iPod touch iPod Touch current totally obsolete why do Apple still sell it?

gadget123 · Jan 12, 2015

I got it about a year ago for extra memory for my 16gb iphone and when my battery fails as a back up.

Where do I start? It came with IOS6 worked great, fast and zippy, ios7 was ok not too slow.

IOS8 has totally finished it off. Slow, sluggish, takes 5 or ten seconds to load settings or photos, crashes on Safari, doesn't regonise HDMI cable half the time, Worse battery life, iTunes Store won't load properly it's absoltley shocking.

Most shocking part is Apple still flog this today as a flagship ipod after skipping the update this year and last? If they don't want a new Ipod discontinue it now if not make a new one as my iPod is now finished, broken. Has to be the slowest IOS device after an update ever used? IOS9? Please no or it will barely switch on.

Some of its down to IOS8 as my Iphone 6 can be sluggish at times but quite rare. Clearly ios8 isn't for older iPods.

MetalGamer09 · Jan 12, 2015

I think the iPod touch will slowly be phased out. There really isn't much need for them anymore other than kids buying them who aren't allowed a phone yet. Or if you want a dedicated music player for some reason but for that purpose one of the other iPods should do fine.

volodymyrqa · Jan 13, 2015

MetalGamer09 said:
Or if you want a dedicated music player for some reason but for that purpose one of the other iPods should do fine.

Disagree.
I use iPod touch as music player. Using google play music online service.
Any other iPod would not be able to use this service.

iamMacPerson · Jan 13, 2015

gadget123 said:
Has to be the slowest IOS device after an update ever used? IOS9? Please no or it will barely switch on.

You must have not had the (un)pleasant experience of iOS 4.2.1 on iPhone 3G, or iOS 7 on iPhone 4.

Anyway, let's face it. The iPod touch's main market originally was people who wanted a very nice, iPhone like experience without switching to AT&T and paying the high subsidized fee. Since its introduction however, the iPhone went from being on one carrier to being on all major 4 (here in the U.S.). It went from $500 on contract for 4GB of storage to $199 on contract with 16GB of storage. The iPod touch lost its target market and is hitting the market of entry level kid who want their first iOS device.

Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.

Really and truly, the iPod touch met its successor already: the iPad mini. It seems to me that Apple wants to push the iPad more then the touch. It's $50 more with a bigger screen. $100 more gets you 2 generations newer hardware with a Retina display.

This is how I see it happening; first the touch goes and its successor is the iPad mini. Nano is discontinued in favor of the Watch. Shuffle will see the end of this world without a successor.

Plutonius · Jan 13, 2015

iamMacPerson said:
You must have not had the (un)pleasant experience of iOS 4.2.1 on iPhone 3G, or iOS 7 on iPhone 4.

Anyway, let's face it. The iPod touch's main market originally was people who wanted a very nice, iPhone like experience without switching to AT&T and paying the high subsidized fee. Since its introduction however, the iPhone went from being on one carrier to being on all major 4 (here in the U.S.). It went from $500 on contract for 4GB of storage to $199 on contract with 16GB of storage. The iPod touch lost its target market and is hitting the market of entry level kid who want their first iOS device.

Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.

Really and truly, the iPod touch met its successor already: the iPad mini. It seems to me that Apple wants to push the iPad more then the touch. It's $50 more with a bigger screen. $100 more gets you 2 generations newer hardware with a Retina display.

This is how I see it happening; first the touch goes and its successor is the iPad mini. Nano is discontinued in favor of the Watch. Shuffle will see the end of this world without a successor.

If anything, the mini is dead. It has been replaced by the iPhone 6+.

6r4ff3r · Jan 13, 2015

Apple wants more than ever profit over profit even with obsolete hw at full price...

Aspasia · Jan 13, 2015

Plutonius said:
If anything, the mini is dead. It has been replaced by the iPhone 6+.

Nope. Certainly not in my family, where we plan to order two more minis because of all the $$$ we save by NOT having to pay the contract cost of cell phone plans.

