Today we got updates to the iPod touch after a three-year hiatus. The updated devices are better than I expected. The entry-level device has 16 GB of storage—yes, Apple is still releasing devices with 16 GB of memory—and an A8 processor, 1 GB of RAM, and a good-looking screen for just $200. The price scales up for additional storage capping at 128 GB of storage for $399.

Expect for the next week or two lots of posts about whether or not the iPod touch still make sense in 2015. Let me save you a lot of trouble. It does. While I would agree with Apple that the device does not need a yearly update, it does need to stay relatively current.

When the iPad mini first released, I thought that it would be the death knell for the iPod touch. Specifically, so many parents buy these devices for their kids to give them an iOS device without a data plan. The iPad mini is in the same price range and has a bigger screen. However, my market survey (consisting of various kids in my life) demonstrate that their young eyes are quite sharp and they are happy with a smaller device with smaller text and smaller plants and zombies, so long as they—like their parents—can put it in their pocket and have it with them anywhere. Indeed after several years, none of the kids in my friends and family circles have said they’d be willing to trade their iPod touch for an iPad mini.

If anything is going to kill off the iPod touch, it will be competition in the cellular providers to get data plans so cheap that an increasing number of people just get phones instead of an iPod touch. While we’ve seen some progress on that over the last few years, I don’t think we’re anywhere near that time yet.

Stretching this hypothetical exercise even further into the future, it is entirely possible that we will get to a point where we don’t use cellular providers but Wi-Fi is just everywhere. In that case, the iPhone could become a lot more like the iPod touch than a iPod touch like the iPhone. 

Either way, I’m glad to see that the iPod touch finally got its update and I will not hold my breath for any further updates for at least two or three years from now. If you are in the market, now’s a good time to buy. One more thing you can count on: Long after the product is retired, people will still refer to it as the “iTouch”.

Somewhat related … wouldn’t it be cool if the iPhone update in a few months got some of those new colors