With today’s announcements and price cuts, the iPhone is the same price as the high-end iPod touch – $399US. They have the same screen, same UI, both have Wi-Fi. Looks like they both have the same annoying ultra-narrow sunk headphone jack. So you lose 8GB of storage buying an iPhone rather than a Touch… what do you get? Well the iPhone has:
- A phone, including voice and 2.5G data.
- 2MP camera.
- A little more size and weight (15 grams more)
- 2 hrs more audio playback, 2 hrs more video.
- Speakers and a mic. Headphones only on Touch.
- A power adaptor for recharging without a computer. Sold separately on iPod touch.
Here’s something else the iPhone has that the Touch doesn’t. Email.
That’s right. The iPod touch lists “Wi-Fi Web Brower”, not “Breakthrough Internet Device.” No Mail. Go ahead, look around the Apple site. There’s no Mail button on the Home screen, no mention of email anywhere on the iPod touch site. Steve didn’t demo it.
While we’re at it – there’s no Google Maps application visible, no Stocks widget, no Weather widget. The iPod touch is an iPod first and foremost. Wi-Fi is there to allow you to get to the iTunes Wi-Fi Store, and Apple knew people would scream murder if they didn’t put in mobile Safari and YouTube.
Looks like Apple may try the road of differentiation by bundled software. We’ll have to wait and see if the iPhone and Touch share similar enough hardware that the hackers can migrate apps from one to the other but, until then… email only lives on the iPhone.