iPod How much money does Apple make on each iPod classic?

[Zellio]

I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

 

[The Doctor11]

A lot

 

[puma1552]

Calling people suckers because they appreciate the best iPod ever made is a bit ridiculous.

Yeah, the margins are asinine and they should really lower the price to $199, but it's still the best iPod and still serves a purpose. The iPod touch is a joke because it becomes outdated by software, yuck, no thanks.

 

[burne]

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things.

So.. You bought one and are regretting it now? You know Apple has a decent return policy? Don't complain here, run to the shop and get your money back!

 

[Brian Y]

It's probably the worst performing iPod, profit wise.

I mean, given the low number they sell, they have to buy parts in lower quantities which results in a higher per-unit cost. For example, a rare, 1.8" 160GB hard drive probably costs more than cheap flash chips they can buy by the billion for other devices.

That, with the tooling costs per unit, etc - I bet they make less from a £199 iPod classic than a £199 iPod touch.

 

[gnasher729]

I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

Go to crucial.com and look for RAM for older Macs. You will be surprised how expensive it is. Technology doesn't get cheaper over time. It gets better, not cheaper. Try finding a 160 GB hard drive. And plainly, calling customers "suckers" is quite insulting and makes you look opinionated but badly informed. These two often go together.

 

[michael31986]

i mean are they even building more. Part of me thinks they are just using the stock they still have.

 

[Zellio]

So.. You bought one and are regretting it now? You know Apple has a decent return policy? Don't complain here, run to the shop and get your money back!

I got an iPod 5.5 with the best iPod sound quality, new battery, and new hdd (80 gb) off ebay for $110 a few months ago. Last forever, and I can install rock box on it!

It also has very little scratches. So no, not regretting anything, but I also don't have a return policy lol......

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Go to crucial.com and look for RAM for older Macs. You will be surprised how expensive it is. Technology doesn't get cheaper over time. It gets better, not cheaper. Try finding a 160 GB hard drive. And plainly, calling customers "suckers" is quite insulting and makes you look opinionated but badly informed. These two often go together.

i hope you realize that unless you are buying a PPC mac you don't need the mac ram? Even for PPC you really don't. Every single mac that I've replaced with regular ram, ran tests, not a single issue. As a list:

iMac g4 (got on ebay), came with 256 megs ram, added 512 megs pc133 laptop sodium ram (NON APPLE), runs perfect.
Imac 2009 i5 27", came with 2 gigs, updated with 8 gigs value ram off new egg. No issues.
Plastic Macbook 2010, core 2, nvidia 320m, came with 2, upgraded to 8 value ram, no issues.

 

[burne]

i hope you realize that unless you are buying a PPC mac you don't need the mac ram?

His point is more that for instance, 'older' 1066MHz RAM is quite expensive, when compared to the current 1600MHz RAM. 8Gbyte for my 2008 macbook would cost me 150 euro. The same amount for my 2012 mac mini was less than 50 euro.

Same goes for harddrives. I needed a specific type of drive for a router. (2.5" 20Gbyte with a certain geometry.) I found one at a specialist parts supplier (I'm not the only one with a five year old Juniper.) for a mere 350 euro.

It might even be a good investment. Buy specific hardware when they are replaced by bigger better faster, store for a few years, and sell in for ten times the original price..

 

[gnasher729]

i hope you realize that unless you are buying a PPC mac you don't need the mac ram? Even for PPC you really don't. Every single mac that I've replaced with regular ram, ran tests, not a single issue. As a list:

iMac g4 (got on ebay), came with 256 megs ram, added 512 megs pc133 laptop sodium ram (NON APPLE), runs perfect.
Imac 2009 i5 27", came with 2 gigs, updated with 8 gigs value ram off new egg. No issues.
Plastic Macbook 2010, core 2, nvidia 320m, came with 2, upgraded to 8 value ram, no issues.

Oh my god. Yes, everyone knows that. The point is that your 512 MB PC133 laptop RAM is bloody expensive compared to the 4GB chip that you put into a new Mac (if you can find them). These chips didn't get cheaper over time. You start getting bigger and better chips for the same money, but the old technology doesn't get cheaper.

