Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

tdmartin102

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2011
8
0
I have a classic, and I can completely understand its retirement. Especially with a 128GB Touch possible. That said, I DO NOT agree with people who think all iPods needs to go. (replaced by the iPhone) The Total Cost of Ownership of a iPod is simply the purchase price (not including media) The TCO of an iPhone is the price + plan and can easily be as high as $3,000 per year. I will never have an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter. I think there may be a lot of people like me out there. Off loading music to the cloud doesn't help much when you are in the car and do not have wireless, So local storage capacity is important. I need a mp3 player with serious capacity that is not tied to a wireless plan. I would prefer one made by Apple.
 

macdaddykane

macrumors member
Aug 5, 2010
35
0
Hardly

They might as well get rid of the iPod Touch seeing as it is dead.

Not so!
iPod Touch has become the parent's choice for handhelds for kids.
No silly cartridges, lots of cheap and free games, and easy access to movies and videos.
I have two for my kids and my two year old is gonna need one soon as he is always stealing his siblings'.
Becoming standard gear for the families, great for trips, waiting at doctors office. etc.
And it keeps them off of mom's iPad.
 

marcusj0015

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2011
1,024
1
U.S.A.
Wonder how much the 64GB iPhone and 128GB Touch sell for? Or is streaming/download the answer?

almost certianly the same price as now...

the 128GB will replace the 64GB price slot, the 64GB goes to teh 32GB price slot. and the 16GB replaces the 8GB spot. that's for ipod, but i expect the same for the iPhone aswell.
 

UK-MacAddict

macrumors 6502a
May 11, 2010
977
1,160
The iPod Classic is the best iPod in the whole line up. All I want is a music player, I have my iPhone 4 for games etc.

If they want to discontinue it make an iPod Touch 128gb at the £197 price point, then that will be fine. However this will never happen and they will charge £400+ for it
 

Peace

Cancelled
Apr 1, 2005
19,546
4,556
Space The Only Frontier
The iPod Classic is the best iPod in the whole line up. All I want is a music player, I have my iPhone 4 for games etc.

If they want to discontinue it make an iPod Touch 128gb at the £197 price point, then that will be fine. However this will never happen and they will charge £400+ for it

If there's one think Apple does that people can't dispute it's making money.

Apple will not make a product that has seen steady decline over the last two years.

that's just icing on their pie.
 

Skika

macrumors 68030
Mar 11, 2009
2,999
1,246
Not so!
iPod Touch has become the parent's choice for handhelds for kids.
No silly cartridges, lots of cheap and free games, and easy access to movies and videos.
I have two for my kids and my two year old is gonna need one soon as he is always stealing his siblings'.
Becoming standard gear for the families, great for trips, waiting at doctors office. etc.
And it keeps them off of mom's iPad.

Wow this got me thinking, since you cant give a kid an iPhone ( and dont need too), the Touch is a perfect thing for kids to get hooked onto Apple and its ecosystem. Give em a Touch and see them wanting a Mac further down and an iPad etc...
 

iPadPublisher

macrumors 6502
Apr 14, 2010
477
71
If they introduce a 128 GB Touch, it kind of reduces the market for Classics down to next to nothing; especially when coupled with Cloud services.

I'll miss it. Probably pick up a used one on eBay as a spare for mine. I've always loved that my full music library is on it, in full quality. My truck has nice iPod integration and fingertip access to all is fantastic.

I realize that most don't tote around 120GB of music. Gotta pick up some of those 220gb drives. :)
 

OutThere

macrumors 603
Dec 19, 2002
5,730
3
NYC
This is disappointing. My iPhone is no real substitute for a dedicated iPod. Currently my iPhone only holds 1/3 of my music, has substantially worse battery life, has privacy implications if I let other people play with it, costs me money each month, requires care and attention to pause/play/skip songs and cannot be left in the car so I don't have to hook/unhook things every time I get out. Already having an iPhone, an iPod touch would be functionally redundant and considerably more expensive per unit of storage. And the cloud is still a few years out from being a really viable solution, I think.

Apple isn't in the business of niches.

Last I checked, Apple has been occupying the "premium" desktop computer niche for years now.
 

Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,109
3,974
So let me get this straight.

Apple are going to stop making a product?
Well, that's fine, they are of course free to do that if they wish.

But they are also going to stop allowing people to write apps for the product they are stopping?

This can't be true can it?

If it was an open market and you could buy apps from anywhere, and Apple did not want to host them, then that's fine, but they don't allow that.

Confused :confused:
 

wordsworth

macrumors 6502
Apr 7, 2011
303
266
UK
When people claim that no one's buying the iPod Classic these days, that is surely untrue. For my own part, I bought my first-ever iPod only last November (despite loving Apple's computers since the Macintosh SE was a state-of-the-art Apple product).

Over the years I never 'needed' an iPod, preferring to listen to what used to be known as hi-fi, in the comfort of my living room. Times change and now it suits me better to not have dedicated large audio boxes (in what is now a home environment of more limited size).

So I bought the fifth generation iPod Nano, because I wanted to see whether it would be a better way for me to listen to my music (indeed it has been so) and as I didn't like the look of the 6G Nano (or its revised feature set) I managed to get hold of a Nano 5G while stocks were still available.

