For 99 percent of the time my iPhone serves as a 3G-equipped touch. I make fewer and fewer calls and seldom get anywhere near my 300-minutes-a-month bundle. And many of the calls I do make are to other European countries where I now exclusively use VOIP in the form of Viber or Skype.
I really can envisage a 3G touch for all the stuff I do on the iPhone with, perhaps, a very simple pay-as-you-go dumbphone (or, even better, an iPhone Nano) for occasions when a cellular call is unavoidable. My iPhone is a mobile office and a book reader (you will know that I’m an enthusiast for reading books on the small screen) and the touch would do just as well, with less weight and bulk. There is also the enticing prospect of being able to swap my iPad SIM to a touch for those days when I don’t want to carry the relatively unwieldy tablet.
Undoubtedly, however, a 3G touch wouldn’t be introduced as an alternative to the iPhone. It would be seen as an enhancement to allow touch owners freedom from the need to find wifi networks. I think there’s a real need for this. Provided the wireless components and the SIM slot don’t add materially to the size of the thing, I think it would be a successful addition to the Apple range.
AppleSpot Benelux (in Dutch) via Gizmodo