New iPod Touch: Apple Trades Features For Lower Price, Possibly Foreshadowing iPhone 6 Release Strategy

Apple quietly added a third iPod to the iPod Touch family on Thursday. The new 16 GB iPod Touch, which now accompanies the 32 GB and 64 GB models, is also the cheapest iPod Touch at just $229, but the low price comes with its own set of trade-offs in terms of user features.

While the 16 GB iPod Touch features the same 4-inch Retina display and dual-core A5 processor as its siblings, the newest, cheapest iPod Touch lacks a rear camera and comes in just two colors – black and silver. For $70 more, the 32 GB iPod Touch features double the storage, adds a 5-megapixel iSight camera to the back, the iPod Touch loop for extra security and stability, and comes in a slew of candy colors including black, silver, pink, yellow, teal and the Apple Store-exclusive (Product)RED color, which sees a portion of every sale go towards helping fight AIDS in Africa.

The new 16 GB iPod Touch is clearly the most basic model, but losing the rear camera also makes the device a bit lighter. The 16 GB iPod Touch is two grams lighter than its 32 GB and 64 GB kinfolk, at just 86 grams, but Apple performed no major redesign on this new model, as it is no slimmer or smaller than the other iPod Touch models.

In introducing the new 16 GB iPod Touch, Apple killed off its other 16 GB iPod Touch it had been selling for $199, which featured the company’s original 3.5-inch Retina display, which should make the options far less confusing for customers in the market for a new iPod.

Just days prior to the introduction of this new iPod, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the D11 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., where he announced his company’s intention to “roll out” the newest software for iOS and Mac at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which takes places from June 10-14.

The company is not expected to unveil any new iOS devices at WWDC 2013, which sold out in under two minutes this year, but the company is reportedly developing a cheaper-made iPhone -- akin to this new 16 GB iPod Touch -- which again trades off user features for a lower price point. That cheap iPhone model, commonly referred to as “iPhone 6,” will reportedly be released alongside the company’s true iPhone 5 successor, the security-laden iPhone 5S, later this year.

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