Markoff Ponders the iPod touch Platform

March 2nd, 2008 at 2:00 PM - News by John Martellaro

John Markoff of the New York Times on Monday thinks that thereis something to the rumor about the fabled, larger iPod touch, what may have started life as the "Safari Pad."

The analysis started by observing that whenever Steve Jobs is readying a product, he denigrates the whole technology and then Apple creates its own take on the product. Itis beginning to be a "tell."

So if Steve Jobs were going to reinvent reading, how would he envision Appleis version of the Kindle?

"At Macworld, when I asked Mr. Jobs about the idea of an i[Pod] Touch in a larger iSafari Padi format, he snapped at me, iI can’t talk about unannounced products.i," Mr. Markoff wrote.

"Intriguing," was his one word response to Mr. Jobis snap.

Putting some pieces of the puzzle together, Mr. Markoff recounted Mr. Jobis deceptions, Apple COO Tim Cookis reference to the i[Pod] Touch as a platform, and that Intel has CPUs that would fill the bill.

"Without a doubt the Apple industrial design department could do a better job than Amazon in conceptualizing a digital book.... Certainly stranger things have happened. Wouldnit it be ironic if Mr. Jobs could ultimately claim to have saved reading books in the digital age?" Mr. Markoff concluded.