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iPod touch Will they update the iPod Touch this year?

6r4ff3r said:
iPhone 4 had and still have its userbase too. Here in Portugal some companies sold iP4 refurbished for 200 euros, few weeks after ios8 launch (yah, ridiculous...).

iPad 1 has the same SoC and RAM like touch 4gen. Market share is bad excuse, since touch 4gen had iOS 6 and iPad 1 did not...

So in September, its time to A5 get discontinued support...
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Ss the iPhone 4 did not have 60 percent market share like the iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPad mini 1 have. The iPhone 4 had about 12 percent market share.

Some companies selling refurb iPhone 4's has nothing to do with apple. They discontinued it a year before it lost support ( besides in India). Apple is currently selling not one but two A5 devices in their line up internationally in their stores. You also forget that the iPhone 4 was over 4 years old when it got dropped. The iPad mini 1 and iPod touch 5 (regardless of their internal specs) will only be three years old.

Again the ipad 1 has nothing to do with this. The iPad 1 had a far larger display to power tha the iPod touch 4, and it had a much larger touch interface to run which is far more taxing on the RAM. And again it held a small market share of installed devices.

I repeat, if Apple is intending ios 8 to be a performance fix update, where logically they would be improving performance, then it will be able to run A5 devices.
 
oldmacs said:
I think Apple would be a little worried about dropping over half its iPad installed user base. There are more people on A5 iPads than there are on A6, A7 and A8 devices combined. So yes dropping them would lead to fragmentation. Apple boasts at each event how un-fragemnted their installed base is. Leaving the majority of iPad users + a reasonable number of iPhone users would ruin that - people would be scattered over iOS 7, 8 and 9.


iPad users are not upgrading as much, so Apple needs to maintain brand loyalty, so that these people actually buy a new iPad, when they decide to upgrade. Dropping support for say iPad Mini 1 users within 6-7 months of selling them (assuming that they dropped the Mini 1 tomorrow) would be very poor form. Besides, Apple's tradition is to provide support for its devices for 1 year after they are discontinued (Besides the iPod Touch 4, which isa whole other story).

If Apple wants to be greedy and sell device that will shortly loose support, they should have a big fat sticker on the front informing them of that.

In addition to that, Apple has never dropped a device with a market share as big as the A5 devices EVER. The iPhone 4 had a market share around 12-14 percent, the iPhone 3GS had 6 percent (IIRC) and the iPad 1 also had a low market share when support was dropped.
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Thats not fragmentation. In the mobile market sense, fragmentation would be having to support several version of OS or devices. Dropping the A5 would defragment their line up. Microsoft made this same mistake with Windows XP and now they are trying to get people to move on yet people insist on them supporting a 10+ year software. Or are you suggesting Apple to continue to support A5 devices two year from now? The A6 device will very likely be dropped next year. At this point it isn't news that Apple will be dropping the A5 devices, generally all their devices have had 3~4 years of support with the iPad 2 being an exception (and the iPad 1). I don't see Apple continually supporting old hardware for so long for the 'market share'. Honestly I do not want to see the A5 devices being updated for iOS 9 or we'll probably see a repeat of the iPhone 4 but among a larger group of users. It's not like Apple will drop security updates immediately after, iOS 6 had a few updates after iOS 7 arrived that addressed security issues for the 3GS. We'll probably see that happen for iOS 8 devices. Considering iOS 9 may possibly a 'smoothing out' updates it may suggest that iOS 9 won't be changing as many features allowing iOS 9 app to be much more backwards compatible unlike what we're seeing with iOS 7 -> iOS 8.
 
RoboWarriorSr said:
Thats not fragmentation. In the mobile market sense, fragmentation would be having to support several version of OS or devices. Dropping the A5 would defragment their line up. Microsoft made this same mistake with Windows XP and now they are trying to get people to move on yet people insist on them supporting a 10+ year software. Or are you suggesting Apple to continue to support A5 devices two year from now? The A6 device will very likely be dropped next year. At this point it isn't news that Apple will be dropping the A5 devices, generally all their devices have had 3~4 years of support with the iPad 2 being an exception (and the iPad 1). I don't see Apple continually supporting old hardware for so long for the 'market share'. Honestly I do not want to see the A5 devices being updated for iOS 9 or we'll probably see a repeat of the iPhone 4 but among a larger group of users. It's not like Apple will drop security updates immediately after, iOS 6 had a few updates after iOS 7 arrived that addressed security issues for the 3GS. We'll probably see that happen for iOS 8 devices. Considering iOS 9 may possibly a 'smoothing out' updates it may suggest that iOS 9 won't be changing as many features allowing iOS 9 app to be much more backwards compatible unlike what we're seeing with iOS 7 -> iOS 8.
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g

It is software fragmentation. Well by apple's definition - eg having users spread across multiple software versions. With 60 percent of iPad users on A5 devices, you'd only have 40 or so percent iPad users on iOS 9, then a huge clump on iOS 8. I honestly donMt think apple is prepared to leave that many users behind. They've kept two A5 devices around so they've got the responsibility to provide adequate support, and security updates is not. The iPhone 4 didn't get any of the iOS 8 security updates anyway.

