'iPod Father' Tony Fadell Comments on Discontinuation of iPod Classic

[ThirdPrize]

The fact they never updated it is what killed it. Everyone who wanted one had one, and had no reason to upgrade. I would love a 250Gb one with wireless syncing, etc. We can only hope the upgrade the iPod touch to a decent size at some point. Either that or someone else fills the gap in the market, Pono?

Mine just sits in a dock all day and plays music, so i don't need apps, etc.

 

[simonmet]

A sad day indeed. The classic is iconic. A music player doesn't need to have all the features of an iPod Touch or iPhone like advanced graphics for games and advanced processor for Internet and apps.

I would've liked to see the classic evolve into an audiophile iPod akin to the Pono et al.

I'm afraid it's snap them up now if you want a museum piece!

Apple is increasingly making me sad these days...

 

[OllyW]

The fact they never updated it is what killed it. Everyone who wanted one had one, and had no reason to upgrade. I would love a 250Gb one with wireless syncing, etc. We can only hope the upgrade the iPod touch to a decent size at some point. Either that or someone else fills the gap in the market, Pono?

Mine just sits in a dock all day and plays music, so i don't need apps, etc.

My 160GB classic is now 7 years old and I've never thought about upgrading it as there isn't anything better available.

Mine also sits in a dock at playing music all day when I'm at work so a big capacity iPhone wouldn't work as an alternative for me. I just hope my classic can soldier on for many more years to come.

 

[simonmet]

My 160GB classic is now 7 years old and I've never thought about upgrading it as there isn't anything better available.

Mine also sits in a dock at playing music all day when I'm at work so a big capacity iPhone wouldn't work as an alternative for me. I just hope my classic can soldier on for many more years to come.

Worst comes to worst you might need to replace hard drive, but that's easy.

Jam on!!!

 

[roadbloc]

The 128 GB iPhone 6/6 Plus essentially replaces it now.

Not really. Well, not for me anyway. I have over 100GB of music (not sure how much iOS+Apps takes nowadays, but I know it eats into that space. Space that could be used for music instead). And I'd rather use the click wheel rather than a touch screen. And iOS is an overkill for just a music player, as is buying an iPhone in general.

There is nothing better than the iPod Classic.

 

[Virinprew]

Fadell notes that the product was "born to die," with employees speculating in 2003 or 2004 what would kill the device. "Even back then, at Apple," says Fadell, "we knew it was streaming. We called it the 'celestial jukebox in the sky.' And we have that now: music in the cloud."

So what will kill the iPhone?

 

[2457282]

It's not streaming that killed the iPod.
Sorry, but when you have a 20GB library like me, stream it over 3G would cost an enormous amount of money.

What killed it, is Apple not renewing them. If Apple didn't stick with a 6+ years old iPod Classic and had added flash memory or bigger storage on the iPod Nano, features like Bluetooth to the iPod Classic, the iPod business wouldn't be declining like it is right now because I can't be the only one with a 20GB+ library that wants a new device with enough flash storage.

I hear people saying "Well buy a 64GB or 128GB iPhone".
Well guess what: there's also people like me who prefer a device dedicated to music.

I believe you can always buy the iPod touch. They can be configured with up to 64gigs of flash memory to carry around your music with.

It seems to me is that what Apple did was to simply get rid of the click wheel and the physical hard drive. When you have a library that exceeds 12,000 songs, like I do, the click wheel is just not that practical. The touch screen interface makes more sense. And the move away from the physical hard drive makes sense.

For Apple this consolidates them down to a standard design and interface across their products which also makes sense.

 

[iWe]

That Aqua style progress bar looks so out of place on the iPod.

That is no way to behave at a wake.

 

[OllyW]

I believe you can always buy the iPod touch. They can be configured with up to 64gigs of flash memory to carry around your music with.

I'd struggle squeezing the contents of my 160GB classic onto one of those.

It seems to me is that what Apple did was to simply get rid of the click wheel and the physical hard drive. When you have a library that exceeds 12,000 songs, like I do, the click wheel is just not that practical. The touch screen interface makes more sense. And the move away from the physical hard drive makes sense.

I've got double that on mine and don't have a problem with the click wheel. I guess it's just down to personal preferences but I'd still rather have a classic iPod over an iOS device for playing music.

 

[0098386]

It's not streaming that killed the iPod.
Sorry, but when you have a 20GB library like me, stream it over 3G would cost an enormous amount of money.

