Apple Announce iPod Touch
As expected Apple announced an iPod based upon their iPhone and one which uses many of the features found in that popular mobile phone. Unfortunately they have made the same old errors relating to battery access and have failed to provide decent storage capacity for the units. Coming in 8GB and 16GB versions they fall behind their own older cousins by a couple of generations. I'm personally under-whelmed but I'm sure there will be many who buy one just for the cool user interface and geek factor.
In case you're wondering why I keep bashing Apple on this issue, I think that they are doing a disservice to both their users and themselves by not thinking about the context of the technology they are creating. They've done this well in the past and can do so in future. I personally use an iMac on a day-to-day basis and own a 30GB iPod video (which I won in a competition). I can see how well Apple has addressed a whole bunch of issues, but the failure to add a removable battery and to provide storage which adequately addresses current user expectations (if not future ones) leaves me feeling somewhat perplexed, if not annoyed.
Apple have been very successful at creating an image-conscious product line and one which attracts the more style conscious buyer. Many of their users have a very poor grasp of the history of the technologies Apple features, often claiming that Apple is the creator of these technologies. But as has been seen in recent years, this mythology has been unraveling with many cases of prior art being brought to the fore as Apple announces ground breaking innovations. Even if this is the case and Apple is indeed a plagiarist, it nonetheless remains very good at combining technologies in very user empowering ways.
The issue, for me, is that Apple's style of application often falls too short of perfect because its designers fail to grasp the context and usage of the technology they are creating. Most cell phone manufacturers have grasped that their users have a requirement for a replaceable battery pack. So they manufacture phones which facilitate this by providing easy access, via a removable panel. Apple then introduces a remarkable device which is cool, sexy and innovative in the array of technologies packaged in it. However, Apple does the ridiculous, trying to reinvent the wheel by not allowing users to access the battery via an access hatch or panel. This means that should your battery run out, you need to recharge the damn thing. You can't just replace it with a spare. As a result should the battery ever fail completely, you have no recourse but to return the phone to Apple for an expensive refit. That kind of backward thinking is asinine and greedy and does nothing to endear people to you, not to mention the fact that in this repair you might also lose all your data.
Apple, like other manufacturers, needs to understand that people don't necessarily want to throw away their devices when something fails, many of us hold on to our old tech and often pass it on to others. If I can't simply replace the broken component, the entire device becomes landfill and a technological folly which could perform or fullfil it's designed function were it not for this design flaw. Come on Mr. Jobs — get your team and house in order. Your products are not quite excellent, but close enough to merit the push to pass that final inch and reach the excellence your products truly deserve.
In case you're wondering why I keep bashing Apple on this issue, I think that they are doing a disservice to both their users and themselves by not thinking about the context of the technology they are creating. They've done this well in the past and can do so in future. I personally use an iMac on a day-to-day basis and own a 30GB iPod video (which I won in a competition). I can see how well Apple has addressed a whole bunch of issues, but the failure to add a removable battery and to provide storage which adequately addresses current user expectations (if not future ones) leaves me feeling somewhat perplexed, if not annoyed.
Apple have been very successful at creating an image-conscious product line and one which attracts the more style conscious buyer. Many of their users have a very poor grasp of the history of the technologies Apple features, often claiming that Apple is the creator of these technologies. But as has been seen in recent years, this mythology has been unraveling with many cases of prior art being brought to the fore as Apple announces ground breaking innovations. Even if this is the case and Apple is indeed a plagiarist, it nonetheless remains very good at combining technologies in very user empowering ways.
The issue, for me, is that Apple's style of application often falls too short of perfect because its designers fail to grasp the context and usage of the technology they are creating. Most cell phone manufacturers have grasped that their users have a requirement for a replaceable battery pack. So they manufacture phones which facilitate this by providing easy access, via a removable panel. Apple then introduces a remarkable device which is cool, sexy and innovative in the array of technologies packaged in it. However, Apple does the ridiculous, trying to reinvent the wheel by not allowing users to access the battery via an access hatch or panel. This means that should your battery run out, you need to recharge the damn thing. You can't just replace it with a spare. As a result should the battery ever fail completely, you have no recourse but to return the phone to Apple for an expensive refit. That kind of backward thinking is asinine and greedy and does nothing to endear people to you, not to mention the fact that in this repair you might also lose all your data.
Apple, like other manufacturers, needs to understand that people don't necessarily want to throw away their devices when something fails, many of us hold on to our old tech and often pass it on to others. If I can't simply replace the broken component, the entire device becomes landfill and a technological folly which could perform or fullfil it's designed function were it not for this design flaw. Come on Mr. Jobs — get your team and house in order. Your products are not quite excellent, but close enough to merit the push to pass that final inch and reach the excellence your products truly deserve.
posted by Mario Georgiou @ 7:09 AM
