Finding a glitch in the new Apple iPod Touch would be a real blow to Apple’s sales ambitions for the product, which it has just upgraded with the new 960 x 640 pixel, Retina display and been relaunched using the A4 CPU which drove the launch of the iPhone 4.0.
So when we heard that one of our US partners, at TownhHall research found such a glitch, we were both surprised and concerned. But the fact that multiple copies of the device turned up in retailers unable to discover or recognize existing Bluetooth devices really puts the product on the back foot. But because no-one has admitted it’s a problem, there has been no fix issued for it.
It could just be a bad batch, delivered to downtown Littleton, Colorado (where it was first discovered), but even that would be a severe headache for Apple (how many other bad batches are out there?). Apple has already begun to get a reputation for not thinking through its product launches on the back of its ‘Antenna-Gate,’ issue when the iPhone 4 kept dropping calls when held in a particular place. This required a significant and expensive fix, and the possibility of another such debacle would leave Apple with a reputation for not sufficiently testing its products and a repeat would begin to dissuade anyone but existing Apple lovers from buying on day one.
The local Apple store said that it was a unique new hardware problem but could still not get it to see any Bluetooth devices. Our intrepid reporter tried two of the floor units in the store and found them to have the same problem. He was sent home with another device which still refused to recognize any Bluetooth devices and later returned it for a full refund, with Apple staff still saying that no-one else had this problem, despite four instances out of four now having been found.
The impression is forming that Apple thinks it is untouchable and doesn’t feel it needs to sufficiently test its devices, and when a flaw is found, denies its existence and keeps some issues from both its customers, support teams and sales people.
The latest iPod Touch is advertised as having Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, which is supposed be fully backward compatible with earlier versions and offers the secure simple pairing feature to make pairing idiot proof. Perhaps our US reporter was the idiot that proves the rule.