Opinion: If only the iPod Touch had more storage capacity…

Stuart Dredge writes…

Following the excitement of Apple’s product launch this Wednesday, we’ve all had time to sit back, take stock, and… reach for our credit cards. As with any new Apple products, the iPod Touch, new Nanos and iPod Classic are being snapped up from the start, with the now-predictable flurry of unboxing images online as proof.

Once I’d finished all the posts for our big Apple roundup, I actually went as far as getting my wallet out and logging into the Apple Store, with a crazed look in my eye and an iPod Touch in my sights. But then I stopped.

16GB of storage? I’ll have to chop out half my albums to fit into that limit! And while Jonathan’s column yesterday gave a bullish view on why we shouldn’t be taken in by Apple’s spin, it’s the capacity issue that’s responsible for my bank account not being £269 worse off yet.

I’ll front up: my knowledge of the intricacies of the flash memory production process is limited, to say the least. But I assume that once Apple took the decision to make the Touch a flash-based product, the 16GB limit was out of its hands.

But still, if only the Touch could be 32GB, I wouldn’t have even paused before buying one. We’re seemingly in an intermediate stage, where the iPod choice is between the Touch (lower capacity, but Wi-Fi with touchscreen) and the iPod Classic (huge capacity, but no connectivity / touchscreen).

Call me spoilt, but I want both.

A big fat storage capacity, with Wi-Fi and a touchscreen. Oh, and the long battery life too, obviously. Maybe a 32GB Touch will be released in six months time, or a year, so should I hang on for that?

Before you post an angry comment, yes, the world probably doesn’t need to know about my iPod purchasing vacillations. But interestingly, the issue has just been directly addressed by Steve Jobs in his open letter to iPhone owners, in which he apologised to early adopters for slashing $200 off the iPhone’s price just a couple of months after launching it:

“Being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy,” he wrote. “There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon.”

My gut feeling is that the Touch could have a few people waiting nonetheless, since it’s agonisingly close to being the perfect music device (for iPod fans, obviously – there are several Wi-Fi capable PMPs out there with larger capacities).

Six to 12 months of Touch fun before having to shell out again, or the same period slumming it with an old iPod – well, last-generation – on the premise that a 32GB Touch will be along soon? It’s an issue that’ll be testing the resolve of many an Apple user right now.

Stuart Dredge is editor-in-chief of Tech Digest. He’d be happy if any flash memory experts popped up to tell him to stop being so stupid and buy an iPod Touch now. His credit card’s still itching, see.

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