Mobile Fringe

Apple is notoriously stingy with iPod touch sales figures, but Flurry Analytics published numbers earlier this year suggesting the download volume at Apple’s App Store, during the Christmas period, was 172% greater for the iPod touch was than it was for the iPhone.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata apparently told company executives that Apple is its “enemy of the future.”

Apple’s encroachment into the handheld gaming market has been substantial. The iPhone and iPod touch made up 19 percent of portable game revenue in all of 2009 compared to five percent the year earlier.

When the iPod touch was introduced, most of us saw the ‘touch’ as a emasculated iPhone. The media generally ignored it.

Now we see it as a stand-alone device with unique qualities. It’s a great handheld game player, a truly portable computer, one that slides into a pocket or purse. Plays virtually every of the 200,000 apps now available through the App Store. And it’s free of cell carrier contracts. You can even buy it at Costco.

Here is another view of the ‘touch’: think of it as a compact iPad.

It has the same operating system, plays the same apps, costs a whole bunch less and again there is no monthly contract. Granted there is less real estate, but that’s an advantage, not a disadvantage.

iPad critics wonder how people are going to lug this about. It doesn’t fit in a pocket. It’s too big, the claim. Others say the iPad is too heavy. Your arm gets tired when reading a book.

Okay, how about something smaller, something less expensive, something that’s light and portable?

Here is our take on this chameleon. Apple will introduce a slighter smaller iPad … or a slightly larger iPod touch. It’s ll about perspective. Remember all those early reports about a seven inch touchscreen? Maybe it’s another addition to the iPad ‘touch’ family.