We can text and call from our iPods using WiFi, and $30 will buy one gig of data for three months for our cellular minis - which also can text and make/receive calls.

Plutonius · Jan 13, 2015

Aspasia said:
Nope. Certainly not in my family, where we plan to order two more minis because of all the $$$ we save by NOT having to pay the contract cost of cell phone plans.

We can text and call from our iPods using WiFi, and $30 will buy one gig of data for three months for our cellular minis - which also can text and make/receive calls.

I meant from Apples standpoint.

MrXiro · Jan 13, 2015

gadget123 said:
I got it about a year ago for extra memory for my 16gb iphone and when my battery fails as a back up.

Where do I start? It came with IOS6 worked great, fast and zippy, ios7 was ok not too slow.

IOS8 has totally finished it off. Slow, sluggish, takes 5 or ten seconds to load settings or photos, crashes on Safari, doesn't regonise HDMI cable half the time, Worse battery life, iTunes Store won't load properly it's absoltley shocking.

Most shocking part is Apple still flog this today as a flagship ipod after skipping the update this year and last? If they don't want a new Ipod discontinue it now if not make a new one as my iPod is now finished, broken. Has to be the slowest IOS device after an update ever used? IOS9? Please no or it will barely switch on.

Some of its down to IOS8 as my Iphone 6 can be sluggish at times but quite rare. Clearly ios8 isn't for older iPods.

Because it's the last iPod Touch they're making.

----------

volodymyrqa said:
Disagree.
I use iPod touch as music player. Using google play music online service.
Any other iPod would not be able to use this service.

Yes... but Apple doesn't want you to use that service.

----------

iamMacPerson said:
You must have not had the (un)pleasant experience of iOS 4.2.1 on iPhone 3G, or iOS 7 on iPhone 4.

Anyway, let's face it. The iPod touch's main market originally was people who wanted a very nice, iPhone like experience without switching to AT&T and paying the high subsidized fee. Since its introduction however, the iPhone went from being on one carrier to being on all major 4 (here in the U.S.). It went from $500 on contract for 4GB of storage to $199 on contract with 16GB of storage. The iPod touch lost its target market and is hitting the market of entry level kid who want their first iOS device.

Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.

Really and truly, the iPod touch met its successor already: the iPad mini. It seems to me that Apple wants to push the iPad more then the touch. It's $50 more with a bigger screen. $100 more gets you 2 generations newer hardware with a Retina display.

This is how I see it happening; first the touch goes and its successor is the iPad mini. Nano is discontinued in favor of the Watch. Shuffle will see the end of this world without a successor.

You sir are one of the handful of people on this site that gets it.

Yebubbleman · Jan 13, 2015

gadget123 said:
I got it about a year ago for extra memory for my 16gb iphone and when my battery fails as a back up.

Where do I start? It came with IOS6 worked great, fast and zippy, ios7 was ok not too slow.

IOS8 has totally finished it off. Slow, sluggish, takes 5 or ten seconds to load settings or photos, crashes on Safari, doesn't regonise HDMI cable half the time, Worse battery life, iTunes Store won't load properly it's absoltley shocking.

Most shocking part is Apple still flog this today as a flagship ipod after skipping the update this year and last? If they don't want a new Ipod discontinue it now if not make a new one as my iPod is now finished, broken. Has to be the slowest IOS device after an update ever used? IOS9? Please no or it will barely switch on.

Some of its down to IOS8 as my Iphone 6 can be sluggish at times but quite rare. Clearly ios8 isn't for older iPods.

Such is what happens when using an Apple Product that is on the road to complete discontinuation. It's truly sad as the iPod touch was one of the coolest gadgets that they've made in a long time.

MetalGamer09 said:
I think the iPod touch will slowly be phased out. There really isn't much need for them anymore other than kids buying them who aren't allowed a phone yet. Or if you want a dedicated music player for some reason but for that purpose one of the other iPods should do fine.

