

[Zwhaler]

No Wi-Fi. Not on an iPod... that's what the iPhone is for, right?

 

[SalukiWildcat]

Rebuttal

I think you're missing the point here. The iPod will not take on "internet communicator" features when the Apple gurus release it with WiFi later this year. Rather, the WiFi will allow it to work seamlessly with your shiny new TV.

Make sense?

 

[roland.g]

Maybe but doubtful on the Apple TV reason.
If anything I see it getting bluetooth for true wireless headphone support. More and more of those are coming out.

Apple will cut the cords sooner later. But maybe not on this revision.

 

[virus1]

No. If it were to gain any wireless, it would be bluetooth, to connect to headsets and sync with iTunes. Bluetooth takes up less energy and is more logical overall.

Although I could see support with Apple TV as a reason it might have wi-fi. Imagine going over to a friends house with your iPod and watching the latest episode of your favorite show or whatever on your friends HD, streaming from your iPod out of your pocket. Unfortunately, it sucks too much power, takes up too much space, and bluetooth is simply more appropriate.

 

[anti-microsoft]

I think the iPod will have wi-fi, but not to surf the web and do email and stuff like that. No, No, No! It will be to communicate with tv and to directly buy music through a mini iTunes store or listen to Internet Radio. iPhone will deal with the internet and email.

 

[siurpeeman]

i don't think the 6g ipod will have any internet or wifi capabilities. bluetooth headset? maybe. but how's this for a prediction: no cover flow.

 

[slayr-cxf50]

They're gonna have to increase the battery power for any of this stuff. I suspect iPod won't be getting any thinner this generation...

 

[kuebby]

They're gonna have to increase the battery power for any of this stuff. I suspect iPod won't be getting any thinner this generation...

Good call, I agree about the thickness, it really can't get much, if any, thinner with current technology.

But as for wi-fi I don't see why not. That way they can bill it for use as an iChat device, email, and internet browser. People will see the difference between that and the iPhone, they'll realize it can do everything, but it can't make phone calls.

 

[tris01]

i think it proerly will have bluetooth as didn't steve say that they were working on bluetooth headphone for the iPhone. Surely they can't not include that in the new iPod

 

[m-dogg]

I voted Yeah! becasue I'd like to see it. But realistically, I don't see it happening in the short term future.

 

[Evangelion]

No Wi-Fi. Not on an iPod... that's what the iPhone is for, right?

iPhone is for making phone-calls.

I would like to see the 6G iPod have Wifi as well. Basically take the camera and phone out of iPhone. Keep the "communicator" (including email and Safari). I would just LOVE to see something like that. And there would be more than enough differentiation between iPhone and iPod. People who want a phone would go for the iPhone.

That said, I would understand if they took the communicator out of it as well. In fact, I'm expecting them to do that. But I would still like to see it . Then I could replace my Nokia 770 with iPod, and I could relegate the 770 for GPS-duty in the car. But Wifi would make sense in any case, so you could buy songs from the iPod. Why shouldn't we be able to buy directly from the iPod? And I could really see the benefit with podcasts: those could become much more real-time when you could get new podcasts while on the road.

And the thing is that... Not having WiFi would be bad since iPods competitors would be having it, some of them would even take real advantage of it. And not having the communicator would make the WiFi less usable. I don't want to see an iPod with useless Wifi like Zune has. I want an iPod with WiFi that is really useful!

And if we get an iPod that is NOT based on iPhone, I would be royally pissed. The thing with iPhone is that it makes every single phone and mp3-players in the market look dated. And the problem is that that includes the iPod. Compared to the iPhone, iPod looks old and dated. Give us iPhone-iPod please!

Apple has already invested a lot of R&D in to the iPhone. And they can sell it for $499 and still get loads of profit from it. If they took some of the features away (camera and cell-phone) and replaced the flash with HD, they could sell it at a profit as well, especially since they could just re-use the R&D and design. Maybe $349 and $449? Hell, maybe $299 and $399? Apple COULD do it, and they would instantly make every single other mp3-player look ancient in comparison. And besides: having lots of different iPod-UI's out there is not smart.

 

[Evangelion]

i think it proerly will have bluetooth as didn't steve say that they were working on bluetooth headphone for the iPhone. Surely they can't not include that in the new iPod

The bluetooth-headphone for the iPhone is a headset, a standard accessory on many phones. It's not a headset for listening to music. That said, there ARE proper music-oriented BT-headsets and it would make sense for 6G iPod to support them. Wired headset is one of the last kludges remaining.

Just picture it: 6G multitouch iPod with Wifi and wireless headphones (optional). Absolutely kick-ass piece of equipment.

 

[mike dunx]

i think it would be a very nice addition to the ipod... but i don't think they're gonna give wifi to the ipod so it doesn't steal too much of the iphones features.

proove me wrong apple

 

[myjellyass]

No. If it were to gain any wireless, it would be bluetooth, to connect to headsets and sync with iTunes. Bluetooth takes up less energy and is more logical overall.