I'm now considering buying the Classic because, now that I am convinced that I can and do enjoy the iPod listening experience, the Classic would enable me to put most if not all my CD collection onto what is a great, convenient listening platform.

I much prefer the Classic option to that of the Touch, currently. The storage capacity is paramount for me, as is the fact that it is a simple, dedicated music player. That may not suit some, but it would suit me if I can have my entire record collection at my disposal, wherever and whenever. I'm a convert!

In conclusion, the iPod has been around for years – and I only just bought one, even though I was well aware of the product range from its launch, and most of my friends have had them. I am surely not alone in being a slow adopter. Now that I've tested the waters with the 5G Nano, there is something even more suitable (at the moment, anyway) and I'm tempted. I'm surely not the only one.
 

aristotle

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2007
1,768
5
Canada
This is amazing, I wonder what it would look like if the two black and silver would be added together? Is Apple going to axe the #1 portable player on Amazon?
Fact #1: Amazon represents a fraction of their total sales.
Fact #2: Amazon electronics is us centric.
Fact #3: Apple's largest market is "OUTSIDE" of the US.
 

Tones2

macrumors 65816
Jan 8, 2009
1,471
0
Ler me say this once again, with caps lock for those of you that are reading-challenged:

THE ICLOUD DOES NOT REDUCE THE NEED FOR LOCAL DEVICE STORAGE!!!!


It's NOT a streaming service - you have to download and store locally on your device. Thus there is still a need for a high capacity device for those with larger libraries that want to maintain their full libraries on their device. And if you are reading this and are again going to tell me and others why they don't need their full libraries on their device, I'll also caps lock this - SHUT UP!! :D

Thus, if Apple is discontinuing the iPod Classic, they better at least offer a 128 GB iPod Touch!!

Tony
 

Lesser Evets

macrumors 68040
Jan 7, 2006
3,527
1,294
10 years on, and the iPod (original design) is toast.

GOOD.

10 years for such a design is a nice, tidy span of life. Would you still love an original design iMac? No. Would you still want an original design Mac? No. Would you still want a late-90s tower? No way!

Let's face it: times have changed, the tech is different and far better, so why cry or whine? There will probably be a 128gb iPT which will be a superior device. If you hold your breath and chant some mantra, there might be a 256gb iPT for some huge chunk of cash... but I doubt it.
 

madmaxmedia

macrumors 68030
Dec 17, 2003
2,932
42
Los Angeles, CA
I think the reality is that no one knows what current sales of iPod Classic are, and what sales are required to justify its continuance (profitability.) As long as carrying the product remains profitable (after all costs including support, etc.) then there's no reason to discontinue it.

That being said, overall iPod sales have dropped substantially, and I would guess that the iPod Touch now represents a pretty major portion of iPod sales. So perhaps the profitability line has been crossed (or is about to be crossed) for the iPod Classic.

It's amazing how fast product lifestyles are now. The original iPod was introduced almost exactly 10 years ago, became a cultural icon, drove the resurgence of one of the biggest brands in the world, changed consumer electronics and the music industry, and is now on the verge of being discontinued- all this within 10 years!
 

JQW

macrumors member
Feb 23, 2006
91
0
Aren't we jumping the gun here?

It's possible that Apple may continue to manufacture a high-capacity hard-drive based player, but with a user interface that's different to the current model, perhaps something similar to that used by the current Nano.
 

madmaxmedia

macrumors 68030
Dec 17, 2003
2,932
42
Los Angeles, CA
People stopped developing apps for it awhile ago.

iPod Classic app sales have probably dropped off a cliff, it's reached the point where revenues don't sustain the store. I doubt any developers or customers really care by now.

So let me get this straight.

Apple are going to stop making a product?
Well, that's fine, they are of course free to do that if they wish.

But they are also going to stop allowing people to write apps for the product they are stopping?

This can't be true can it?

If it was an open market and you could buy apps from anywhere, and Apple did not want to host them, then that's fine, but they don't allow that.

Confused :confused:
 

Goratrix

macrumors regular
Aug 26, 2011
135
24
Fact #3: Apple's largest market is "OUTSIDE" of the US.

I live outside the US and don't believe this. Any numbers to back up this claim? Almost everything that Apple does seems extremely US-centric to me.

And to clarify, I don't mean revenue numbers, but unit sales. Revenue is heavily distorted by their ridiculous pricing in Europe for example.
 

madmaxmedia

macrumors 68030
Dec 17, 2003
2,932
42
Los Angeles, CA
Aren't we jumping the gun here?

It's possible that Apple may continue to manufacture a high-capacity hard-drive based player, but with a user interface that's different to the current model, perhaps something similar to that used by the current Nano.

It seems unlikely that current revenues would justify a major re-design, which is why the HD clickwheel iPod has changed very little over the years.
 

gloryunited

macrumors 6502
Oct 29, 2010
316
1
My 80GB Classic was my first Apple product and I've been loving it for almost 4 years. But last week, after one last drop on the floor, it died. :(

I don't bother taking it to the Apple Store because I reckon it will cost a lot to fix the HDD.

Well I guess it's time to get a new iPhone or Nano now. :apple:
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.