Why Doesn't The iPod Touch Have A Camera?! Because It's A "Game Machine"

The big news coming out of Apple's "Rock and Roll" event yesterday wasn't that the iPod nano now sports a camera, it's that the iPod touch doesn't.  Like any good journalist would do, The New York Times' David Pogue decided to get to the bottom of this little mystery by going straight to the source, the one and only Steven P. Jobs. So what was Steve's reason for not including a camera in the iPod touch?  It's a "game machine," duh.

“Originally, we weren’t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine,” he said.“We started to market it that way, and it just took off. And now what we really see is it’s the lowest-cost way to the App Store, and that’s the big draw. So what we were focused on is just reducing the price to $199. We don’t need to add new stuff. We need to get the price down where everyone can afford it.”

Pogue also took the opportunity to ask Steve a few more questions, including why the iPod nano is unable to take still photos.  The reason would be that it is a technical issue.  The type of sensors needed to take high resolution still photos are just way too thick to cram into the nano, so it has been relegated to video recording. Feel free to check out the entire interview where Steve talks about the Kindle and ice cream.  It's not very long so you should be able to get through it in one sitting. What do you think?  Do you buy Steve's explanation for the lack of a camera in the iPod touch?

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