The End of the iPod Clickwheel

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Sunday October 29, 2006 @02:14AM from the if-it-ain't-broke-fix-it dept.

Rockgod quotes a Mercury News article saying "If a recent patent filing is any indication, Apple Computer may abandon the iconic wheel that has become virtually synonymous with its popular iPod music players. The company had previously explored replacing the click wheel with a virtual one as part of a touch-sensitive display. But now Apple appears to be looking at a third option: a touch-sensitive frame surrounding the display. Rather than click a physical button or press a virtual one on the screen, users would touch an area on the frame to operate their iPod."

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Re:if it ain't broke... by Garabito · 2006-10-29 02:55 · Score: 4, Interesting

you know the old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Apple is known for not following that rule. For instance, when the iPod nano was introduced, it replaced the iPod mini, which was doing very well on the market. Hardly any other company would have done that because of the conservative "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset of the corporate world.