Although I could see support with Apple TV as a reason it might have wi-fi. Imagine going over to a friends house with your iPod and watching the latest episode of your favorite show or whatever on your friends HD, streaming from your iPod out of your pocket. Unfortunately, it sucks too much power, takes up too much space, and bluetooth is simply more appropriate.

It will probably have bluetooth to connect to wireless headphones and the likes, but there is no chance in hell that im waiting for 80gb to transferred accross bluetooth: it would take FOREVER!
It is a good connection for some things such as small file transfer, sending commands etc, but is incredibly slow. Apple would in all likely hood prevent it from syncing if it had bluetooth to save them the embarasment. And anyway, how much harder is it to take it out your ipod and place it on your dock vs taking it out and turning on bluetooth. It isnt.

 

[Brayden87]

True True.

You don't buy an ipod because it can surf the web.

You buy an ipod because it can play Songs!

So highly doubt that it will contain what was said above.

 

[net26]

oh boy wouldn't it be wildly cool to use the 6g ipod w/wifi as a "remote control" for the apple tv?

that said, i doubt wifi will make into the 6g...

 

[Vinnie_vw]

I think there's just as little (or much) sense to the iPod-Apple TV connection as there would be to an iPod-iPod one. Why would either exist? Apple-TVs sync with a PC, so do iPods. Apple sells PCs. So why cut out the middle-man? Maybe in the future, "squirting" will be all the rage (I doubt it) and then iPod will "heart" other iPods. And maybe Apple-TV will become stand-alones someday (though I doubt that too), in which case an Apple-TV-syncing iPod would make sense.

Generally speaking though, a wireless connection to my Mac would rock!

 

[n-abounds]

I think there's just as little (or much) sense to the iPod-Apple TV connection as there would be to an iPod-iPod one. Why would either exist? Apple-TVs sync with a PC, so do iPods. Apple sells PCs. So why cut out the middle-man? Maybe in the future, "squirting" will be all the rage (I doubt it) and then iPod will "heart" other iPods. And maybe Apple-TV will become stand-alones someday (though I doubt that too), in which case an Apple-TV-syncing iPod would make sense.

Generally speaking though, a wireless connection to my Mac would rock!

What? "squirting"?

 

[Evangelion]

It will probably have bluetooth to connect to wireless headphones and the likes, but there is no chance in hell that im waiting for 80gb to transferred accross bluetooth: it would take FOREVER!

You are missing the point. You could transfer songs to the iPod over Bluetooth just fine. I mean, how often do you sync 80GB at a time? Most people do one initial sync that is several gigabytes in size. After that they do incremental updates that are a lot smaller in size. The initial sync could be done over USB.

Another thing to consider... You computer has Bluetooth running, as does your iPod. You add some stuff to your iTunes-library, and it automatically syncs that stuff to your iPod. Hell, it could start syncing stuff to your iPod the moment you walk near your computer! Picture it: totally effortless and transparent syncing. Your iPod would be up-to-date all the time, without requiring you to do anything.

 

[Evangelion]

True True.

You don't buy an ipod because it can surf the web.

You buy an ipod because it can play Songs!

No you don't. I mean, at first iPod only played music. Then they added photos to it. Then they added audiobooks and podcasts to it. Then they added videos to it. And somewhere during the way it gained the ability to house your calendar and contacts as well.

Over the years iPod has gained quite a bit of new functionality. Adding WiFi to it as well is well within the realm of possibility, especially since it's competitors are starting to add that feature. Now, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't add WiFi to it, at least not now. But I could still see them doing it.

Things change and devices gain new functionality and features. Why should the iPod be different? And it's not like WiFi would make it harder to use or something.

iPod started out as a music-player. And that's still it's primary function. But it has accumulated more features over time. It would be quite a small step to turn it in to a real multifunction-device that you can take everywhere. Current UI would make it pretty hard to make it in to a multifunction-device. But fullscreen touchscreen would make it possible.

 

[elppa]

I think they'll move it over to OS X.

Beyond that not sure.

 

[72930]

What? "squirting"?

A Zune can "squirt" (meaning beam) music to a nearby Zune (if such a thing exists) so the other guy/girl can listen either 3 times, or for 3 days, whichever happens first.

It is slow, and you can't be listening to music while you do it, so it really is awful. The WiFi also drains the battery

 

[needthephone]

I'd love to see it - The Apple TV thought is excellent but it could canibilise iphone sales.

I think they will develop it (and maybe add more features) prototype it but then keep it on the shelf and wait to see how the phone goes.

If iphone bombs then all the gizmos like multi touch will be in the ipod quick smart.

However apple simply can't afford to loose out with the iphone-it has to work

 

[Evangelion]

regarding this "cannibalizing iPhone sales"... Well, it's a bad thing if your lower-margin product cannibalizes sales of higher-market product. But is this such a case? Would Apple earn more money from each iPhone sold than it would from each iPod sold? And what about iPhone cannibalizing the sales of iPods? Why isn't anyone worried about that?

That said: While I could see Apple having Wifi and "internet communicator" in the 6G iPod, I think the odds are that they wont include them. Bluetooth propably, but no Wifi. I would still like to see Wifi in there though .