Bombastic Bunny

The 2008 iPods are adequate. I would have liked the classic to be replaced with a iPod touch w\ hard drive. But I don’t think it’s time for a touch-screen nano yet, and the nano 4G is a nice evolution of the original mini.

Anyway, in the interests of predicting the future, I’ve decided what 2009 should bring. All new iPods would get a music sharing feature (ideally free with no restrictions, realistically like the Zune) and would bundle those newfangled headphones with volume control. The clickwheel is phased out entirely, and the iPod line is simplified to the shuffle, nano and a new “deluxe” model that basically replaces the classic. The touch, which is a retarded half-measure product, is discontinued.

Read on for the mockups.

The mockups

A few ideas from previous blog posts have bled into this one. For instance, all phones get bluetooth with A2DP support, so this wireless headset idea is possible. The iPhone is sold at retail, accepts your favourite SIM card (or maybe works with your CDMA provider?) and offers free calls with the subsidised service I suggested in the iPhone VOIP section here (basically, the phone uses a Skypeout-like service, paid for by Apple, whenever a WiFi signal is available.)

Some further details

Notes on sizing

Overall, these products aren’t smaller than what existed before, but that’s because I think features are more important than a reduction in size, at this point. It would be nice to make the iPhone thinner, and a smaller battery could help. Making the iPhone as thin as a touch is a task for the future, then, when 3G radios and OLED displays help cut power consumption drastically.

The iPod nano design I suggest is probably the largest nano (in surface area) ever, but the screen demands it. It could remain quite thin, on account of more room for a big flat battery and no dumb curve to take up precious internal space.

The iPhone design shrinks the space around the screen to a minimum, and enlarges the screen a bit to fill up more of the front. It would look huger, but in a form factor no larger than the 3G.

In closing

I was kinda happy with how these turned out. The iPhone in particular - the segmented back looks kinda cool in that colour. I think if they got the right material, they could stick with plastic without losing the cool aluminium look of the first-gen. I’m not a fan of the glossy 3G phone body.

I don’t think I made the home button look very good, but I think the idea of a thin depressible strip is as good if not better than the current button, and would minimise space used. I thought about replacing the home button on the iPods, at least, but I think the iPhone OS is too dependent on it to implement it in software.

I liked the iPod-specific interface, though of course someone could think through something more radical. I just feel that the iPhone OS is too general-purpose to be appropriate on the iPods. It should first and foremost act as a music player, so my idea was to dump the now playing bit on the home screen. I also think the iPod.app could be revised and improved on both iPod and iPhone. I really like the idea of the interface changing colour to match the nano. It could even animate a swirly background to add to the aesthetics of a device that should be particularly pretty.

Anyway, are these really predictions? Hardware-wise, yeah. I think that this is how the lineup will look next year, though the free calls, hi-res screen, video conferencing, haptic feedback, music sharing and removable iPhone battery are doubtful. Also, they might make the first Multi-Touch nano kind of broken, so that it doesn’t have WiFi, and only really does media and games. But overall, I think the clickwheel has one year left, and that’s a good thing!