With the iPhone coming out in a couple of weeks, one needs to wonder the direction that will be going with the iPod touch. Till now, iPod touch has been the poor man’s iPhone. If you can’t afford the service plan but want to have a cool wifi digital media player, iPod touch is there. But with iPod touch and iPhone being almost identical (except the phone and a few other features), wouldn’t it better to combine the two devices into one?

I believe that the age of us having to have an MP3 Player, a Phone, a Camera, and … in differnet devices is really coming to an end. People want to have an all-in-one solution on the go. iPod touch is not the iPhone, but there is always a possibility of product cannibalization when you are dealing with brother and sister device such as the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Why not offer iPhones to people with the option of not activating the device. In essence, instead of having an iPod touch for people to buy, why not just offer them iPhones. If they don’t activate them, then it will be just a music player with Wifi and Camera. I am sure Apple does not want to do that right now with all the precautions that its taking to make people buy the 2 year service contracts from AT&T. But the future of iPod Touch and iPhone looks awfully similar. In fact, for one of these devices, there may not be a future after all.