Tim Cook: iPod is a 'Declining Business'

thats too bad

Nothing wrong with cannibalization by your own products. The iPod ran its course.

Next year bump next gen iPhone to 32 gigs and add 64 gig and 128 gig options, do the same to the iPod touch. Get rid of the classic since it now has no purpose.

Spec bump nano and make it 99$ Drop shuffle.

Spec bump iPod touch and drop it to around 200$-230.

MOTO... Master of the Obvious

The Classic is still the best option for people that actually collect MUSIC and have a car with a USB input.

My Honda has tight integration with my iPod Classic

I'm surprised they even sell the iPod Classic still. It will soon be overtaken by the iPhones in terms of storage capacity, it has no Lightning, and they haven't even changed the prices.

One day, in the future, this is will be the iPhone.

Mr. Gates said:

The Classic is still the best option for people that actually collect MUSIC and have a car with a USB input.

My Honda has tight integration with my iPod Classic

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Really? My 2011 Honda seems to treat my iPhone like a flash drive and play the music files rather than simply controlling the iPhone and taking audio from it. This causes glitches when I do stuff like telling Siri to shuffle, using iTunes Radio, or changing the playlist on the iPhone itself. Sometimes, it doesn't work unless I reconnect it a couple of times. I'd expect it to be similar with the iPod.

To Apple,

You want to sell more iPods? Remove the built-in memory and add a micro SD card slot. This should allow you to reduce the price. People will see the iPod as having more value and be willing to buy it again.

The real problem with iPod sales has to be that everyone who'd want one already owns three of them.

Make iPhone available in 32GB, 64GB & 128GB variations.
Introduce 6th generation iPod Touch with the same capacities. Drop intro price to £199.
In turn drop the iPod Classic as it loses it's one selling point (capacity).
Drop the iPod Shuffle & introduce smaller iPod Nano to fill market. Drop intro price to £99.

Sorted.

I'm not a fan of this. I'm 13, can't get an iPhone, have no reason to get an iPhone, but I like iOS, and the iPod touch seems to be on the chopping block as more and more kids just get iPhones. Even Steve Jobs said that the iPod touch was just training wheels for the iPhone, and so when kids just get iPhones instead, the iPod touch is basically selling 0 units. So....If the iPod touch doesn't survive until I get a driver's license and have a reason for a phone (GPS plus contact with my Mom) I'll basically be boned. I'm not really angry with apple or saying that they should keep the iPod touch for 1 person, I'm just saying I'm kinda screwed. And also iPods are just generally cool, I love the things for some reason.

And I think that the iPod Classic can really only be discontinued if they bring out a similar capacity iPhone or iPod touch, my Dad's entire music library doesn't even fit on 64GB (He has tons of albums, and also 320Kb per second files) so really the only thing he CAN use is an iPod classic.

Declined? Sure. But does that chart still say $5,000 *million* dollars?

But that's not the question

Sure, that will be the iPhone, and any number of other products...some day.

But, what will replace the iPhone?

Compile 'em all said:

One day, in the future, this is will be the iPhone.

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If they re-focussed it as a music device and increased the capacity to 128GB & 256GB options alongside the option to purchase HD music in iTunes it would gain a whole new audience of 35+ audiophiles willing to purchase a dedicated music device to sit in their high-end iPod speaker.

It's very short sighted what they've done with the iPod over the past few years and clearly demonstrates that Cook doesn't fully understand his own customers. Believe it or not we're not all teenagers in the iPod user base.

It's declining, but he didn't say they're abandoning it.

I love my 4g iPod Touch. Cook should restore the rear camera to current models. Bean counting gone wrong.

Shaun said:

If they re-focussed it as a music device and increased the capacity to 128GB & 256GB options alongside the option to purchase HD music in iTunes it would gain a whole new audience of 35+ audiophiles willing to purchase a dedicated music device to sit in their high-end iPod speaker.

It's very short sighted what they've done with the iPod over the past few years and clearly demonstrates that Cook doesn't fully understand his own customers. Believe it or not we're not all teenagers in the iPod user base.

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The market is no longer there and Tim realizes this. There already is hi end portable audio available that doesn't require iTunes or any type of DRM software and that sector is niche as well.

What has buried the iPod and pretty much every other PMP devices is Music streaming services.

Breaking news. Tim Cook said it is cold in Winter...

Isn't this obvious to just about anyone?

Rodster said:

The market is no longer there and Tim realizes this. There already is hi end portable audio available that doesn't require iTunes or any type of DRM software and that sector is niche as well.

What has buried the iPod and pretty much every other PMP devices is Music streaming services.

Click to expand...

Niche market? Are you joking. Walk in to any high end hifi retailer and you will see the iPod speaker market is booming. CD players are the niche now.

I agree that streaming has dented the market but again if Apple had launched HD quality tracks like we all asked for a few years ago then I think many people would be willing to continue to purchase their music. The music industry could easily limit the streaming services to SD music whilst providing HD music as a purchase only option. I'm sure that would start to increase their revenues.

Having spent £600 on an iPod speaker I would happily carry on purchasing rather than streaming music if there was a quality difference.

Keep the classic, update the connector to Lightning, use the current HDD or SSD - RAM chips on PCB instead. Cost vs Capacity you cannot go past the iPod Classic, and like myself I don't buy Apps for a music player so no need for a touch screen at all. Plus it can be used as an external hard disk as well. Plus it does video playback, despite a smaller screen. Wireless not needed on the Classic, no extra power drain for features you don't need.

The iPod touches' cannot beat the iPod Classic for price vs capacity, you lose too much for the sake of "convenience" or "cool factor", plus I don't need a camera on a music player. We have to start thinking of features for price, not just convenience. Plus I don't buy Apps for a music player, it's just another gimmick tacked on, on top of the lower capacity device.

Never owned an iPod, but have owned iPhones since the iphone 3G.

I always wanted to keep my devices consolidated which is why I never owned one. On top of that, the iPod seems so bland and it's growth has been stunted with apple trying to tell people what they want.

In other news: Macintosh LC sales down 100% since 1992. Analysts forecast doom and gloom for Apple.

ArmCortexA8 said:

Keep the classic, update the connector to Lightning, use the current HDD or SSD - RAM chips on PCB instead. Cost vs Capacity you cannot go past the iPod Classic, and like myself I don't buy Apps for a music player so no need for a touch screen at all. Plus it can be used as an external hard disk as well. Plus it does video playback, despite a smaller screen. Wireless not needed on the Classic, no extra power drain for features you don't need.

The iPod touches' cannot beat the iPod Classic for price vs capacity, you lose too much for the sake of "convenience" or "cool factor", plus I don't need a camera on a music player. We have to start thinking of features for price, not just convenience. Plus I don't buy Apps for a music player, it's just another gimmick tacked on, on top of the lower capacity device.

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Sounds good. However, Apple may think differently.

Apple makes money from iTunes / App store, they will focus more on iPod touch. How can Apple make money from app purchases if the iPod classic doesn't run apps or if it doesn't support music purchases?

I've seen all over these forums people posting about how the iPod wouldn't be declining if it was updated more often. The writing is on the walls guys, the standalone mp3, regardless of the brand, is a declining industry given that every phone now functions as such.

There is no point is dumping resources into a product category that will soon only serve as a niche product (in the sense of "well I want something just for the gym" that so many point as a reason that sales should continue).