Apple updates iPod touch lineup

Sep 10, 2009 10:46 GMT  ·  By

Emphasizing what a great pocket computer it was, Apple’s Phil Schiller introduced yesterday a cheaper iPod touch, bearing the same features and design, as well as a new 64GB model. The 8GB touch is now available for just $199. Delivering twice the capacity for the same price, the iPod touch 32GB costs $299, while the brand-new, 64GB model retails for $399.

By introducing the new iPod touch lineup, Apple claims it is giving customers “a great iPod, a great pocket computer, a great game player and access to Apple’s revolutionary App Store with over 75,000 applications.” During yesterday’s event, hosted at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Phil Schiller emphasized that the iPod touch was really beginning to eat away at the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, mostly thanks to the App Store, which eliminated the fuss of having to actually make the trip to the game store and buy physical game discs / cartridges. Of course, the PSP and DS don’t have as many limitations as the iPod touch does (from the controls point of view), but we’ll let Apple have its moment.

“At just $199 the iPod touch is the most affordable gateway to Apple’s revolutionary App Store with more than 75,000 applications that you can wirelessly download right into your iPod touch,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, said. “You get a great iPod, a great pocket computer with the industry’s best mobile web browser and a great game player, all in this super-thin beautiful enclosure.”

Talking in greater detail about how great a pocket computer the touch is, Apple also emphasizes abilities like web surfing, email, managing calendars, organizing contacts, and using social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter on the go. Clearly, there’s nothing as portable as the touch that does all these things. Hearing all this time and time again, one begins to wonder why we even thought Apple would consider developing a netbook.

Review image Apple iPod touch banner - "next level fun" Credits: Apple “With its award-winning Safari web browser, iPod touch users can experience the Internet like no other pocket-size device,” Apple adds in the official report announcing the new line of iPod touches. “iPod touch comes with the latest iPhone 3.1 software including: Cut, Copy and Paste; Spotlight Search to search across iPod touch or within Mail, Contacts, Calendar and iPod; landscape keyboard for Mail, Notes and Safari; remote lock for MobileMe and anti-phishing features,” the report reads.

OK, so it took a while to get some of these features up and working on the iTouch, but, at $199, the device is more attractive than ever. Microsoft’s Zune can’t hold a stick at this thing.