Only Disappointed

Those two words sum up my reaction to yesterday's Apple product announcement. I have to say that Apple seems to be losing its grip on reality. They’ve made bad marketing decisions with both the last iMac and today’s iPod releases.

Today’s problem is a case of “too much, too little”, i.e., too much hype to go with too little product improvements. So here’s my view on what Apple had to say.

New iPod Shuffle Colors: Whoopee.

New iPod Nano video: Who needs the eyestrain?

Upgraded iPod Classic: Will only buy one if one of the iPods we’re using now stops working.

New iPod Touch: Nothing more than a crippled iPhone at two-thirds the cost. An iPod Touch with an 80GB (or bigger) hard drive would have been worth its $399 or $499 cost. But to spend $399 and only get 8GB over my current iPhone’s storage space? Please! In the big picture, the iPod Touch only makes sense as a “bait and switcher” to entice customers away from their current cell phones onto an iPhone. That has to be it because as a solo iPod, it sucks.

iTunes Ringltone Maker: Probably the only thing Apple introduced today I am likely to buy. Maybe.