Last updated on July 23, 2020
MG Siegler gets very excited about the iPhone 5-inspired iPod touch, saying it will further obliterate the point-and-shoot camera market. But the only thing that gets obliterated over the course of the review from my fellow TechCrunch columnist is that argument. This is achieved via his own points which note that point-and-shoot cameras continue to improve and that a current-generation iPod touch now costs nearly 50 percent more I’ll say. If you value quality photography, not only can you get a superior point-and-shoot for less than the price of the iPod touch (increasingly even with Wi-Fi). And, by the way,the kinds of point-and-shoots being featured right now on Amazon’s home page are for underwater photography.
The iPod touch’s camera has improved, but it’s never been a camera cannibalizer. Indeed, the iPod touch has been holding up another category — MP3 players — under more severe attack from the real cannibals: subsidized smartphones. The digital media player market seen about everyone except Apple and semtimental Sony exit above the $100 price point. In contrast, the struggling point-and-shoot camera market continues to see robust if evolutionary (and not always profitable) competition from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Pentax and Olympus.
Even Siegler concedes that the iPhone 5 is a better camera choice than the iPod touch, but notes that not everyone has an iPhone 5. That is true, but increasingly even cash-strapped US consumers can pick up smartphones on pre-paid carriers that would effectively obviate the need for an iPod touch. Siegler probably would never consider using such a device, but to deny their influence is to favor an iPod out-of-touch.