How to make the iPod Touch better

On CNet, Donald Ball surveys a number of suggestions for what Apple can do to improve the iPod Touch, Apple’s “forgotten” iOS product.

I’ve long held that the iPod Touch is Apple’s true “game-changer”. Maybe it doesn’t get as much press as the flashier iPhone and iPad, but it’s essentially a phoneless iPhone, containing most of the desirable features without the obnoxiously expensive contract.

I have an 8GB 1st-gen iPod Touch that continues to be very useful for many purposes—I can whip it out to check my email anywhere there’s wifi, even if I don’t have my laptop or iPad on me, and it’s still awesome for reading e-books. And I’m considering getting a 4th-gen iPod touch, with that new super-sharp retina display and a built-in video camera, once Apple comes out with the 5th gen and forces the prices down.

I can’t agree with all of Bell’s suggestions—making the iPod Touch thinner by eliminating the earphone jack doesn’t make a lot of sense when you’re looking at an inexpensive consumer device that people want to be able to buy cheap earphones for, and dropping the dock connector would just reduce the versatility and make it less useful to people who don’t have wifi. And I’m not sure why you’d want to give it 3G. Rather than giving the iPod Touch 3G, why not make it possible to get a contract-free data-only plan for the iPhone the way you can for the iPad? Then you’d have the benefit of the iPhone’s better camera and GPS and such as well.

But others, such as giving it a better processor, a better camera, or a lower price seem to be dead on. Cutting $50 to $70 from the price of each device would make them that much more attractive to consumers, and perhaps steal market share from hand-held game consoles like the 3DS. And a bigger, 5” screen would, of course, make it that much better of an e-reader without sacrificing too much pocketability.

My perfect iPod Touch would have all the features of the iPhone without the contract. I don’t know if we’re ever going to see anything like that, however.