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My guess is that it's cheaper to produce just one model rather than 2, plus no one needs a 160GB MP3 player.

Uh, I do. My music collection is at 78 GB's and growing, while I have almost 30 GB of iPod-sized videos and growing. There are numerous audiophile/music collector communities that place the 160 GB iPod Classic as their 'favorite' player.

Unless NAND flash miraculously grows to 80+ GB and doesn't cost the same as a small island in the pacific, there will always be a need for a high capacity HDD-based player.

And shouldn't this be the iPod discussion forum, not the iPhone?
 
yep, apple will soon eliminate all the HD based iPods. probably within a year. The market just isn't there to support a completely seperate technology anymore, for just 40 GB.

Then in the coming years they'll ditch physical storage on your portable player completely and it will all come over the cloud.

Uh no. You haven't obviously visited any audiophile or music collector communities. They love the HDD-based iPod, and while some may have a touch or nano for 'on-the-go' listening, their main music source is their high-capacity HDD-based iPod. Myself, included.

There will always be a market for the iPod Classic. Perhaps you may not need it, but someone always will. And I doubt the 'cloud' theory will ever really replace anything.
 
There will always be a market for the iPod Classic. Perhaps you may not need it, but someone always will. And I doubt the 'cloud' theory will ever really replace anything.

Actually, the "cloud" theory seems extremely interesting. Imagine an iPod where your music is always there. No storage space needed. Add a song on your computer and boom, its on your iPod. Add a song on your iPod and boom, its on your computer. It could be using faster Cell networks once the speed becomes available. It sounds amazing, but I don't see it becoming mainstream for at least another 5 years.
 
Actually, the "cloud" theory seems extremely interesting. Imagine an iPod where your music is always there. No storage space needed. Add a song on your computer and boom, its on your iPod. Add a song on your iPod and boom, its on your computer. It could be using faster Cell networks once the speed becomes available. It sounds amazing, but I don't see it becoming mainstream for at least another 5 years.

this already exists for iphone, it's called simplify media. works pretty good, too. 'cept it's pretty slow over edge (all i have in my area).
 
Cloud vs standalone, is a solution choice that gets swapped in popularity every ten years or so.

For a while, everyone was sure that mainframes would rule. Everyone used terminals.

Then standalone computers got popular.

Then standalone computers with shared data in the cloud. Then drives got cheap and the data came back home again.

Then the idea of really dumb computers with their OS in the cloud. But when the cloud blows up or your comms go down, this choice fails.

I think there'll always be a combination. :)
 
yep, apple will soon eliminate all the HD based iPods. probably within a year. The market just isn't there to support a completely seperate technology anymore, for just 40 GB.

They're being forced to give up hard drives, I think.

At least one major microdrive manufacturer has stopped making them in the past year.

I can't think of anyone besides Apple who uses a lot of them these days.

So even though microdrives are pretty power efficient, especially compared to what they can hold, they're apparently just not making enough money.
 
Cloud vs standalone, is a solution choice that gets swapped in popularity every ten years or so.

For a while, everyone was sure that mainframes would rule. Everyone used terminals.

Then standalone computers got popular.

Then standalone computers with shared data in the cloud. Then drives got cheap and the data came back home again.

Then the idea of really dumb computers with their OS in the cloud. But when the cloud blows up or your comms go down, this choice fails.

I think there'll always be a combination. :)

it is kind of interesting to note the historical context for this sort of thing. broad band intertube access has really opened that door again...
 
I can almost bet that come next September (and the next round of iPod updates) there'll be no classic.

I initially thought this as well. But now I'm not so sure. They may keep it around, but I doubt you'll see any major improvements to it.
 
i think getting all their product lines to use the same parts is genious, the larger capacity was thicker requiring a different back and different production methods. I think moving it to a more universal line is a great idea on apples part in terms of production costs.

also, i cant think of anyone i know that had the classic (6th gen, i personally had a modified 5.5 gen but sold it after the touch came out) let alone the thicker of the two. I really cant see it even being made in 3 or 4 years.
 
I am highly skeptical of all of this "googly" BS about cloudy computing. Personally, I would rather have my files with me, on my device. I certainly don't want all of my files to be property of google, located on some aethereal server in nowhere land that I have to connect to in order to re-download my music every time I want to play it. And even if you are not paranoid about the fact that a massive "total information awareness" firm like google would own all of your files, the idea of "dumb terminals" is still pretty lame. What happens when the network goes down, or a lot of people are attempting to access it at once--you're either SOL or you have to wait for each song to download before listening. Thanks but no thanks.

It is clear that flash storage is superseding HDD-based storage for palmtops and small devices, but local storage isn't going away any time soon.

And, yeah, someone should move this into the iPod forum instead of the iPhone forum.
 
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