Yeah, sadly, I think that, at the risk of detracting from iPhone sales, there's no point in them further engineering the touch. They might as well engineer a high-capacity iPod nano and then kill the Shuffle and the touch in favor of getting people on iPhones. It's not what I'd prefer in the slightest, but it seems like what would make the most sense for Apple to do.

iamMacPerson said:
You must have not had the (un)pleasant experience of iOS 4.2.1 on iPhone 3G, or iOS 7 on iPhone 4.

Anyway, let's face it. The iPod touch's main market originally was people who wanted a very nice, iPhone like experience without switching to AT&T and paying the high subsidized fee. Since its introduction however, the iPhone went from being on one carrier to being on all major 4 (here in the U.S.). It went from $500 on contract for 4GB of storage to $199 on contract with 16GB of storage. The iPod touch lost its target market and is hitting the market of entry level kid who want their first iOS device.

Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.

Really and truly, the iPod touch met its successor already: the iPad mini. It seems to me that Apple wants to push the iPad more then the touch. It's $50 more with a bigger screen. $100 more gets you 2 generations newer hardware with a Retina display.

This is how I see it happening; first the touch goes and its successor is the iPad mini. Nano is discontinued in favor of the Watch. Shuffle will see the end of this world without a successor.

The iPod touch hasn't been succeeded by the iPad mini. It was succeeded by the iPhone. The iPad mini is well on its way to meeting the same fate; an update that only offers one feature over its predecessor that has nothing to do with additional processing power, RAM or the display.

The nano could be replaced by the watch, though it doesn't seem as though playing back music seems to be something the watch will be particularly good for, especially with no headphone jack,

Plutonius said:
If anything, the mini is dead. It has been replaced by the iPhone 6+.

Agreed, though, really, they're both dead.

jbachandouris · Jan 13, 2015

Why do they sell it? KIDS

There's no way my daughter is getting an iPhone (if she had after school activities I might consider it) and my 8 year old isn't getting one either.

The mini? Really? For a dedicated music player, it's still too big.

Using an old unactivated iPhone is not a logical option as I want a NEW device with a warranty for the kids to use.

Just because you have no use for it doesn't mean that no one else does.

Gav2k · Jan 13, 2015

The iPod touch will either be updated this year or discontinued that is just a sad fact.

As for the mini being doomed. Well I wonder how many of you actually visit an Apple Store? The mini sells very well and the average consumer dosnt look at the spec sheet between the mini2 and mini3.

Yebubbleman · Jan 13, 2015

jbachandouris said:
Why do they sell it? KIDS

There's no way my daughter is getting an iPhone (if she had after school activities I might consider it) and my 8 year old isn't getting one either.

The mini? Really? For a dedicated music player, it's still too big.

Using an old unactivated iPhone is not a logical option as I want a NEW device with a warranty for the kids to use.

Just because you have no use for it doesn't mean that no one else does.

Sure, but you're in the minority and Apple doesn't care about the minority. It cares about increasing iPhone sales.

Gav2k said:
The iPod touch will either be updated this year or discontinued that is just a sad fact.

As for the mini being doomed. Well I wonder how many of you actually visit an Apple Store? The mini sells very well and the average consumer dosnt look at the spec sheet between the mini2 and mini3.

Have you read a single positive review of the iPad mini 3 that recommends the buyer to go out and buy it? Because I haven't. And I've read tons of reviews for both it and the iPad Air 2.

Similarly, do you have sales figures to suggest that the iPad mini is selling well? Because simply saying that Apple keeps a bunch on display at the Apple Store doesn't lend itself well to that. Apple is marketing the original iPad mini to the people who don't want specs. It's marketing the iPad mini 2/second generation iPad mini/"iPad mini with Retina Display" to those who still want something newer, but don't want to pay top dollar. The newest iPad mini, the iPad mini 3, is not marketed to people who don't care about specs. It's marketed to people who want the latest iPad mini.

Also, it doesn't look good when the iPad mini's primary competition (namely, the Google Nexus 7) gets discontinued and isn't replaced with a similar product (as the Nexus 9 is closer to the iPad Air and also-discontinued Nexus 10).

lyceumHQ · Jan 17, 2015

I've actually just bought an iPod touch 5th gen. Wasn't expecting great things after reading of iOS 8 slowing it down so was pleasantly surprised.

