iPod Will Apple get rid of the iPod

I highly doubt the iPod touch to be discontinued, as it is the lead of all of Apple's iPod sales.

Keep the iPod alive!

My thoughts? No way ....The reason for all of the updates during the jobs era was because many people needed a music device with a great battery,high storage and reliable and on top of this these things were somewhat new to the market so a lot of people were buying them because not many phones around come close to the quality.Now eventually the combination of the phone with the iPod=iPhone caused people that weren't dedicated music listeners or didn't have a great need for an iPod other than the one they had in their phone were a little less reluctant to purchase every iPod as soon as it came out and I figure in most cases would rather wait on the next iPhone...ALL this is personal opinion....Now why I think the death of the iPod is not near is because I'm sure there are many people just like me who have a need for an iPod for a dedicated music player,for me it's so I can put all my music on the iPod instead of filling my iPhone and so I don't run my iPhone battery dead so I will have it when I (need) it,,,

All things come to an end. The only question is sooner, or later?

While the iPad erodes the market for desktop and laptop computers, and the iPhone erodes the market for iPods, neither is a total replacement. Streaming media (iTunes Radio) requires an internet connection--not quite the music delivery system for carrier-contract-free/off-grid entertainment. The desire for compactness and simplicity argue in favor of a single-function device, rather than a multi-tasker. And would Apple do something that hurts iTunes Store business?

So for the moment... it's not yet time. But I have little doubt Apple will introduce a new product or products with the potential to put the final nail in iPod's coffin. Or, for that matter, Sony might come up with a product that does to iPod what iPod did to Walkman.

If, as the dubious rumor claims, Apple really is ready to kill-off iPod, it means they have the replacement waiting in the wings.

Superluigi6 said:

So apparently some person at school said his uncle works for Apple and stated that Apple is readying to kill off the iPod lineup. I'm friends with the "person", and I know for a solid fact his uncle doesn't.

Click to expand...

Does he really have an uncle?
Does the uncle really work at Apple?
Does the uncle really know anything about Apple's plans?
Does Apple really want to kill the iPod?

In the very unlikely case that all four answers are "yes", that uncle wouldn't be saying a word.

And Apple is making hundreds of millions of dollars every quarter from selling iPods. Why on earth would any business throw away hundreds of millions of dollars of profits?

iPod Touches are still profitable even if they are not Apple's best-selling product.

They are also dirt cheap for Apple to make. Why? Uhhh because they mostly use the low-end, outdated or same parts as the latest iPhones. That means Apple doesn't really spend a ton of money to "develop" (or design) the iPod any more.

Oh, and Apple rarely spends a single dollar for yearly advertisements and commercials for the iPods. Lately, ads and commercials for iPods are non-existent. That means the iPods continue to sell themselves, even if Apple doesn't spend a cent advertising them.

I hate the idea where convergence of technology leads to devices which do a lot at the cost of devices which do some or one of these things better.

iPod's are the best way to easily listen to music in a large variety of circumstances. Phones are simply too big and expense. I don't see how I could run or use my phone at the gym. My ipod nano is small, light weight and makes no difference.


The reason they won't kill it is because the lost sales of ipods won't convert into sales of iphones. They are just lost. Further to this a lot of people who don't have iPhones still have ipods. So it's a way of getting money from non iPhone uses, getting them using Apple products, apple software ect. Who many with out the iPod would not use anything Apple. So it's also got a slight gateway potential to bring people over to larger apple customers.

The reason the line is going dead is simply lack of competition. For all the apple complaints and attempted stonewalling of Samsung and others. The lack of innovation and change in the iPod line demonstrates why competition is needed. This is what apple would be doing with the iPhone if it wasn't for competition.

With the size and price of memory these days, the capacity of iPods is laughably bad at this stage. Just compare the size of a nano to a micro SD card. Standard size for micro sd's is now 32gb. A 16 gig Nano costs about four times the cost of that tiny sd card. When you can fit something like 60 micro SD cards into the volume of a nano.

There is no excuse for not at least increasing memory size of the ipods. It's just apply is ripping of customers and giving out of date with technology products because no one offers anything better. Or if they do, no one knows about it.

Actually thinking about it, the price of a nano really would put me off buying one again. What on earth justifies that price?

Grinspoon said:

There is no excuse for not at least increasing memory size of the ipods. It's just apply is ripping of customers and giving out of date with technology products because no one offers anything better. Or if they do, no one knows about it.

Actually thinking about it, the price of a nano really would put me off buying one again. What on earth justifies that price?

Click to expand...

Surely you can point us to a competing product. If Apple is ripping off customers, then it should be no problem for someone to create a product that is better value for money. So which one do you recommend?

I hope not. I hope Apple eventually decides to update it. Would love a next gen Classic.

If I run Apple, I will keep them. It is the starting point to get into Apple product.

Virinprew said:

If I run Apple, I will keep them. It is the starting point to get into Apple product.

Click to expand...

Very well said. Good to see someone with a sense of strategic management.

Next ten years...

I believe that Apple will soon be discontinuing Shuffle and Classic, in the next few years to come.

