I recently purchased a second iPhone for work, and it made me wonder - would you purchase a cellular iPod touch if Apple made one? You can contact people by WhatsApp, Skype, iMessage, FaceTime, Facebook etc. Given that phone plans that include calls and text messages are typically more expensive than data-only plans with a comparable amount of data, I feel like such a device could work for some people.
Of course, this topic begs the question, “Would Apple create such a device?” Until recently, Apple looked like it was abandoning the iPod Touch, but a recent rumour suggests that an updated device may be coming out. The size difference between the iPhone XS Max (6.5”) and the iPad Mini (7.9”) is a mere 1.4”, but I don’t fancy using a cellular iPad Mini in place of my iPhone.
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If you take an iPhone and put a data-only SIM in it, you have this device, right?
Or get a companion cellular wifi Access Point for the iPod Touch.
You would basically need a full set of GSM/LTE hardware in there, so no, I can’t see this product ever coming to market from Apple.
At one point I was considering purchasing an iPod touch as my work phone. It would only work on Wi-fi (which we have everywhere at work, and I have at home), but with Cisco Jabber I would get work calls and it even comes with a wrist strap so when I’m going from location to location I wouldn’t drop it. Unfortunately in order for work to pay for a “phone” they also have to provide a SIM, so I got an iPhone X instead - but if the iPod touch gets updated to at least have Qi charging if be tempted to get one as my purely work device.
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@airwhale - Yes, an iPhone with a data sim would have the same functionality. However, I assume an iPod Touch, even with cellular, would be a lot cheaper. I remember one RelayFM podcast (can’t recall which) saying that it could be rebranded “iPad Nano” (possibly in jest), as the iPod brand is fast becoming extinct. And an iPad Mini with cellular is far cheaper than an iPhone.
When I travel out of country, I use a data only SIM and effectively have a cellular iPod Touch. It works well enough for the most part, but as much as I hate the phone system, it still provides a universal way of bidirectional contact across entire generations of communications technology. You notice it (or I do) when it’s not there.
If there were a service that could forward phone calls to your device then that would probably be the final barrier gone. Google offers something like this, but not outside of the USA (or not in Canada anyway), as far as I can tell.