iPod Any news on updates to the iPod Classic?

Nope. Sorry. Going the way of the dodo.

Well, the classic has its enthusiastic fan base, and I'm one of them. It may be phased out, but to say it is going the "way of the dodo".......that might be over-stating the case.

To the OP, even if the classic is not discontinued, unfortunately, I doubt its future development will be a major priority of Apple at any time soon; at best, we'll see tweaks, but hardly any major innovations.

Cheers

It's anyone's guess really.

Steve Jobs completely ignored mentioning the Classic in his last keynote on iPods and considering the growing popularity of touch-screen MP3 players, the Classic wouldn't be a priority on Apple's update agenda.

Personally I believe that Apple is going to discontinue the line and create a new line of SSD MP3 players with a click-wheel, but then again the costs for it would be out of everyone's budget.

As a huge fan of the click-wheel, I too am interested in the future of the Classic.

Toshiba announced a 220GB 1.8-inch hard drive in January. Might be in the next Classic.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/01/28/55000-songs-in-your-pocket-the-future-ipod-classic/

They had 240GB 1.8" Toshiba hard-drives 2 years ago, which could fit into an iPod Video.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/02/240gb-ipod-mod-now-available.ars

I'm surprised Apple hasn't acted already on the Classics.

OllyW said:

Those were dual platter hard drives and were too thick to fit the current classic case. The new Toshiba 220GB hard drives are thinner with only a single platter so will fit.

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Couldn't they have at least made a 240GB iPod Classic to keep everyone 'updated', despite it being thicker?

My only other prediction would be if they incorporated the 220GB hard drives into a new line of iPods and dropped the price by $50.

quizzi said:

Couldn't they have at least made a 240GB iPod Classic to keep everyone 'updated', despite it being thicker?

My only other prediction would be if they incorporated the 220GB hard drives into a new line of iPods and dropped the price by $50.

Click to expand...

Well to be honest with you as a owner of the 5th gen and a 240GB swap the performance is horrendous in comparison to the 80GB/160GB single platter. Its running the stock firmware even and I could just imagine how much cruddier it'd run on the classic platform.

I don't use it as my out and about iPod because of this (that I and I don't quite need 240GB for music yet), instead I use it to output videos from the iTunes store to my TV, which it works great for this.

That being said I do wish they would have kept the dual platter design, call me crazy but I actually preferred it to the thinner model. It would make more sense since they advertise capacity as its selling point.

That being said the classic still sells well (if you look at amazon for instance) it is almost always outselling other models except for the iPod Touch and it has been doing this for the last 3 years even with little updates.

I think we will see a 220GB update this year and maybe some little software update for it (something like radio or 720 output support)

iEvolution said:

I think we will see a 220GB update this year and maybe some little software update for it (something like radio or 720 output support)

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Having a radio feature and 720 output support would be a nice little feature to have on the Classics, if Apple do decide to do one last update for the line. It would be a smart move as well considering most people today use their Classics as a device to carry their entire media library with them.

Quite possibly a redesign as well maybe? I was hoping they would redesign them last year, as Apple usually redesign their Classics every two-three years, but unfortunately it seems that it wasn't on the agenda. Would love to see the traditional iPod white come back to the line.

The next "update" to the iPod Classic is likely going to be a retirement.

I highly doubt they would discontinue it, unless they offered a 128 GB iPod Touch. Otherwise, I think it would still be around. As for updates, the only update I can think of is more memory. I also am an avid fan of the Classic, when I think of an iPod, I think of a click wheel. I use my iPod Touch and iPhone as a PDA, not really a music player.

I think people that really enjoy music are preferring the Classics. The people who go for the Touch usually are more interested in its Facebook app rather than its music playing capabilities. Unfortunately, the former are difficult to find nowadays.

If they do decide to get rid of the Classic line, I think it would be beneficial to maybe bring it back every few years or so as a collector's edition item or something of the sort. I can't see it being gone forever.