Tim Cook on iPod Classic: 'We Couldn't Get the Parts Anymore'

[upthetoffees]

The ipod classic had a distinct lack of milking angle - apart from their profit on initial song purchase they couldn't fire adverts at you.

The demand is there, but as others have said, the profit margins are too small.

 

[Colpeas]

What a *********. Yeah, the 1,8" are not out of production, but they could as well use flash memory as they do in all their other products. Heck, they bought anobit like three years ago, so what's the problem??

 

[jm001]

I still have an original 1st gen. iPod with the moving click wheel, firewire port and a whopping 5GB of storage. Still works great! I use it while gardening (I actually have an armband for it) or in my study at home.

 

[tdurden5150]

Asinine comments

....can't believe some the crap you read on here. Just because you have the money to do something doesn't mean that you should.
Apple is a company like everyone else; trying to make profits

 

[output555]

They have enough money to buy third world countries but can't pay someone to make some parts? BS.

It's not BS, it's just good business. The Classic is a unit with declining sales, why would a company invest big sums of money in something that was becoming obsolete. Even if it pisses off a few grumpy guys, like you.

 

[gnasher729]

They have enough money to buy third world countries but can't pay someone to make some parts? BS.

Apple can pay for the hard drives. But if they do, you won't pay for the iPod.

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The ipod classic had a distinct lack of milking angle - apart from their profit on initial song purchase they couldn't fire adverts at you.

The demand is there, but as others have said, the profit margins are too small.

2.4 million iPods sold in total in the last quarter. That's all models. The wish to own one is there, the actual buying is the problem. Same as with the 17" MacBook. When they stopped selling, the remaining ones went to the refurbished store, and in the UK it took a year until they were all sold.

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But that doesn't mean that it is profitable to do so.

If it was profitable and Apple left a huge gap in the market, then surely some competitor would be there and offer a large capacity portable music player and make tons of money.

Go to Amazon. There isn't anybody. (Actually, there seems to be a product named FiiO aimed at high end with 192KHz/24 bit output, but very few in store).

 

[Plutonius]

They have enough money to buy third world countries but can't pay someone to make some parts? BS.

Of course they could pay a lot of money to startup production of iPod parts. Why would they though ? The amount of money needed would be more than Apple ever got back in a lifetime of selling iPod classics. Apple is a business and the iPod classic was only worth making if profits exceeded cost.

 

[RobNYC]

Because 128GB flash memory is quite appreciably more expensive than a 160GB hard drive. They might well wait until prices come down enough to make it reasonable for their profit margins again, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

iPod is dead, done, and over with. I'm shocked iPod classic lasted as long as it did. And the rest of the iPods are probably next.

The Classic is dead but the iPod itself is still around. You can still get a nano. Not sure how long they'll keep that line going but apparently it must be selling enough to make it worth it.

 

[prowlmedia]

The Classic is dead but the iPod itself is still around. You can still get a nano. Not sure how long they'll keep that line going but apparently it must be selling enough to make it worth it.

Well you can still get a touch too.. and that's a lot more useful. The current Nano is only of note as they actually made the thing bigger! And now we know why... they were working on the watch and wanted a generation or two away from the smaller nano with the watch straps like Lunatik were making.

They have enough money to buy third world countries but can't pay someone to make some parts? BS.

Says someone who knows nothing about how you make stuff. Apple don't make the parts. Toshiba clearly have deemed it's not profitable to carry on making them as they are not selling enough. Therefore the parts are now discontinued.

Also I imaging a lot of the parts are being discontinued - the screen / battery etc.

Mainly it would have meant reengineering a complete new thing that is essentially completely outdated.

 

[Digital Skunk]

And it doubled as a external hard drive if you knew how to set it up.

Those were good times. I remember years ago people using the MASSIVE hard drive on the 40GB iPod as an external drive to store graphics and video files and the like.

For a time that was acceptable, but after a while the HDD in the iPod would get tired of all of that work, especially at 4200 rpm. We tore through so many HDDs back in uni that a few iPod repair techs popped up on campus that would repair the drive for $100.

This is of course at a time when $10 a gigabyte for an external FW400 drive was acceptable.

Goodbye faithful friend. I may go on the hunt for one more silver or black 160GB iPod Classic.

 

[applesith]

It would have been cool if they re-designed to run off flash storage but kept the wheel and the classic look.

 

[Gasu E.]

They have enough money to buy third world countries but can't pay someone to make some parts? BS.

