iPod touch having display issues?
No rest for the weary on the Apple LCD front — hot the heels of reports that the 20-inch iMac's screen is less than impressive, word on the street (and Apple's support forums) is the iPod touch is having trouble displaying blacks correctly.
Context & Ripple Effects
The complaint lands two days into the iPod touch's shelf life, following Think Secret's September 4 preview of the touch-screen iPod taking center stage at Apple's fall event. It also fits an uncomfortable summer pattern for Apple displays: CNET reported the iPhone's 'black screen of death' back in July, and DigiTimes reported in July that Wintek would supply the touch panels for the new iPods.
What makes this round sting for Apple is timing and breadth — the same stretch has brought word that the 20-inch iMac's screen is unimpressive, and iLounge reported September 7 that Apple locked TV Out in the new iPods, breaking third-party video add-ons. The display question is thus arriving amid a cluster of launch-window quality and control controversies rather than in isolation.
First-order effects
- Early iPod touch buyers who paid premium prices at launch face units with blacks rendering incorrectly, with Apple's own support forums serving as the de facto triage channel while the company stays silent.
- The rumored iMac screen criticism now compounds: two marquee products are carrying LCD-quality doubts into the holiday quarter at once.
Second-order effects
- Supplier attention turns to the panel chain DigiTimes tied to the new iPods — if the defect is confirmed, Apple faces replacement logistics and harder questions about Wintek-era component qualification.
- The negative drumbeat stacks onto the TV Out lockout backlash, giving accessory makers and reviewers a ready-made 'rushed launch' frame for every new Apple device this season.
Third-order effects
- Forum-based defect discovery is becoming the standard early-warning system for Apple hardware launches, compressing the gap between first customer reports and any official response — a dynamic that pressures Apple's QA and communications cadence as its product line multiplies.
The trend: As Apple scales simultaneous touch-screen product rollouts across iPods, iPhone, and iMacs, user-forum defect reporting is emerging as the de facto quality gate ahead of official acknowledgment.