I updated it to 8.1.2 soon as I got it. Jailbroke and installed no slow animations. And it works absolutely fine. No crashing. No taking ages to load. It does what it should do.

Will I update it to iOS 9 when that's out? Not a chance. But I'm more than happy with it on iOS 8.

Only thing I dislike is how thin it is. It's awkward as I can't grip it properly and have already dropped it several time. But a case will fix that.

raccoonboy · Jan 20, 2015

u dont really need an ipod touch for music.

Many cheap phone these days has microsd slot, fill it up with mp3 and you are good to go. Make no sense to get someone an ipod touch now just for music. It still 200 Usd at cheapest.

Buy something for kids? why not get them a 2DS at $99 and couple of games = $200. That could last them many months.

tech3475 · Jan 20, 2015

I know people in the military who use an iPod Touch.

In certain conditions they're not allowed anything with GPS which means that they can't use their phones, so they used ipts as an alternative.

Plutonius · Jan 20, 2015

raccoonboy said:
u dont really need an ipod touch for music.

Many cheap phone these days has microsd slot, fill it up with mp3 and you are good to go. Make no sense to get someone an ipod touch now just for music. It still 200 Usd at cheapest.

Buy something for kids? why not get them a 2DS at $99 and couple of games = $200. That could last them many months.

or buy a Touch 5 and get all the games you could ever want for free

.

ackmondual · Jan 20, 2015

Plutonius said:
or buy a Touch 5 and get all the games you could ever want for free .

Problem is, free can get expensive. Otherwise, some of the free games may not even be worth the bandwidth to DL.

FWIW, you can resell the cartridges of some of the DS and 3DS games.

iamMacPerson said:
Anyway, let's face it. The iPod touch's main market originally was people who wanted a very nice, iPhone like experience without switching to AT&T and paying the high subsidized fee. Since its introduction however, the iPhone went from being on one carrier to being on all major 4 (here in the U.S.). It went from $500 on contract for 4GB of storage to $199 on contract with 16GB of storage. The iPod touch lost its target market and is hitting the market of entry level kid who want their first iOS device.

Well, those of us in the IpT camp still enjoy it because it enables us to avoid the high subsidized fees of not one, but now FOUR major carriers. And IIRC, isn't the Iph6 starting off its contracts at $250? For some of us, $350 since the 16 GB capacity isn't realistic.

iamMacPerson said:
Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.

Well, a used Iph now has potential issues with a run down battery and no warranty. Plus, some folks used their iDevices while on the toilet

.

iamMacPerson said:
Really and truly, the iPod touch met its successor already: the iPad mini. It seems to me that Apple wants to push the iPad more then the touch. It's $50 more with a bigger screen. $100 more gets you 2 generations newer hardware with a Retina display.

The screen makes it too big to fit in my pocket, which was the big draw of the IpT5 for me (of which many of the anti-Android/Samsung posts cited was an issue of phablets).

Ironically enough, the whole point of the Ipad Mini was to tailor to those who thought the Ipad itself was too big, so bigger isn't always better. IpT still has its uses for sure (although whether or not Apple will agree with that is another thing entirely)

iamMacPerson said:
Nano is discontinued in favor of the Watch.

Discontinued, I can see that. Replaced by the iWatch... I doubt it. At least not at $350.

raccoonboy · Jan 20, 2015

Plutonius said:
or buy a Touch 5 and get all the games you could ever want for free .

It used to be like that, yes. When you can get PVZ for 0.99 or when its free and you can enjoy hours of gameplay.

Now most games are freemium. U will either wait hours to fill up ingame energy to play or add real money to be able to buy items. At the end, you are paying no less than 20-30 USD for a very mediocre IOS games.

ackmondual · Jan 21, 2015

raccoonboy said:
It used to be like that, yes. When you can get PVZ for 0.99 or when its free and you can enjoy hours of gameplay.

Now most games are freemium. U will either wait hours to fill up ingame energy to play or add real money to be able to buy items. At the end, you are paying no less than 20-30 USD for a very mediocre IOS games.

