iPods Have Outgrown Their Wheels...

Mark Wilson at Gizmodo writes a well-thought-out analysis of the ol' iPod clickwheel, and comes to a sad (but true) verdict: iPods have outgrown the wheel. He demonstrates with a stunning graphic, which I won't reproduce here, that the number of options, settings, selections, and functions has exploded since the devices were first introduced. He makes clear arguments both with succinct, accurate description ("The iPod went from doing one thing really well to doing a bunch of things pretty well. But the UI was never redesigned to accommodate the functionality.") and via appropriate metaphors ("Apple's sending city traffic down a one-lane, unpaved road."). He's also correct that the iPhone and iPod Touch don't suffer the same problem - ah, the glory of a full two-dimensional interface area over a one-dimensional rotational slider! Give it a read - and hope that this most recent batch of new iPods may be the swan song of the clickwheel...