I just upgraded my HTC Thunderbolt to a Samsung Galaxy S III. It used to be that when you disconnected a phone from the carrier that it was next to worthless. But with my smartphone, I realized that what I held in my hand was still very useful as long as I am in range of Wi-Fi. In fact, it is basically the Android version of an iPod Touch.
So why don’t any of the manufacturers make versions of their Android smartphones minus the phone?
There are tons of Android tablets. The Nook line immediately comes to mind.
I think you mean the iPod Touch, not iPad Touch. And I suspect it’s because the other companies figure, if we’re going to develop a device like that, make it larger & reap the benefits of the higher price point.
There’s tons of stuff in the 7-10" tablet range, but yeah, nothing comes to mind in the 3-4" ‘phone sized’ range.
Considering the $250 Nexus 7 tablet exists, how much cheaper would a dinky little iPod Touch competitor have to be for people to choose it over a larger tablet?
Sony does, the Walkman F series are Android 4 devices.
I think the bigger reason they’re relatively rare is that the market for portable audio players is shrinking thanks to the rise of smartphones.
What about the Samsung Galaxy Players? These are great devices. I had a Galaxy Player 5.0 (5 inch screen, not 5th version) for about a year until I got my GS3 phone. It was basically a Galaxy Note that couldn’t use 3G/4G.
I dont get it either. An htc one or Optimus costs $100-150 new, take the phone out and it is even cheaper, plus $20 for a 32gb microSD card. Way cheaper than a $300 iPod touch. I have no idea why they never marketed them as 4" tablets.
Typo in title, should be iPod Touch (there is no “iPad Touch”). Apple shows no signs of retiring the device. And the starting price is $299.
You can get a 16gb Nexus 7 for only $199.
The smart phones aren’t nearly that cheap. You can only buy them at that rate when you sign a 2 year contract, which is how they make up the money. If you were going to buy the phone alone without a contract it would likely cost $400-700 depending on model.
There was competition for the ipod’s, which the ipod touch came from, but that market segment (smart MP3 players) got absorbed by smartphones.
Yep. There is a very small market segment of folks without a smartphone yet willing to pay a significant portion of the (unsubsidized) cost of one.
Exactly. The Galaxy Player comes in 3.6", 4.2" and 5" versions. These are Android counterparts to the iPod Touch.
No, the HTC One costs $599. The only way to get it for $100 is to have it subsidized by the cell phone carrier (i.e. they pay the rest of the cost in exchange for you signing a 2-year contract).
Those are the prices at virgin mobile prepaid without a contract
Archos has been one company who has always been a player in the 5" or less Android powered device, but I suspect the reason there isn’t much competition for the Ipod Touch is that only apple can get away with charging the premium price needed to make a decent profit. You need almost the same hardware that you would have in a 7" tablet and consumers would expect it to cost much less. And I suspect that the market for even the Ipod Touch itself is likely being eaten up at the low end by Android Smartphones and at the high end by older hand me down Iphones.
From what I have seen the iPod Touch has a very specific, and reasonably lucrative market. It is sold to kids, mostly young teenagers, but a mate of mine just bought his (roughly) 10 year old daughter one. They get bought because they are an iPhone without a phone capability. The reasoning is that they can be used by kids without the fear they might rack up serious phone bills, or other bad things. Being WiFi capable is good enough. They make a very fine handheld games platform, and have been something of a sleeper in this market. Indeed there is good reason to suspect that Apple have really been pitching the iPod Touch against the Nintendo and Playstation handhelds, not against Android. Getting your next generation of customers into the corporate fold this young may well be seen as a stroke of genius in a few years.
I have one too, but the reason I bought it was because there was no alternative on the market. At the time I didn’t know I could buy a used android phone on craigslist for $40 that would do the exact same thing as an ipod touch which costs $160 used. Had I known that I would’ve gone with the android.
This is exactly the device that I was wondering why it doesn’t exist. It does! It’s just that I never heard of it.