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

iPod Apple to abandon next gen HDD based iPod...

if they discontinue large capacity iPods i'll have a bone to pick with jobs. :mad: ;)

no, seriously though, there's just no way they can market movies and all of this iTunes content without having an iPod out there to back it up. maybe someday, when those 128GB flash drives come down to earthly prices, but not until then.

i wouldn't mind seeing a hybrid, though. course i'd rather see that type of technology in our laptops - think it would make a lot more of a difference feature-wise there than in an iPod.

iPod-wise, I just want a HD-based iPhone without the network features. I don't need better battery life or slimmer form factor...
 
Not going to happen for quite some time yet. The capacity is still too little to get to the proper amount that users with larger needs to be satisfied. The intent is surely to move in this direction, Apple would not risk alienating a decent sized market of users this early in the game. There's still a bit of life left in the Hard Drive.
 
If anyone can fit more into something smaller, :apple: can.

With that in mind (and I don't know much about flash drives so this could just be completely impossible) perhaps :apple: will figure out a way to make 80 GB flash drives so they can continue having their large models and also make the switch to flash drives. Perhaps.
 
rockthecasbah said:
Not going to happen for quite some time yet. The capacity is still too little to get to the proper amount that users with larger needs to be satisfied.
Click to expand...

A 80/120gb "iPhone/iPod" is not enough for the video you need. Thus you will have aliases to your network stored, purchased content and an iTunes like interface to put the most expected desired content on the local drive.

There. I said it.

Rocketman

ATN/ATNN (sosumi)
 
Can't see it happening myself, especially if there is to be an true iPod video ( widescreen ). You can't fit much video on 32gig.
 
I think the key part of the analyst's comment is "Apple is considering canceling its next generation HDD-based iPod design..." I'm sure they're considering it -- any responsible company considers all of its options -- but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're inclined to actually do this.
 
Think Different

The article also mentions that it might include wi-fi. Around the house (with its 802n Apple TV/Airport Express network) the flashpod streams video and audio from all the enormous libraries we have, and when it is out of range it carries your favorite 32 GB with you (Via smart playlist or Nano like autofill feature). Maybe it would not stream it, (bad battery life), but download it from the AE network, and then the wifi turns off until you request something that it is not carrying locally. Dosen't the iPhone (reportedly) switch from wifi to cellular and back? At home it would be sort of an on-demand wifi.

Cheers,
hughdogg

____
Edit. Damn Rocketman beat me too it.
 
What for?

So people are unhappy with the large capacity iPods and their very respectable, decent battery life?

I hardly think so. This is only going to drive the price of the iPod up, and the relative storage potential down. For what - more battery life? I don't care what kind of discounts Apple is getting on the flash memory, its not going to compare to the pricing they get for hard drives.

An iPod model with something around 32gb capacity using flash makes some sense at a premium price, but not removing a 80+gb model from their lineup especially as the 120gb drives become available.
 
Rocketman said:
Samsung has announced 16GB flash.
Click to expand...
I think you mean 16Gb (gigabit). It sampled Jan 3. That would take 15 chips to give 30GB. Each part adds cost in the cost of the chip and each part adds cost by adding about 100 additional potential failure points in manufacturing.

That's just not going to happen.

If they want to increase battery life, they'll just go to bigger DRAM buffers or something. You don't want to Flash cache streaming media-- you know that the entire cache is going to get cycled frequently, especially if you're streaming video. The program and erase operations on Flash are slow and power hungry.

I'm guessing this guy is trying to pump up Samsung or Micron by suggesting there's going to be a surge in demand. I wish the analysts would stop trying to predict products and just leave that job to us...

Edit: just read the article again and it all smells like bunk to me.
 
Analog Kid said:
I think you mean 16Gb (gigabit). It sampled Jan 3.
Click to expand...

Point.

hughdogg said:
. . . and when it is out of range it carries your favorite 32 GB with you (Via smart playlist or Nano like autofill feature). Maybe it would not stream it, (bad battery life), but download it from the AE network, and then the wifi turns off until you request something that it is not carrying locally. Dosen't the iPhone (reportedly) switch from wifi to cellular and back?
Edit. Damn Rocketman beat me too it.
Click to expand...