It's a complelty different story to Windows XP - that is about people sticking to old software rather than old hardware. If Apple leaves A5 users behind, it will have the XP problem - people will be forced to stick with iOS 8 in large numbers( at least on the iPad side).

Once iOS support stops, your device becomes security compromised, and if apple changes anything with iCloud, you can't sync - and apple changes file types. with iWork, every year Appel changes the file type, which requires software updates across all its platforms, and these updates are only supplied to the latest software - which means that devices that apple drops support for lack the ability to do something as basic as syncing iCloud iWork doucments.

If you personally don't want A5 support with iOS 9, then DON'T upgrade. Remember also that plenty of people found the iPhone 4 perfectly fine with iOS 7 ( including my self any multiple family members and friends). Those who want to stay on iOS 8 can do so. It's very unfair for people who are buying A5 devices now. Apple markets its iPod touch 5 as its top of the line ipod. It does not state anywhere that in 6 months, that it will cease to function complelty. I see people buying the baseline iPad Mini frequently also ( and in Q4 2014 the mini 1 outsold the iPad Mini 2 and 3). Really longer support cycles only benefit consumers, as those who can afford upgrade will have allready upgraded, and those who can't afford it will have longer to save for a new device. Apple needs to tread carefully with its low end market - if people can't get a years support for their device, it would be hardly worth paying for overpriced Apple products.

your final argument just goes to further agreed with mine. If iOS 8 is a smoothing out update that improves performance, why can't it run on the A5? If Apple actually optimised its code for the low ram ceiling of the A5 , iOS would run fantastically on 1 GB devices.
 
oldmacs said:
g

It is software fragmentation. Well by apple's definition - eg having users spread across multiple software versions. With 60 percent of iPad users on A5 devices, you'd only have 40 or so percent iPad users on iOS 9, then a huge clump on iOS 8. I honestly donMt think apple is prepared to leave that many users behind. They've kept two A5 devices around so they've got the responsibility to provide adequate support, and security updates is not. The iPhone 4 didn't get any of the iOS 8 security updates anyway.

It's a complelty different story to Windows XP - that is about people sticking to old software rather than old hardware. If Apple leaves A5 users behind, it will have the XP problem - people will be forced to stick with iOS 8 in large numbers( at least on the iPad side).

Once iOS support stops, your device becomes security compromised, and if apple changes anything with iCloud, you can't sync - and apple changes file types. with iWork, every year Appel changes the file type, which requires software updates across all its platforms, and these updates are only supplied to the latest software - which means that devices that apple drops support for lack the ability to do something as basic as syncing iCloud iWork doucments.

If you personally don't want A5 support with iOS 9, then DON'T upgrade. Remember also that plenty of people found the iPhone 4 perfectly fine with iOS 7 ( including my self any multiple family members and friends). Those who want to stay on iOS 8 can do so. It's very unfair for people who are buying A5 devices now. Apple markets its iPod touch 5 as its top of the line ipod. It does not state anywhere that in 6 months, that it will cease to function complelty. I see people buying the baseline iPad Mini frequently also ( and in Q4 2014 the mini 1 outsold the iPad Mini 2 and 3). Really longer support cycles only benefit consumers, as those who can afford upgrade will have allready upgraded, and those who can't afford it will have longer to save for a new device. Apple needs to tread carefully with its low end market - if people can't get a years support for their device, it would be hardly worth paying for overpriced Apple products.

your final argument just goes to further agreed with mine. If iOS 8 is a smoothing out update that improves performance, why can't it run on the A5? If Apple actually optimised its code for the low ram ceiling of the A5 , iOS would run fantastically on 1 GB devices.
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One couldn't just 'stick with iOS 8'. That is NOT a solution. Eventually if I wanted to restore my device I would be on iOS 9 regardless. Sticking with an older OS isn't exactly a solution especially when the Other data slowly fills up and needs a restore to reset it. iOS 9 running fantastically on 1 GB does not mean it would on 512 MB devices. IF this was the case, the iPod Touch 4 wouldn't be running slow on iOS 6 despite being considered the 'Snow Leopard' of iOS. The iPod Touch even runs the same SOC as the iPhone 4 and couldn't keep up the performance having only half the amount of RAM. 'If RAM wasn't so much an issue, the iPad 1 would be on iOS 6 but it doesn't. It does have half the RAM of iPad 2, if iOS 6 was optimised it should work.' is what is being suggested but that isn't the case. 1 GB of RAM is a incredible difference compared to 512 MB. Unless Apple significantly trims down iOS 9 (remember blurring uses a significant amount of RAM along with the new background task and these aren't going get smaller) any 512 MB will be hit hard by the iOS 9 update regardless.
 
