In light of Sony’s recently introduced PSP (PlayStation Portable) and Nokia’s announcement today that it’s rolling out the Nokia N91 cell phone/mp3 player by year-end, I can’t help but think Apple dropped the ball with its newest “non-traditional” iPod model, the iPod photo.
The PSP, as a rabid nerd near you has likely demonstrated whether you were interested or not, chiefly plays video games, but also displays photos and plays mp3s and proprietary-format movies.
As for the N91, Nokia has had cameras for a short time that played mp3s. But this model is coming dangerously close to the original iPod in terms of storage space—a whopping 4GB. Plus, of course, it’s a cell phone, and for good measure, includes a 2 megapixel digital camera. Why is this smart? It combines three things that consumers have liked to be portable for some time: photography (since, oh, say, 1900 when Kodak introduced the Brownie), the telephone (cellular since 1973) and music (the Sony Walkman debuted in 1979).
These combo items make perfect sense. The iPod photo, on the other hand, plays music, naturally, and, er, displays digital photos. That’s it. (Apple does have a deal with Motorola to play iTunes Music Store mp3s on Motorola phones, but I’m not seeing how that helps Apple sell more iPods.)
What Apple should do it use its kick-ass industrial design team to come up with an iPod-phone or iPod-video game system hybrid. It’d be tough to do using the “clean” design aspect of the iPod (very few controls and a logical interface packed in a small space) when mixing-in something as button-intensive as a phone. Also, I realize Apple would probably need to partner with a company with cell phone or video game manufacturing experience, which doesn’t seem likely, given Apple’s rugged individualism. But hey, why not give it a crack; it certainly couldn’t turn out any worse than the Newton.
Apple makes mp3 players and it makes them very well. But soon, I don’t think that will be enough; consumers are demanding multiple functionality from their portable electronic devices and that demand is increasingly being met by other companies. Get with the future, Apple. Who wants to carry around (and separately power-charge) all these portable electronic gadgets separately when they could get it all-in-one?
May 12, 2005 Update: Although he’s a wee bit biased, particularly given Microsoft’s Samsung partnership, Bill Gates would seem to agree. According to a CNN/Money story published today, he told a German newspaper he doesn’t believe that “the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run,” adding “if you were to ask me which mobile device will take top place for listening to music, I’d bet on the mobile phone for sure.”