Apple could have put the iPhone’s camera in the iPod Touch, but it would have been a very tight squeeze, according to a repair company that disassembles iPods and iPhones.
That’s because the iPod Touch measures 8.5 mm thick, and the iPhone’s camera measures 6 mm, leaving a mere 2.5 mm of wiggle room for the iPod Touch. By comparison, the iPhone measures 12.3 mm thick, leaving plenty of space for its auto-focus camera.
“Unlike the Nano, the iPod Touch could conceivably support an iPhone-sized camera, although it would certainly be an engineering challenge,” said Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixIt.
Apple on Wednesday released updates for its iPod family, including a new iPod Nano featuring a video camera and an iPod Touch with a performance boost. However, many questioned why the Nano gained a camera while the iPod Touch did not. Prior to the event, dozens of photos of third-party iPod Touch cases containing camera holes surfaced on the internet.
Michael Gartenberg, a tech strategist with Interpret, said Apple likely left the camera out of the iPod Touch to create “segmentation” of the products. This move would make consumers desire both an iPod Touch and an iPod Nano, he said.
However, iFixIt’s observations suggest that Apple may have left the camera out of the iPod Touch because it was technically too difficult to install. Prior to the event, a rumor report also said iPods with cameras might see a delay because of technical issues. This engineering challenge may have been the problem delaying a camera-equipped iPod Touch. That means an iPod Touch with a camera could be on the road map, and Apple’s engineers are probably devising a way to cram that camera inside.
Another question that arose from yesterday’s iPod event was why the iPod Nano can only capture video but not still images. iFixIt performed a teardown of the iPod Nano and discovered its low-resolution VGA camera is only 2.75 mm; the iPod Nano is 6.2 mm thick. The iPhone’s 6 mm camera, which must also account for a rubber mount, is thicker than the entire iPod Nano. In short, the low-resolution (640-by-480) VGA camera — with no focusing capability — would produce poor-quality still shots, which is likely why Apple opted to leave a still-shot function out.
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Photo: Mike Rohde/Flickr