You may be able to get games for cheaper on iOS, and sometimes this is better (depending on what games you're into and what you hope to get out of it), but in most cases, you're better off paying for games (even if it is just a nominal cost) just to avoid some of the really awful freemium models out there.

And some of the Freemium stuff can be decent. For example, Plants Vs. Zombies 2, you can play though all of the game without spending real $$. You won't get the same plants and power ups as those who spent real $$, but close enough.

raccoonboy · Jan 21, 2015

ackmondual said:
You may be able to get games for cheaper on iOS, and sometimes this is better (depending on what games you're into and what you hope to get out of it), but in most cases, you're better off paying for games (even if it is just a nominal cost) just to avoid some of the really awful freemium models out there.

And some of the Freemium stuff can be decent. For example, Plants Vs. Zombies 2, you can play though all of the game without spending real $$. You won't get the same plants and power ups as those who spent real $$, but close enough.

I want to use PVZ2 as perfect example of why i am happily paying 40 bucks for a 3DS game now. First PVZ is like battle of wits, trying to outsmart zombies and beat them at their game. Second PVZ is all about how much items you have, is it enough to beat the game? I wouldn't mind paying 6.99 for the full game but this is just not entertaining anymore. Now my Iphone has 1 game (Free). I sold my Ipad and i never miss it. Use to play many games on Ipad too.

afsnyder · Jan 21, 2015

Plutonius said:
If anything, the mini is dead. It has been replaced by the iPhone 6+.

I would disagree. I can't pocket a mini but I can pocket an iPhone 6 PLUS.

ackmondual · Jan 21, 2015

raccoonboy said:
I want to use PVZ2 as perfect example of why i am happily paying 40 bucks for a 3DS game now. First PVZ is like battle of wits, trying to outsmart zombies and beat them at their game. Second PVZ is all about how much items you have, is it enough to beat the game? I wouldn't mind paying 6.99 for the full game but this is just not entertaining anymore. Now my Iphone has 1 game (Free). I sold my Ipad and i never miss it. Use to play many games on Ipad too.

Respectfully disagree. I've played through PvZ2 ever since they've revamped it so that you don't need to mine keys to unlock power ups and plants. You get one key guaranteed per world, and each new world takes one key to unlock (although you can always pay $5 to unlock it earlier).

There were some plants that were limited time that costed gems (gems can be obtained with real $$, but you can earn them in game). Some of them costed straight up real $$. There are some powerups that also cost real $$. Again, I'm enjoying the game without having to spend any real $$. To me, the game was meant to be played without all of those extras, so I'm going with that.

Many people have the same attitude that they'd rather pay $x straight up, without any IAP/DLC like the good old days. I'm in the same camp. However, these days, devs and users alike have resorted to dealing with only freemium. There just doesn't seem to be enough people who'd want to take a risk on a $4 to $7 game, and that's gotten a lot more difficult to compete with freemium.

Jzo · Jan 22, 2015

iamMacPerson said:
Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.

Kinda what I've been doing with Alltel's iPhones. People are selling them on craigslist dirtcheap, since AT&T bought out Alltel. They make for great touches.

Andy-UK · Jan 22, 2015

'Thing is, if you take an old iPhone and a deactivated SIM card, you can basically turn and old iPhone into an iPod touch.'

I see this a lot on these forums but the cheapest unlocked, contract-free iPhone on the Apple website now is an A6, 8Gb 5C for $450 but you can get a fifth generation A5, 32Gb iPod Touch on the refurbished store for $199 and it will be much thinner and lighter than the iPhone too.

I avoided iOS 8, my iPod Touch runs fine under iOS 7, and it's a lot more than just a music player; internet TV streams beautifully on it, downloaded TV shows look gorgeous and graphics-intensive games like Infinity Blade are fast and stutter-free. I would have liked to see a spec bump too but I think Apple have realised it's a very price-sensitive product; keep the price down and they still fly out the door but there's a limit to what anyone will pay so they won't invest more.

iPod touch iPod Touch current totally obsolete why do Apple still sell it?

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