The iPod is dangerous again

As the owner of an iPod-oriented publication, this is something I probably shouldn’t be saying too loudly, but I’ll say it anyway: the iPod stopped being dangerous awhile ago. And I’m not talking about the potential for hearing loss or getting run over in a crosswalk. What I mean is that for awhile there, the iPod universe was moving so fast, the achievements were so stunning, and the general public had such a hard time keeping up with the latest news that covering the iPod universe for a living was almost a guilty pleasure. But sometime in the past year the iPod stopped being dangerous and started being, well, safe.

I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed covering the iPod lately; there’s nothing in this life I’d rather be doing. But when the iPhone was announced in January it came as almost a breath of fresh air. Here was a dangerous new product, a consumer-level smartphone if you will, from Apple no less, and the fact that it was sorta kind of an iPod meant that it was a natural for us to shoehorn it into our coverage. And we needed something new to cover, since the “real” iPod lineup had gone so stunningly stagnant in comparison. While Apple did a great job of updating the various iPod models in September 2006 in a meat and potatoes manner, it was almost entirely without sizzle. The most radical updates were to the low end of the line, and the most capable models saw updates so miniscule it was difficult to recite them without referring to your notes.

But suddenly everything about the iPod universe has changed. The iPod nano, which has always been basically just a music player with a few doodad features tacked on, is finally a full-featured iPod with video, along with a snazzy new interface no one has seen before. And it’s got a new shape, which for better or worse, has left it almost unrecognizable as being a nano. And the full-size iPod has become something else entirely, now closer to being iPhone than an iPod, despite not being a phone at all, and representing a complete abandonment of the original iPod interface on Apple’s now-flagship iPod.

Okay, so the iPod classic still remains as a fallback reminder that the flagship iPod touch doesn’t represent an all things to all people replacement for the traditional full-size iPod quite yet. And alright, so the iPod touch in its current incarnation feels more like an “iPhone lite” than a worthy rival when you compare the two on a feature by feature basis.

But this is still big, you know? When Apple rolled out the color-bodied nano a year ago, the biggest news about it was the choice of colors. Now, the new nano once again features new color choices, but that’s the least interesting of its new attributes. And from an iPod user’s point of view, someone who has yet to see the iPhone’s interface in action will have no idea what the iPod touch is, let alone be able to identify it as being an iPod (or even an Apple product) without looking at the logo.

In hindsight, last week represented a de-emphasizing of the iPhone and a re-emphasizing of the iPod. That may not do much for me on a personal level as a full-time iPhone user, but as someone who knows that the iPod will still represent Apple’s bread and butter in the gadget market for awhile longer, these new products knock my socks off. No one’s quite sure what to make of the new iPod nano until they see one up close and personal, and everyone (including me) can’t wait to get their hands on the iPod touch in order to see what it’s really made of. Those are both good things.

It’s a good time to be an iPod-centric journalist, I think. Suddenly it feels like 2004 all over again. More importantly, for the future of the platform, there’s never been a better time to be an iPod user – and this time around it’s not even close.