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i mean are they even building more. Part of me thinks they are just using the stock they still have.

Apple will have long term contracts with their suppliers to deliver the exact same parts for a very long time. So that the suppliers don't get clever ideas to supply a part that is five times better for half the price - but requires design changes, manufacturing changes, repair changes and so on.

Apple also has to keep a certain number of parts in stock for warranty and out-of-warranty repairs. In one of the many discussions about warranty that we usually have it turned out that in Australia, inability to repair a device out of warranty is a fault for which the manufacturer, not the seller, is responsible.

 

[Infinus.gold]

I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

it's not about older processor, older hardware...
it's about experience...
...

 

[Zellio]

Oh my god. Yes, everyone knows that. The point is that your 512 MB PC133 laptop RAM is bloody expensive compared to the 4GB chip that you put into a new Mac (if you can find them). These chips didn't get cheaper over time. You start getting bigger and better chips for the same money, but the old technology doesn't get cheaper.

----------



Apple will have long term contracts with their suppliers to deliver the exact same parts for a very long time. So that the suppliers don't get clever ideas to supply a part that is five times better for half the price - but requires design changes, manufacturing changes, repair changes and so on.

Apple also has to keep a certain number of parts in stock for warranty and out-of-warranty repairs. In one of the many discussions about warranty that we usually have it turned out that in Australia, inability to repair a device out of warranty is a fault for which the manufacturer, not the seller, is responsible.

I've gotten into plenty of arguments with Mac users who say you need to buy Mac ram, so you'd be surprised

 

[Big Ron]

I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

Whats your point? Why the post? Are you bored - I just don't see a place for comments like this on a Forum - do you think someone from Apple will see it Find a constructive way to spend your idle time.

 

[Swallsy]

I agree with Puma. With the current market there is very little room for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. They essentially do the same thing plus or minus. The classic on the other hand has a unique opportunity to appeal to the prosumers.

Not sure if anyone remembers hearing about the Pono. It's an audio player that Neil Young is releasing this year that replaces low quality MP3 files with high-resolution digital files. There's no reason Apple couldn't embrace something like this with the iPod Classic. This article goes into further detail about this idea:

http://twotoasters.com/ideas/2014/why-and-how-apple-should-save-the-ipod/

 

[Zellio]

Whats your point? Why the post? Are you bored - I just don't see a place for comments like this on a Forum - do you think someone from Apple will see it Find a constructive way to spend your idle time.

If people posted only when something new and constructive was thought up, there would be 5, 10 posts at most on this entire forum.......

 

[blue-flash]

nothing beats the iPod classic ...... simple to use as a music player , when relaxing and you don't want to have to look at the touch screen to go to the next song , raise the volume , change playlists , etc.......

 

[sarakn]

I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

I've had my 160gb iPod Classic since early 2008 - yup, that's close to 6 years and it's still working flawlessly. If that makes me a sucker, I'll proudly wave that sucker flag.

 

[Zellio]

Eh, in 2008 smartphones weren't exactly a good alternative, hard drives were still decently high in price, and they just made the new ipod classic. Although the ipods were still high priced compared to other mp3 players..

You also couldn't find ipod video 5.5 models that had the best sound quality of any ipod, replaced batteries and hdds, and can run rockbox for a little over $100 on ebay either.

 

[NT1440]

I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

You know it's more expensive to continue making legacy electronics once fabs have moved onto a smaller process right?

If anything there's probably less margin now than there was given that many of those components only exist for a product which is not being manufactured in the same order of magnitudes it once was.

 

[Zellio]

You know it's more expensive to continue making legacy electronics once fabs have moved onto a smaller process right?

If anything there's probably less margin now than there was given that many of those components only exist for a product which is not being manufactured in the same order of magnitudes it once was.

Most components in the ipod classics are not changing with manufacturing with the exception of the cpu. The mechanical disks are still mainly 80-90's tech.