Not for your price. They would have to pay the entire cost of keeping the production lines, AND they could not make it up in volume. Why should they take a loss on this product?

Ignorance.

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What a *********. Yeah, the 1,8" are not out of production, but they could as well use flash memory as they do in all their other products. Heck, they bought anobit like three years ago, so what's the problem??

They already do that. They are called the Nano and Touch.

 

[vartanarsen]

Too late!
Retail has long sold out. You can find them new on ebay now for at least $100 more than MSRP.

About 450 sealed last i checked ebay. I went to Walmart the day it got discontinued and mot many knew. I picked up 2 sealed for 250 a piece. Im holding them tight. Cant imagine how much they'd go for in 5 years sealed

 

[J. Jizzle]

I was shocked to read that the iPod Classic was still being manufactured (up until last month). I thought it was discontinued years ago once the iPod Touch came out. Surprising, as the iPod Classic was so outdated from a technological stand point. I understand if people still have iPod Classics, but I'm surprised people were still buying them when iPod Touch & the iPhone have been on the market for years.

 

[2457282]

I had a Apple II, but had not focused on Apple due to work being a windows world. Then I recieved the ipod that I think it only had 5 gig on it. But that was enough to get me back into Apple. From there I updated to couple of times before the iphone came out. it was clear from the second I got my iPhone 3g that I would never use the ipod again. I gave it away and that was the end.

Having said that, it was a great device for its time and was the gateway device into the Apple ecosystem for many people. RIP

 

[Kissaragi]

It is time for a 4.7" ipod touch with 128gb of storage now tim!

 

[Jazper]

Bummer. Our iPod Classic just kicked it, and I was hoping to replace it with another. One of Apple's greatest products.

They're still available on ebay and probably amazon.

 

[Parasprite]

You're right... a 64GB iPod Touch can't hold as many songs as a 160GB iPod Classic.

But remember when CDs only held 16 songs and you had to carry your music in one of these?

How on Earth did you survive?

I had an MP3 CD player for a while with 60 second skip protection! and like...2...3 hours battery life. You could fit almost 200 low-quality songs on one of those. Went great with my disposable black weird-uncomfortable-black-foam-style headphones.

Yeah I definitely don't miss this at all.

 

[Mike MA]

I don't believe him either.

His intention rather was to highlight some more up-to-date products like the iPod Touch with some funny comment.

 

[eac25]

Sometimes I wonder if people are more concerned about commenting first and readying [sic] the article later.

Agreed. I sometimes even wonder if people are more interested in commenting than thinking first....

 

[TechZeke]

No need for iPod when you have a smartphone or tablet. iPods were common place when I was in middle school and early high school when everyone would carry around their crappy phone plus their iPod for music. Nowadays, even riding transit, I see people opting to carry around their iPad mini as a music device. The iPod Touch is basically used as just a mini-iPad mini, for media consumption and playing games you are better off with the bigger screen.

My cousins got iPod Touches for Christmas a few years ago, now that they have iPhones and iPads, they no longer use them.

 

[milo]

Just admit there is no money in selling it anymore.

He did.

Apple does not have plans to reintroduce the iPod classic due to a shrinking audience and the engineering costs that would be needed for a new version

The demand is there

The demand is tiny. Just look at total iPod sales. Classic sales are a fraction of that. If there was significant demand they'd update to a flash model.

Apple used to sell four models of iPod, now they're down to three. Probably will go down even more although I think it will be a long time before they'd kill all iPods.

If there's something to complain about in this story, it's that they haven't upped the capacity of the nano and touch, and otherwise updated the latter.

 

[SusanK]

His intention rather was to highlight some more up-to-date products like the iPod Touch with some funny comment.

I don't find Cook amusing or entertaining. A little straight talk from him would be appreciated.

 

[mabhatter]

It would have been cool if they re-designed to run off flash storage but kept the wheel and the classic look.

Like a return of the "chubby" Nano, only with 64GB+ storage. Then clear out the rest of the iPod lineup. Their last iPod should look like an iPod with click wheel and all.

 

[Tailpike1153]

That's crazy talk. How absurd can you be? Don't you know that Apple's profit is secondary to the needs of the 64 people out there who still want to buy an iPod classic?

Ahmen! While we're on the subject of bringing sexy back...Anybody want to sign my petition to bring back ADB support in Apple's laptop and desktop lines? It's time Apple stop jumping on the dumb fads. USB will never catch on! Silly Apple.