Apple's new iPod touch testifies to the current strategy of the company



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Apple has introduced a new iPod touch this week.

But it's hard to call this iPod touch "new". This model is a minor update to the latest iPod touch of 2015, a modest upgrade to the 2013 iPod touch.

Apple keeps the iPod alive, but barely. The iPod Touch 2019 – a brand new device – runs on a chip introduced by Apple in 2016.

The new iPod touch says a lot about Apple.

Read more: Apple has released a new iPod touch for the first time since 2015

Profitability on everything

Apple is one of the most profitable and profitable companies. But to reach this level of success, Apple is embarking on a very delicate path to create high-end quality products for customers who do not cost too much. Apple must make decisions regularly to balance quality and profitability.

Take for example the recent debacle of Apple with its keyboards for laptops: MacBook Pro customers have complained of Apple's butterfly keyboards since the introduction of the design, in 2015, but Apple does not Has not yet remodeled the keyboard four years later – it would cost a lot more expensive the chassis fits a new keyboard than it would to make minor adjustments to the current keyboard without redesign.

Apple even opened a keyboard repair program, which was certainly not cheap, but cheaper than redesigning a brand new laptop for these problematic keyboards.

In other words, Apple must make the most of each new manufactured product. That's why iPhones, as big as a money maker, usually have two full years of 'current' design, including a 'S' year, until Apple moves on to something new – because it would be way too expensive to design a brand new phone every year.

Apple does the same thing with its iPads, Mac desktops, MacBook laptops and just about everything it manufactures. The hardware is not cheap for design or mass production, so Apple prefers to make the most of each project.

This brings us to the iPod touch, the little Apple music player that could.

YouTube / EveryAppleAd

The iPod is one of the most iconic devices of Apple in its history. But imagine the collapse that Apple would suffer if it canceled the iPod, one of its most popular devices, simply because of low sales.

The iPod is not just a gadget; it represents Apple's unique philosophy, at the intersection of technology and the arts. The iPod (and iTunes) helped launch Apple into the cultural stratosphere and would not be what it is today without it. The iPod has laid the foundation for the iPhone: putting music players in people's pockets, paired with these iconic white headphones, may have been the way used by Apple to prepare people for the # 39; era of smartphones. The cancellation of the iPod, as unsuccessful as it may be for the moment, would be sad from a symbolic point of view.

Apple has introduced a "new" iPod this week, but it's hardly new. It is almost identical to the previous model of 2015, which is itself almost identical to the model prior to 2013.

The iPod is the shadow of itself

Before the iPhone, the iPod was the apple cow of Apple. And Apple was visibly invested in its music player.

Apple has designed the new iPod hardware every year between 2001 and 2007. Six generations of iPods in six years, all different from each other.

At that time, Apple also built two iPod Mini, four generations of iPod Shuffle and Seven generations of the iPod Nano. The first iPod touch was introduced in 2007, the same year, Apple launched the first iPhone.

The iPod application in the very first iPhone.
Screen Capture / YouTube

The iPhone has won a lot of excitement from the iPod: after all, the iPhone was an iPod more a phone more an internet communication device. However, since this hectic period of Apple's history, the company has hardly helped reinvigorate the interest that its once-beloved iPod held, aside from refreshing time in time internal devices.

The iPod may not be the for-profit monster it was in the early 2000s, but it's sad that nearly 20 years after the first design, Apple currently has no intention of making of the iPod a product that arouses enthusiasm. Even though the operation of the iPod touch remains the same as that of the latest model of 2015, it is unfortunate that Apple is not testing a new interesting hardware design. Even this new bizarre game console with a crank seems more interesting than the new iPods. .

Apple could have even copied its latest iPhone designs for the iPod touch, removing the home button for the benefit of an edge-to-edge display, but that did not seem to want it. The redesign of the iPod was probably too expensive, given the lack of interest this product aroused.

The new iPod says a lot about Apple: it will innovate, but only when it is strategic and / or profitable to do so. Otherwise, it's not worth the risk.

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