 

[NT1440]

Most components in the ipod classics are not changing with manufacturing with the exception of the cpu. The mechanical disks are still mainly 80-90's tech.

That's what I'm saying. Legacy technology becomes more expensive to continue to produce.

That's why you see major products get revised components (the shrunken A5 in the iPad 2 (new edition), revisions to the xbox, ps3, etc). As the main manufacturers move on to new processes (meaning retooling their factories) it only becomes more expensive to continue production, especially at declining rates.

 

[gnasher729]

Most components in the ipod classics are not changing with manufacturing with the exception of the cpu. The mechanical disks are still mainly 80-90's tech.

From Wikipedia: "1980 – The world's first gigabyte-capacity disk drive (2.52 GB), the IBM 3380, was the size of a refrigerator, weighed 249 kg, and had a price tag of 40,000 USD which is 113,328 USD in present day terms."

The iPod drives are about 2007 tech

In 1980, your 160 iPod classic would have replaced about 60 refrigerator-sized drives costing a total of $2.4 million or $7 million in todays money. Now think about the savings in space and electricity. And the risk that your whole datacentre is gone because some idiot wants to listen to some music

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Go to crucial.com and look for RAM for older Macs. You will be surprised how expensive it is. Technology doesn't get cheaper over time. It gets better, not cheaper. Try finding a 160 GB hard drive. And plainly, calling customers "suckers" is quite insulting and makes you look opinionated but badly informed. These two often go together.

That really only counts for technology not being produced anymore. Everything in the iPod is still being manufactured.

 

[Zellio]

From Wikipedia: "1980 – The world's first gigabyte-capacity disk drive (2.52 GB), the IBM 3380, was the size of a refrigerator, weighed 249 kg, and had a price tag of 40,000 USD which is 113,328 USD in present day terms."

The iPod drives are about 2007 tech

In 1980, your 160 iPod classic would have replaced about 60 refrigerator-sized drives costing a total of $2.4 million or $7 million in todays money. Now think about the savings in space and electricity. And the risk that your whole datacentre is gone because some idiot wants to listen to some music

They may have shrunk, but so did earlier machines. They still were mechanical while everything else in pcs moved to integrated circuits. The shrinking has more in common with pcs shrinking from room sized to desktops then it has to with modern machines.

Mechanical hard drives are easily the biggest shortcoming in the modern pc.

To put things into perspective, a data 1 drive can run an average mechanical drive at nearly full speed.

Sata 1: 1.5 Gbps
Sata 2: 3.0 Gbps

Core i7-4960x total bandwidth: 39.69 GBps

That means the total bandwidth of the core i7 is 39.69 GB, while the mechanical drives are 150-300 MB!

http://www.techspot.com/review/708-intel-core-i7-4960X-ivy-bridge-e/page3.html

But that's a newer technology right? Let's go back to 2006-2007, athlon 2 vs core 2 duo:

According to AMD's site (probably BS):

Athlon 2's 33.1+ GB
Core 2 10.7 GB

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desk...n-ii-x2-processor-competitive-comparison.aspx

Even if the core 2 was 'only' 10.7 GB, that is 10.7 GB vs max bandwidth of 150-300 MB! Which was never used may I add.

Does this look like 2007 tech to you? You have a huge slow bottleneck and tons of unused bandwidth.

 

[Infinus.gold]

nothing beats the iPod classic ...... simple to use as a music player , when relaxing and you don't want to have to look at the touch screen to go to the next song , raise the volume , change playlists , etc.......

Very true...
iPOD classic rocks...

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I mean we have:

Old processors
Not hard to make design
Old hard drives (At small sizes which the average SSD is now at!)

I'm betting they make a fortune every time a sucker customer buys one of these things. I doubt you'd ever see it go for this simple reason. Or at least until stock fully erases...

I think apple hardly sells iPOD now a days...
may be old daddy (who is 10 years late) wants to gift his son/daughter an iPOD on his/her birthday....
..
but i am sure that fabricating (hardware/software) is much cheaper today. and if they sell iPOD they must have larger profit margins.