Apple pushes iPod touch for Mother’s Day

Despite all the recent headlines surrounding its iPad and iPhone products, Apple seems intent on promoting the iPod touch as a 2010 Mother’s Day gift, if a recent mailer from the company is any indication. “Give Mom an iPod with a personal message from you,” the pitch declares, playing up the ability to get the device pre-engraved with a personalized message, further declaring that with an iPod touch around, “Mom never has to have a dull moment.”

Apple’s choice of the iPod touch for the holiday promotional opportunity, a device which the company has never previously played up in advertising beyond its gaming functionality (which, incidentally, is the same gaming functionality as the iPhone, minus the always-on networking), may be more out of practicality than anything else. The iPhone, by virtue of coming with a cellular contract from AT&T, is a tricky gift to give someone (“Here’s an iPhone, now you get to pay for it each month”). And Apple’s iPad tablet computer has been in short supply since its launch, with its international rollout already delayed for that reason, leaving the company with mixed upside in terms of promoting it as a gift at this time.