Yes and ha ha!

Rocketman

Newly infantile.
 
Flash prices are plummeting

Interesting. By the way, the front page headline of this week's EE Times says "Plummeting prices make NAND appear almost free" (NAND flash memory).

However, I want a much larger capacity than 32GB. I want the 100GB iPhone!
 
No way

I don't buy this rumor for even one minute. There's way too many people out there that have more than 32 GB of music on their ipods, let alone music + video + photos. No way does the HDD ipod go away; at least not in the near future.
 
Steve Jobs himself said just the other day in his anti-DRM manifesto that Apple's research indicates most iPods are nearly full. The solution is more capacity, not less. MacRumors states this analyst doesn't have a good track record. However, I suspect the introduction of a widescreen/touchscreen Video iPod with 80GB/120GB hard drives would allow Apple to "reinvent" the current iPod using NAND Flash and a thinner, slightly smaller case while retaining the same screen.
 
I think the best possible solution for Apple may be to go the route of flash and HDD in the standard iPod models. Think of it this way. Faster, thinner iPod with let's say around 30GB of flash storage. Longer battery life, etc. But there are also many who still need/want the massive amounts of space for video content, whatever. The larger capacity iPod, say maybe 100/120GB will remain so that both parties can be pleased..

I'm not sure what the marketing would be, seeing as the larger capacity model would have less battery, but I'm pretty sure the people who don't care too much for video would be happy with longer battery life and a few millimeters shaved off.
 
This makes sense to me. The ipod remains music centric and its intended use is for music and music videos.

Apple can then release a new ground breaking device (named something other then "ipod") that's used for movies and other media.

Flash for the music.

Hard Drives for the movies
 
15danielp said:
This makes sense to me. The ipod remains music centric and its intended use is for music and music videos.

Apple can then release a new ground breaking device (named something other then "ipod") that's used for movies and other media.

Flash for the music.

Hard Drives for the movies
Click to expand...
Uh...you'd much rather have flash for movies. You won't have to deal with disk spin up and caching. The way Apple improves battery life on the higher end iPod is by including more cache.
 
Eidorian said:
Uh...you'd much rather have flash for movies. You won't have to deal with disk spin up and caching. The way Apple improves battery life on the higher end iPod is by including more cache.
Click to expand...

Of course id want flash for movies, but hard drives provide the storage we need to hold all our media. The new device can focus on being an all in one portable media hub, while the ipod can store what we want to take with us at all times.
 
failsafe1 said:
I almost pulled the trigger on a refurbed 30g iPod with video now I am glad I did not.
Click to expand...

There's ALWAYS gonna be a better iPod just around the corner because news ones come out every 6 to 8 months. If the current model of any product does what you want it to do then you should buy it now unless the new ones are gonna be out in a month or two. Just check the buyer's guide to find out the probable time new ones are coming out.

According to the buyer's guide, new iPods aren't gonna be out for around 2 and a half months, but that's only an estimate, the actual time could be longer or shorter. If you think the current iPod would be awesome to have then you should buy it now because the new ones may not be out for a few months, and even when the new ones do come out, the one you have will still be as awesome as it is today, it just won't be the newest kid on the block.

https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//#Full_size_iPod

That's my 2 cents anyway.
 
Hmmmmm

I understand the need for the flash based pods, especially with video, but come on! :confused: :confused:

Adding a larger screen to the video pod and the 1.8" HDD will severly suck the power out of a pod, but 16 GB isn't enough to really fill a pod with video and music and photos etc. 32 GB is a good start, but I would rather see a larger pod with a 4 inch screen and HDD the same design and interface of the iPhone. Then (maybe) the fungineers at Apple could load a bigger battery or something.

Flash would be good for the Nanos. :D
 
motulist said:
There's ALWAYS gonna be a better iPod just around the corner because news ones come out every 6 to 8 months.
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. Anyone who delays a purchase of an ipod that they were about to make, based on this completely bs rumor, is cracked. Bad enough to do it on a rumor in the first place, but on one that makes zero sense and has zero chance of being true? Retarded.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back