While iPhone users are rejoicing over Apple’s decision to provide an official application SDK in February, I’m filled with questions. Will the iPod Touch receive the same application treatment? If it will, will we see iPhone applications on the Touch? Sure, Steve Jobs briefly mentioned the Touch in his announcement, but the statement leaves much to be desired.
P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.
As you may know, the iPod Touch is currently a second class citizen to the iPhone. It lacks calendar editing, a VPN client, Mail, Notes, Weather, and Stocks. As I and many others have proved by Jailbreaking the Touch, there is no reason why these applications won’t run. Therefore, it would not make sense to allow third party applications (which could replicate the iPhone apps), but not provide existing iPhone applications to iPod Touch users.
Are iPhone Applications on the Way?
Hints have been given that things may change on the Touch. People who have emailed Steve Jobs regarding calendar editing have received responses claiming the lack of editing is a bug and will be enabled in a future update. If this is the case, are the missing iPhone applications a bug as well?
Further investigation leads myself and others to believe a major update is coming out for the iPhone and iPod Touch after Leopard. With the addition of Notes and Tasks to Leopard’s Mail, Note syncing and a Task application could be on the way. Apple briefly mentions this on their 300 features page:
Your notes folder acts like an email mailbox, so you can retrieve notes from any Mac or PC or access them from your iPhone.
Could it be that Apple is waiting for better syncing before brining the iPhone apps to the Touch? If not, is Apple just going to stand by and let other’s recreate their applications, or is something else in store?
A Locked Down Platform
Apple mentioned in today’s announcement that third party applications will use a signing method. This prevents viruses and other nasty applications from being installed on an iPhone, but it also gives Apple complete control over their platform. In theory, they could prevent applications like instant messaging from being installed on the iPhone, as well as keep iPhone application clones off the iPod Touch.
Which brings up another point, what if the iPod Touch SDK only means Apple is allowing third party games, similar to what is offered on the iPod Nano and iPod Classic? I see that as a very viable option, considering the limitations they’ve already imposed on the Touch.
As you can see, the announcement of third party applications brings more questions than answers. While third party applications seem like bliss on the iPhone, the iPod Touch may be a different story. Since AT&T lacks influence over the iPod Touch, Apple has no reason to cripple the Touch, but who knows what’s going on in Cupertino.
8 Comments
Like to hear that an SDK is coming out for it but I imagine it’ll be locked down tight. Right now I see no reason to purchase an iPod Touch with the iPhone costing $100 more and having a much larger feature-set. Caught this via twitter, adding to RSS.
I would just like to point out that the last statement you made doesn’t seem to make much sense. I think that is a perfect reason for Apple to cripple the capabilities of the Touch. They want to market the iPhone over the Touch because not only does it give them the backing of a good business such as AT&T, but it is also rather unique in it’s uses. So Apple improving the iPhone over the Touch doesn’t really surprise me. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for checking out my site Chris!
Jesse, the iPod Touch (16GB) and the iPhone cost the same amount. What would Apple gain from crippling the Touch forcing a Classic downgrade or a iPhone “upgrade”.
Man o man I hope they do. I am loving my iPod Touch. I got a 16GB for free and couldn’t imagine how much I was going to like it. It’s super sweet!
I installed an iphone template/plugin for my wordpress blog, have you seen that?
JB @ http://www.takemytech.com
Apple would show more support for their iPhone in which AT&T has an interest in. Allowing more tools for the iPhone increases its value over the Touch thus creating a stronger business connection between AT&T and Apple. Do you think AT&T would like if Apple helped promote the Touch as exactly the same thing as the iPhone, except you get the extra capabilities of not being limited by what AT&T thinks is correct and viable for their product? It just is not a smart business decision in my opinion. Apple doesn’t want to reduce the demand for the iPhone by creating a super product in the Touch.
I can’t see how an iPod Touch and an iPhone would be superior over the other. As a jail-broken Touch shows it can do the same thing minus the phone features. Essentially it is the same product minus phone. It would not be hard for Apple to give Touch people the same feature set. It won’t damage any business from potential iPhone customers since they bought the Touch rather than the phone for a reason. I bought the Touch because I don’t want an iPhone, just yet! I think it is very foolish of Apple to cripple the Touch just to sell more phones. People in that case would then buy neither–or crack the Touch yet again to get equal capabilities. And if by doing this, and people spread viruses, the media will hit that so fast, Apple would not want that negative publicity. So I do not feel it is poor business practices the least bit.
Yeah, I’ve looked over the plugin as well as the one for the admin interface. Personally, I’d rather have readers see my true design when browsing my site (since mobile Safari displays it correctly), but I can see the usefulness.
Exactly! Some people don’t want an iPhone because they’re happy with their current wireless carrier, the iPhone isn’t available in their country, or they would rather not deal with data plans. Apple isn’t loosing money from Touch sales; they’re gaining more money from people who otherwise would have never bought an iPhone.
I hope I don’t screw up again by cutting out some of the text (thanks Ron for fixing my last comment); anyways yeah you’re site does look awesome on my Touch, however the navigation bar on the top is rather small, and I have to zoom in to read it, luckily it crops out the side bar on the right and reading your site then is a breeze. Maybe you can make a custom template just for ipod? I know face book has iphone.facebook.com and similar. I even read there are now mobi templates on Drupal 6 which is what I am looking to install on my domain.