Apple Introduces the iPod Touch
Published:
Apple introduced the iPod touch in September 2007, only a few months after the first iPhone. It removed the phone radio but kept the multi-touch interface, Safari browser, Wi-Fi networking, and much of the same software foundation.
That made the device important for Apple’s platform strategy. People who did not want an iPhone contract could still enter the new touch-based ecosystem, and developers gained another class of hardware that would later run App Store software. Internally, the iPod touch shared so much with the iPhone that Apple could evolve both devices through the same operating-system family.
The product also accelerated the decline of the traditional standalone MP3 player. Once a “music player” had a browser, applications, games, Wi-Fi, video, and a touch interface, the category was already turning into a pocket computer.