These products just don't appeal to the common user anymore, reasons being they don't have the capabilities of the iPads and the iPhones and the iPod Touches.

Apple is so fed up on working on the iPad and iPhone 24/7, that it seems they've forgot about the actual products that brought them to this great day in age for them.

Would I like the shuffle and classic to go? No, but I as someone who develops software for new Apple devices can realize how out of date they are, and can understand a discontinuation of those 2 legendary products.

gnasher729 said:

Surely you can point us to a competing product. If Apple is ripping off customers, then it should be no problem for someone to create a product that is better value for money. So which one do you recommend?

Click to expand...

Indeed. Outside of Micro SD storage (which I say doesn’t count), pretty much everybody else offers storage equal to or less than Apple. If Apple is the one ripping people off, this would’t apply to anybody else. Pretty much every other handset maker that offers storage like Apple does, pretty much doesn’t have prices/storage ratio mot much cheaper (it’s like a 50 dollar difference).

In my experience, The reality is, Flash memory is expensive and smart phone manufacturers know it. That’s why they like the Micro SD idea since they can pass the cost of storage expansion to the customers and keep overall costs down a bit on a device that is highly subsidized and sold cheaper than the iPhone since that’s their only real advantage.

pdjudd said:

Indeed. Outside of Micro SD storage (which I say doesn’t count), pretty much everybody else offers storage equal to or less than Apple. If Apple is the one ripping people off, this would’t apply to anybody else. Pretty much every other handset maker that offers storage like Apple does, pretty much doesn’t have prices/storage ratio mot much cheaper (it’s like a 50 dollar difference).

Click to expand...

Last time I looked on amazon.co.uk, I didn't actually find any new products with the same capacity as the iPod Classic. They had some two year old used products though. And eBay has huge numbers of players that look exactly like the coloured iPod nanos but apparently don't work very well.

Hell, I still have multiple iPods as every one of my cars has one in the glovebox. Except one that is using my original iPhone. Not likely to get an iPad or phone to replace that application, though all of them are old classic models, I can stream on some cars over bluetooth, but much simpler to just buy a used iPod and plug it in.

roadbloc said:

I hope not. I hope Apple eventually decides to update it. Would love a next gen Classic.

Click to expand...

Amen to that.......especially one with a large capacity which is run on flash memory.......a 256SSD classic anyone? Me, I'd buy one in a flash.....

BSDanalyst said:

Very well said. Good to see someone with a sense of strategic management.

Click to expand...

Bravo; very nice post....

cammyg123 said:

I believe that Apple will soon be discontinuing Shuffle and Classic, in the next few years to come.

These products just don't appeal to the common user anymore, reasons being they don't have the capabilities of the iPads and the iPhones and the iPod Touches.........

Click to expand...

Nevertheless, they have other capabilities which appeal to a specific subset of users (such as myself). Firstly, they have a greater capacity, which is very nice, and, secondly, if you are a music lover, or, the sort of person for whom the ability to carry your entire musical library around on one small, compact, solid device is important (and I am) the classic is irreplaceable.

As it happens, I don't have an iPhone, indeed, I don't have a smart phone. I don't need it, and, on another level, I don't actually get it. However, I do have two classics (a four year old 80GB and a recently bought 120GB to replace it in due course) - one of which is used daily, along with a 64GB Touch which I have only ever used for music and which was bought some years ago as an emergency replacement for a classic which had died.

The classic may not do much, but it does what it was designed to do exceptionally well, which is why it has a devoted following. It may not attract 'the common user' but it does attract a vocal devoted niche minority for whom nothing else offers quite the same functions - lost of storage, and few distractions.

pdjudd said:

.........
In my experience, The reality is, Flash memory is expensive and smart phone manufacturers know it. That’s why they like the Micro SD idea since they can pass the cost of storage expansion to the customers and keep overall costs down a bit on a device that is highly subsidized and sold cheaper than the iPhone since that’s their only real advantage.

Click to expand...

Oddly enough, if Apple ever marketed a classic iPod with a decently sized Flash memory, I think it would sell extremely well; I, for one, would certainly be in the market for such a device.

We know that by 2030, Apple will for sure kill of the iPod line-up.

So let's work backwards... will the iPod still be around by 2020? 2018? 2016?

pdjudd said:

Indeed. Outside of Micro SD storage (which I say doesn’t count), pretty much everybody else offers storage equal to or less than Apple. If Apple is the one ripping people off, this would’t apply to anybody else. Pretty much every other handset maker that offers storage like Apple does, pretty much doesn’t have prices/storage ratio mot much cheaper (it’s like a 50 dollar difference).

In my experience, The reality is, Flash memory is expensive and smart phone manufacturers know it. That’s why they like the Micro SD idea since they can pass the cost of storage expansion to the customers and keep overall costs down a bit on a device that is highly subsidized and sold cheaper than the iPhone since that’s their only real advantage.

Click to expand...