What killed it, is Apple not renewing them. If Apple didn't stick with a 6+ years old iPod Classic and had added flash memory or bigger storage on the iPod Nano, features like Bluetooth to the iPod Classic, the iPod business wouldn't be declining like it is right now because I can't be the only one with a 20GB+ library that wants a new device with enough flash storage.

Exactly that. Sure I imagine sales are behind the iPhone and iPod Touch. But I'd certainly buy another HDD iPod if they started producing them again. The screen size was perfect for my needs, and I could actually hold my whole music and video library on the 160gb.

When my iPod Classic dies I'll just buy whatever their rivals make. (though is there really competition in the HDD music player market these days?)

 

[Lolito]

WELCOME TO THE NEW APPLE GUYS!!!!

The ipod classic is like a full frame canon eaos 5D in the photography world: you do not compare that with an iphone camera.

also, iphone tactile controls, sucks, battery for listening to music sucks, storage size and price sucks, etc...

Lot of folks update their ipod classics with flash drives or CF cards...


And anyways, android is not like windows, android is a great alternative to iOS, it is better. The new macs with welded ram and glued batteries suck big time too.

Everyone who really understand technology are gonna leave behind apple.

 

[jm001]

I should get one for later when the internet and power are all gone

I still have the original 5GB iPod. Back then my wife and I thought, wow, our entire music library in this little "deck of cards". Now this iPod was replaced once due to malfunction about 2 years after it was bought. No Apple stores back then, but Apple, at their cost, sent me a FedEx box in which I placed the unit in and brought it my local FedEx depot. In about 2 weeks they sent me a "new" unit. Same 5GB iPod. Still works, even the battery is still good.

 

[highvoltage12v]

Not even close! 160GB iPod classic holds waaaaayyyy more than a 128GB phone! I have a 160GB in the car with 18,000+ songs on it....no streaming or data. It's great. When it dies, that will be a tough pill to swallow. I will resort to iTunes Match....

When it dies you just replace whatever part it needs. The iPod classic has a replaceable battery, screen, click wheel, hard drive etc. My 5th gen has a 128gb compact flash card in it and a new battery. Still going strong for the foreseeable future.

 

[rdlink]

I don't get the talk like Apple isn't making iPods any more, since they still have the shuffle, nano, and iPod touch.

Talking about the iPod Classic here.

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It's not streaming that killed the iPod.
Sorry, but when you have a 20GB library like me, stream it over 3G would cost an enormous amount of money.

What killed it, is Apple not renewing them. If Apple didn't stick with a 6+ years old iPod Classic and had added flash memory or bigger storage on the iPod Nano, features like Bluetooth to the iPod Classic, the iPod business wouldn't be declining like it is right now because I can't be the only one with a 20GB+ library that wants a new device with enough flash storage.

I hear people saying "Well buy a 64GB or 128GB iPhone".
Well guess what: there's also people like me who prefer a device dedicated to music.

iPod Touch?

 

[groovyf]

A lot of cars have dedicated inputs for iPod, that just don't work when you plug an iPhone/iPod touch in (essentially they connect via the car maker's special lead and the 30-pin - which is pretty much defunct).

Yes, you can plug an iPhone, iPod touch in, but you can't control the music via your in-car media controls. That's the advantage the iPod Classic had (plus it could hold a bag load of tunes, which nothing else can Apple-wise).
Also, no need to say there are other MP3 players around. Again, with in-car systems with dedicated iPod inputs, these non-Apple products don't integrate.

 

[Moto G]

Au revoir, fatty.

 

[Sylonien]

Wish they would update/replace it with a 256Gb/512Gb SSD - only.

I have a iPhone 5S, but none of the devices are enough to carry all the music in my library.

Yes I don't listen 11,000 songs at once.
But I like to keep all my music with me so I always have the choice
and its mostly plugged in in my car.

I don't want to buy a iPod Touch which is almost identical to my 5s except the phone features. its pointless.

Does anyone know of a music playing without all the stupid online / app / touch screen stuff with large storage capacity now that the Classic is discontinued?

 

[cgc]

I'd say smart phones killed a lot of markets, but although it's a good replacement for the iPod, there's still a market there for some iPods. I bought an iPod Shuffle just recently to use when I go running as I didn't want a big honking phone on my arm.

 

[macduke]

Lots of crotchety old iPod users on here, lol.

