Why The iPod Touch Didn’t Get A Camera

I know, I know.  I feel your pain.  We’re all asking ourselves – why? why.  Why not give the iPod Touch the camera functionality instead of the iPod Nano?  It’s a good question and one I think I have the answer for, however, be warned, you may not like it.

Okay, so, put yourselves in Apple’s shoes for a second (maybe a little more to get the right feeling).  You have sold 30 million iPhone in a little over 2 years – that is amazing.  Obviously, it’s in the interest of Apple to keep that number growing.  And that is exactly where the conundrum for Apple took place.  If Apple put a camera on the iPod Touch, they would in essence be canceling out one of the major reasons to purchase an iPhone.  What Apple would essentially be doing is hurting one of their major products and markets (iPhone) with another one of their major products and markets (iPod) which most likely doesn’t earn them as much money in the long run.

Adding a camera and mic to a device which is basically identically to its superior brother (the iPhone) would be like shooting yourself in the foot if you were Apple.  Not only would you be giving it the same operating system and features (minus the ability to use the AT&T network) you are also providing a version with larger storage capacity (64GB) – the iPhone currently only goes to 32GB for storage capacity.  Essentially what would happen is (if you haven’t put it together by now) as wireless Internet becomes more and more available wherever you go, people could essentially make calls via Skype or any other VOIP service and turn their iPod Touch into an cell phone iPhone.

Not only could they turn their iPod Touch into a phone, but they now would have the ability to use many of the apps in the App Store that are essentially only for the iPhone because they require a mic and/or a camera.

There is no question that it would have been great for the consumer if Apple added a camera and mic (there’s already a speaker) to the iPod Touch, it would most likely hurt them both financially and with regards to market share in the mobile phone market and that is why I think there is not a camera or a mic on the iPod Touch (and dare I say) nor will there ever be one.