Part of the reason Apple is not adding an external card slot has to do with their closed ecosystem. Giving people access to external memory means people can easily load apps and media without going through the Apple ecosystem ie iTunes, the dock connector etc. It makes it a lot easier for people to mess with the device and use it in a way that Apple did not intend such as load apps that were not purchased from Apple.

Superluigi6 said:

So apparently some person at school said his uncle works for Apple and stated that Apple is readying to kill off the iPod lineup. I'm friends with the "person", and I know for a solid fact his uncle doesn't.

But it got me thinking: will Apple get rid of the iPod? Obviously people don't want them to, but with the beginning of iTunes Radio and the fact that Apple now rarely updates their iPod lineup (compared to back in the Jobs-era), it seems as if Apple could do this.

I am one of the millions that doesn't want them to discontinue the iPod. It was rumored during the September 10 event that they would discontinue the iPod Classic, but thankfully they didn't.

Yes, there is a topic about Apple killing the iPod but it questions on why the iPod is dying. I'm asking when they will kill it off and if they will.

Click to expand...

I'd wager that before the entire line is to disappear (and inevitably, it likely will), you'll see the iPod touch disintegrated or at least converged in with the iPhone 5C-type sub-line of iPhones; especially if the cost of contract-free smartphones declines, you'll see said device storing 128 or 256GB of storage, at which point the iPod classic will be gone, and then the only iPod Apple or anyone else will care about will be the nano, which could, just as easily, sport 32GB standard across the line. The shuffle would likely be discontinued as well.

I'm not expecting any of that to happen overnight and you shouldn't either. My reasoning:

- The iPod touch's only reason for still existing is to be a WiFi-only model iPhone in a similar but more pronounced manner than the differences between the Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + Cellular model iPads. If you make a contract-free iPhone, albeit a lower-end one, that has a similar price-point to the current iPod touch, you have eliminated any need for the iPod touch.

- The iPod classic's only reason for still existing is to be a portable device with 160GB of storage. As soon as you get anywhere near that capacity in an iPod touch or a contract-free iPhone, there's no reason for the iPod classic. The ONLY possible alternative I could imagine to this would be a 256GB iPod classic with the same dimensions, but using a 1.8" SATA 256GB SSD as was used in high-end Mid-2009 MacBook Airs in lieu of the 1.8" 160GB drive; which they could do affordably at this point. But even then, to not give it iOS wouldn't make much sense, despite the resulting iPod classic being something tons of people would still be happy with.

- The iPod shuffle has very little room to grow and less of a target market group. I own one, but solely for car audio. Others for the gym and parties. I know of very little other uses for it, and even smaller ways in which they can further iterate it, save for maybe doubling the storage capacity (which, given the lack of a screen, would be somewhat pointless).

- This leaves the iPod nano. Keeping it around (even if it was the only iPod model around) would still continue to drive home the notion that Apple still has "a passion for music", plus Apple has shown that it obviously still has both, ideas and room to redesign this player, whereas the iPod classic, iPod touch, and iPod shuffle are all way more limited in terms of what could be done to the exterior design. Give the nano WiFi solely for iTunes Store support (as was done originally for the first generation iPod touch) and support for iTunes radio and now suddenly, the iPod has new life (despite a potential case scenario where any or all of the other three lines were nixed).

This said, I don't imagine that any of the iPod lines will be discontinued in the near future. Until the touch gets within 40GB of the 160GB capacity of the classic, nothing crazy is likely to happen in terms of iPod line discontinuations.

Apple sold the Apple II from 1977 until 1993, and the Macintosh was released in 1984. So that's nine years of overlap between the two lines. I'd expect standalone, full-featured iPods (nano and touch) to last at least until 2016 (9 years after iPhone), and for specific-purpose iPods (shuffle) to last even longer.

To be honest I don't thing thr iPod will go away soon - at least thr iPod touch.
The iPods use parts which were manafactured for the iPad and iPhone which keep the cost down. Thr iPod Classic is the devise which you would have if you need a lot of storage (and people do fill it up and have 2 iPod classics). The iPod touch is very important to apple. It is a way of getting young teenagers hooked on there products.
The first thing apple I had was infact an iPod touch. It got me hooked as I could play games, social network, surf the web - it was like a phone to me. It's never broke (apart from when I was taking it appart I broke a flex cable) so it is very tough to break (anyway the 3rd gen).
Because of that I brought an IPad as I trust the brand, and someone I know also brought an iPad and an iMac after I said my iPod was good (she was on the verge of windows or mac and it just enough to make her buy a new one) so I bet you apple has made over $700 of pure profit from me getting an iPod and saying it was good.
So basicly the iPod (expesually the iPod touch) is a cheap gateway into apples product line for teens.

It will be around for a while. There are to many teenagers in the world to kill it off right now.

gnasher729 said:

Surely you can point us to a competing product. If Apple is ripping off customers, then it should be no problem for someone to create a product that is better value for money. So which one do you recommend?

Click to expand...

No the problem is, they dominate the market. There's no competition. Entry barriers are too high and hard to get in. Even big companies generally don't worry any more. So now Apple dominates and doesn't innovate. So they don't upgrade the products, they don't compete for price and specs.