My ipod touch and my opinion about ipod and Apple Corp.

Why I am a fan of Apple but I’ve never had an ipod before

I have never used Apple ipod product before I bought an 8 G ipod touch second generation.

I am an electronic gadget enthusiast, and a fan of Apple Corporation, for its vision, innovation and artistic capability, connection and influence (the last character is rare within high tech community, which established Apple’s iconic status). There are other corporations are bigger, richer, better (in terms of business operation), and even more innovative (Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Google, just name a few), however, to the public eye, no one as inspiring and fun as Apple. (Apple is not immune from corporate lay-off disease – it was painful to employees when it happened).

However, at the same time, I am a strong supporter of open standard as I am a true believer of freedom and democracy of people. In terms of product design, I believe it should provide ultimate flexibility and freedom of choice, which means adaptation of open standard.

I very much admired that Apple pioneered the content transferrable/portable personal digital music player (i.e. 3mp vs. CD. – CD is a media portable device, but is still not content portable. Content portable gives more freedom and flexibility than media portable) revolution with the introduction of pod, started the phenomenon of a new experience of personal music enjoyment in a new millennium, and dominated the respective market.

I watched the ipod followers, who have near religious enthusiasm and loyalty, with great interests, but resisted to join the cult for tow reasons: the non-standard format and interface, and the prime price. After all, I am not a frequent music listener. I had a few mp3 players during that period of time, for its open standard format music content playing, its radio function, as well as for experiencing the technology. I heard of and watched the demo of the amazing experience people had for the menu design and the turn-wheel scroll user interface which ipod introduced uniquely, but never used one myself.

My ipod touch praise

It’s almost 5 years since ipod time and I had my ipod touch 2^nd generation. Although I am still against its non-standard approach, I must say that I am very impressed despite of that. In summary, the experience has exceeded my expectations.

I especially like

1. Its slick design and its compact size and overall build quality – it immediately distanced itself among competitors. A distinguish ipod. Up to its traditional reputation.
2. Some sensational touch screen functions, such as flip and roll browsing , visual album, photo zoom and shrink
3. Build-in youtube application, for its clean interface and its performance (It’s a perfect trade off between generality and specialty)
4. Its build-in language input schemes
5. Its multi touch, finger tip optimized touch screen design. A fun experience

And of cause, its uncompromised music experience up to other ipod products and ipod fan expections

My ipod touch wish list

I realize that every product has its limitation due to its budget, and I am still in awe of the production of ipod touch in such a low cost. However, I do have a list of thing to be improved, simply because I like and care about it. To the list:

1. Standard USB connect, instead of ipod proprietary interface.
   1. (I do not expect Apple to listen to this one, so maybe a 3^rd party supplier could make a compact USB-to-ipod touch adapter. – The design and build quality should match those of ipod)
2. removable battery – at least for the 32 G model.
   I haven’t heard of complaint yet, and I don’t have specifications of its rechargeable battery from Apple, but I’d presume I would prefer a new battery at some point down the road.

3. cut & past function

   1. almost all PDAs have it as basic function. Ipod touch has full function PDA features (schedule, phone book, tasks, note).
   2. Cut and past is essential to web access (search content and modify website string)

4. delete function

   1. delete a file, or delete a photo or video directly from ipod touch.
   2. It is inconvenient if any changes have to be made via PC (including Apple Mac) application, or iTune.

5. Document and word processing applications – e.g. ability to read word and pdf document

6. extend web browser functions –

   1. current version does not allow open pop-up window. This may be due to the consideration of CPU computing power (limit function to preserve performance).
   2. However, a large portion of the web sites is expecting pop-up support. As a result, the safari application on ipod touch is not able to access those web sites.
   3. As a interim solution, if current design does not support open multiple web page, then safari should at least allow to change to the new webpage and close the previous one.

7. Allow multiple application –

   1. Window Mobile version of PDAs support multiple applications
   2. This maybe too much to ask as I can see two difficulties
      i. CPU and system need to have enough computing power and memory to run it efficiently
      ii. The underline Apple’s ipod operating system has to support it
      
      c. Apple ipod may have no interest in the PDA market, however, I expect traditional PDA users are currently paying close interest and are examining ipod touch extensively, especially the same set of functions on iPhone. It has come the age when users expect everything in one mobile device. (everything means: mobile phone, PDA, multi-media player/recorder, multi-media means: sound/music, photo and video. With this definition, camera is a photo/video recorder function).
      

8. For same users, FM/AM radio is a import function for them to effortless stay close to current news and event. And of cause, wireless internet access and build-in key applications

9. Enhance wireless setup and configuration

   1. I can only use default index 1 when choose wireless WEP security. As a result I have to compromise wireless router setup I used earlier
   2. Could add more setup and configuration features and hide them in “advanced setup” category
      

10. Adaptation of open standard

    1. Especially allow add applications via iTune or direct download
       1. I believe it has certain download capability, but It would be better to be more open and compatible
          
          Overall non-music application functions need to be enhanced. E.g. video player web browser, PDA features. It is the areas where competitors have edge. (other PDA vendors and open standard applications)
           

My Ipod touch market prediction

In summary, with ipod touch, I expect Apple would draw more customers from traditional PDA and smart phone (use broader meaning of ipod touch – iPhone is included here) users as well as other mp3 player users.

For traditional hard core ipod fan, I expect them to continue stay with ipod nano classic products due to these models’ focus on music experience, for two reasons: the more compact size for portability, for content storage capability, as well as for value (currently, a 150 G ipod classic is about the same price as a 8 G ipod touch second generation).