Skip to Content

It's the iPod touch's time to shine


The iPod touch is like that really hot cheerleader you already wanted to talk with, but were a little too afraid to approach. It shines on its own by simply existing. It's the iPhone without the phone, a competent gaming platform, has the capacity its iPhone sibling dreams of, and it's extremely popular.

But, now the iPod touch has come into its own. During September's media event, Steve Jobs revealed that the touch is Apple's top-selling iPod. But, as Fortune magazine points out, the company has never shared the number of iPod touch units sold with investors.

Will this change with Monday's quarterly earnings? It's hard to say, but Fortune polled a number of analysts who gave it their best guesstimate of the number of iPods units (classic, shuffle and nano included) sold. The numbers range from a little over 8 million to slightly above 11 million for the third quarter of 2010. Other bloggers estimate that roughly 38 percent of iPods sold are iPod touches. The iPod touch hasn't ever had the glitz or glamor of its older iPhone and iPad brothers, but it's a solid player in Apple's lineup for sure.

Categories

iPod

The iPod touch is like that really hot cheerleader you already wanted to talk with, but were a little too afraid to approach. It shines...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

14 Comments

Filter by:
Rob E.

I love my iPod Touch, but it's still not there. All it has on the iPhone is capacity. And, of course, it lacks a phone. And GPS. And the camera isn't as good. Or the screen.

I have my iPod Touch because I didn't want to pay AT&T's data rates for the two hours a day I usually spend outside of Wifi hotspots. Now there's a cheaper data plan, and the iPhone continues to outshine the iPod in all ways except storage, but it still holds just as much as my current iPod. I'm hoping to upgrade soon, but when I do it'll hopefully be to an iPhone. It's the iPhone the "shines on its own." The iPod Touch just exists for cheapskates like me who don't want a data plan, or people who don't want to or don't have the option of dealing with AT&T.

The iPod Touch is great. But it still remains a few steps behind.

October 14 2010 at 10:27 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TexasGuy

I know the English language is foreign to most people. Just because CNN says attorney generals, it is in fact attorneys general. how iPod touch should be pluralized is up for debate. but I think greggfura may be on to something.

October 14 2010 at 9:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
theFATangel

test this...

October 14 2010 at 2:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim

Whether its a hot cheerleader or an iPod touch, I'd still tap that...

..or try to at least...

October 14 2010 at 1:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nickux

Being a Verizon customer, I've been left wishing for a CDMA iPhone for a long time. This September, I finally bought an iPod Touch, my first foray into iOS, and I'm really enjoying it. Constantly playing games, actually enjoy the email experience (not so much for composing) more than on my Macbook, and being able to Skype my friends abroad while on-the-go but in wifi range is great. My only complaint is that sub-par camera on the back for still photos. It's a shame.

October 13 2010 at 10:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to nickux's comment
Stephen

That's the only reason I haven't bought one (the still camera is just too lousy). I'm sure they sit around and think about these things a lot, and must have calculated that a good camera would risk cannibalizing iPhone sales just too much (or they decided that a slim form factor and cheaper price was more important), but I think they messed up on this decision. Either put in a decent camera or none at all - nobody wants a camera which takes lousy pictures, any more than you'd want an iPod which has lousy audio quality.

October 14 2010 at 9:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
greggfura

Point of Order on iPod pluralization:

It grates on the ear to hear people say "iPod touches" because I always expect more to the sentence. "They've sold 50 million iPod touches" sounds like they've sold the right to touch an iPod 50 million times. I move that pluralization of iPods are as follows.

1 iPod Touch
4 iPods Touch (Like Attorneys general vs. Attorney Generals)

1 iPod Nano
15 iPods Nano

1 iPod Shuffle
500 iPods Shuffle.

Apple has sold a total of 50 million iPods Touch, Nano, and Shuffle.

This makes grammatical sense and I think you should follow suit.

October 13 2010 at 9:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to greggfura's comment
Mitchell Scott

This article makes no sense at all. "The iPod touch is like that really hot cheerleader you already wanted to talk with, but were a little too afraid to approach." Now, I've never even dated a girl, and I'm embarrassed about that (I'm not that young either), but I've owned two iPod touches. Everyone already knew that the iPod touch was popular. Apple kind of has said how many iPod touches have been sold. We know how many iPads have been sold and how many iPhones. Subtract those numbers from the total of iOS devices on the market, then voila! You have iPod touch sales. This post sounds like an advert; why is it needed? Not trying to flame, it's a genuine question.

October 13 2010 at 9:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to Mitchell Scott's comment
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.