Apple Unveils New iPod Lineup. Yawn.
Steve Robinson:
September 28th, 2006
Christmas came early this month for the iPod Family. Little brother ‘Nano got a durable coat in flashy colours with a better battery life. Little baby ‘Shuffle lost his cheap plastic coat but was given an aluminium finish with built-in clip. And daddy iPod treated himself to a 60% brighter screen and huge 80GB option. Unfortunately, these improvements are (mostly) little more than cosmetic enhancements.
Take the iPod Nano. Upon its release in September 2005 it was criticised for a lack of durability. Along came the Sansa e200 range from Sandisk, with an impressive 20-hour battery life and strong aluminium coating, which had Steve Jobs in a bit of a worry. Take a look at the ‘new’ ‘Nano’s improvements and it’s not difficult to see the reason for the update. But surely Apple’s R&D department must have tested their model and known of the fault before it was released?
In five years there have been 28 iPod models, with a ‘new’ version every 6 months for the past few years. By dressing up their new iterations as though they are a novel step forward, they can fix some quite obvious flaws with their design whilst selling even more units to the ‘gotta have ‘em all’ consumer. Apple’s need to maintain dominance over the market, their drive to be ‘innovative’ and commercially successful is sadly leaving its mark on the quality of their units.