 

[GeneralChang]

I should get one for later when the internet and power are all gone

There’s a number of post apocalyptic disaster movies that would suggest that is the best course of action.

 

[usarioclave]

When it dies you just replace whatever part it needs. The iPod classic has a replaceable battery, screen, click wheel, hard drive etc. My 5th gen has a 128gb compact flash card in it and a new battery. Still going strong for the foreseeable future.

Replaced mine with a 240gb drive. Works great, hopefully they'll sell batteries for it forever.

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I believe you can always buy the iPod touch. They can be configured with up to 64gigs of flash memory to carry around your music with.

It seems to me is that what Apple did was to simply get rid of the click wheel and the physical hard drive. When you have a library that exceeds 12,000 songs, like I do, the click wheel is just not that practical. The touch screen interface makes more sense. And the move away from the physical hard drive makes sense.

For Apple this consolidates them down to a standard design and interface across their products which also makes sense.

The iPod starts jumping by letter on large libraries. On my iPhone, I have to scroll through it because the letter jump thing doesn't work for playlists, making the iPhone UI inferior. I organize by playlists because if you have a few thousand albums (and lots of singles) it gets difficult to find the specific album you want.

 

[Xenomorph]

As much as I like Apple stuff (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iOS devices, etc. - even my old G4 PowerPC), I've never had an interest in an iPod.

We all had SanDisk Clip players. They were like $40, took a huge SD card, and worked well as a music player.
The SanDisk Fuze even had some click wheel and a big screen like an iPod, but still cost around $80.

I had gone from a 33/45RPM turntable to portable AM/FM radio to portable cassette player to portable CD player to SanDisk MP3 player...
They were more than enough for playing music. When I got my iPhone, the interest in a stand-alone music player fell to about zero.

There was never a time in my life where I felt a need for an iPod.

 

[Moto G]

WELCOME TO THE NEW APPLE GUYS!!!!

The ipod classic is like a full frame canon eaos 5D in the photography world: you do not compare that with an iphone camera.

also, iphone tactile controls, sucks, battery for listening to music sucks, storage size and price sucks, etc...

Lot of folks update their ipod classics with flash drives or CF cards...


And anyways, android is not like windows, android is a great alternative to iOS, it is better. The new macs with welded ram and glued batteries suck big time too.

Everyone who really understand technology are gonna leave behind apple.

Yeah, and Apple care about the people who don't buy their products, when they're selling 10 million iPhones in a week... righty ho then

Apple care about people who like their products and enjoy them, they're not your usual competitive beast, trying to drag people to Apple, kicking and screaming. They don't care if you don't want them, MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY people DO.

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Lots of crotchety old iPod users on here, lol.

Sure is the truth

 

[milo]

As for the other two, it seems likely their days are probably numbered as well — especially with the Apple Watch coming out. Now that a bunch of other devices can handle music storage and playback, the market for a dedicated device that ONLY plays music is shrinking rapidly.

If the watch starts at $349, it's not going to replace a $149 nano or $49 shuffle.

There's still a market for a device that just plays music (and video in the case of the nano) and is cheaper than all the "smart" devices. Plenty of people still want something small, basic, and cheap for exercise and similar uses.

Will they update the remaining ones much if at all? Probably not.
Does it make sense to consolidate the iPod product line? Absolutely.
Does it make sense to eliminate the entire iPod product line? I don't agree, at least not any time soon.

The touch and the nano haven't been updated in 3 years, and the shuffle hasn't been updated in 4 years.

And there hasn't been much reason to update them, the one obvious one would be higher storage but other than that they can keep selling those same models for a while.

Talking about the iPod Classic here.

Exactly my point. Which is why I don't get why Fadell is making comments that sound like it's the end of all iPods. I guess since he worked on the first one, I can see why he considers that the "real" iPod.

 

[octothorpe8]

If the watch starts at $349, it's not going to replace a $149 nano or $49 shuffle.

There's still a market for a device that just plays music (and video in the case of the nano) and is cheaper than all the "smart" devices. Plenty of people still want something small, basic, and cheap for exercise and similar uses.

Will they update the remaining ones much if at all? Probably not.
Does it make sense to consolidate the iPod product line? Absolutely.
Does it make sense to eliminate the entire iPod product line? I don't agree, at least not any time soon.

Completely agreed. Given the user base of iOS, my hunch would be that iPods converge on the Touch. I just hope they see fit to offer a large-capacity version. 256GB would not be unreasonable.