RoboWarriorSr said:
One couldn't just 'stick with iOS 8'. That is NOT a solution. Eventually if I wanted to restore my device I would be on iOS 9 regardless. Sticking with an older OS isn't exactly a solution especially when the Other data slowly fills up and needs a restore to reset it. iOS 9 running fantastically on 1 GB does not mean it would on 512 MB devices. IF this was the case, the iPod Touch 4 wouldn't be running slow on iOS 6 despite being considered the 'Snow Leopard' of iOS. The iPod Touch even runs the same SOC as the iPhone 4 and couldn't keep up the performance having only half the amount of RAM. 'If RAM wasn't so much an issue, the iPad 1 would be on iOS 6 but it doesn't. It does have half the RAM of iPad 2, if iOS 6 was optimised it should work.' is what is being suggested but that isn't the case. 1 GB of RAM is a incredible difference compared to 512 MB. Unless Apple significantly trims down iOS 9 (remember blurring uses a significant amount of RAM along with the new background task and these aren't going get smaller) any 512 MB will be hit hard by the iOS 9 update regardless.
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Its simple - You erase all in settings. That leaves you on the current version of IOS. Staying on an old, unsecured version of iOS that most probably would loose iCloud and app update abilities doesn't sound great either. You can still erase your device, which does the same thing as an iTunes restore - it resets the device back to factory settings.

I didn't say making iOS 9 run well on 1 GB would improve things on 512 MB, i said that optimisation of iOS 9 to make it run better on 512 MB of ram, would improve things on 1GB devices, as iOS would have a smaller memory footprint. That could help the annoying page reloading that plague devices as new as the iPad Air 1 and the iPhone 6 and 6+.
 
I think Apple will silently discontinue the iPod Touch this year.

As sad as it may be to ponder the discontinuation of one of Apple's flagship lines, the truth is that the iPhone and iPad lines have basically cannibalized the iPod Touch market.

Given how many iPhones have been sold over the last year, plus the fact that that the 16GB and 64GB iPhones cost the same (on contract) as an iPod Touch, why would anybody need an iPod Touch?

With the iPhone you get the latest technology (bigger screen, A8/M8, Touch ID, etc) so why pay the same price for something with technology that is almost 4 years old? Plus, for another $50 more you could get an iPad.

Apple really has no reason to keep the iPod Touch around in 2015. I see it being effectively discontinued come WWDC time when they announce the devices to be compatible with iOS 9. It will go something like:

iPhone 5 and higher
iPad 4th gen and higher
iPad Mini 2 and higher

I think that is definitely going to eliminate all A5 devices from support, as they are probably looking to make 64 bit a requirement for iOS. With that, Apple may enable A6 devices to accommodate iOS 9 (iPhone 5/5C and iPad 4th gen) but the experience will likely be less than stellar - possibly crippling on those devices.

My 2 cents.
 
TWD98j said:
I think Apple will silently discontinue the iPod Touch this year.

As sad as it may be to ponder the discontinuation of one of Apple's flagship lines, the truth is that the iPhone and iPad lines have basically cannibalized the iPod Touch market.

Given how many iPhones have been sold over the last year, plus the fact that that the 16GB and 64GB iPhones cost the same (on contract) as an iPod Touch, why would anybody need an iPod Touch?

With the iPhone you get the latest technology (bigger screen, A8/M8, Touch ID, etc) so why pay the same price for something with technology that is almost 4 years old? Plus, for another $50 more you could get an iPad.

Apple really has no reason to keep the iPod Touch around in 2015. I see it being effectively discontinued come WWDC time when they announce the devices to be compatible with iOS 9. It will go something like:

iPhone 5 and higher
iPad 4th gen and higher
iPad Mini 2 and higher

I think that is definitely going to eliminate all A5 devices from support, as they are probably looking to make 64 bit a requirement for iOS. With that, Apple may enable A6 devices to accommodate iOS 9 (iPhone 5/5C and iPad 4th gen) but the experience will likely be less than stellar - possibly crippling on those devices.

My 2 cents.
Click to expand...

The biggest rumour is that iOS 9 is a bug fix and performance fix release, so A5 devices should see support.

Apple doesn't often drop support for devices that have been discontinued less than 1 year ago. It has only done so once.

The iPad 2 and iPad Mini 1 are the two most used iPads. Between the Mini 1, iPad 2 and 3, 55-60 percent of iPads in use are A5 devices, so I doubt they'll have support dropped. You've got to be kidding if you think that iOS 9 will be 64 bit only. Add the iPad 4 to the figure and you get around 65 percent of iPad users on 32 bit devices. You have also got around 50 percent of iPhone users on 32 bit devices.

I also disagree with the idea that the iPod Touch is not relevant. It is relevant, only apple has effectively reduced demand by not updating it for so long.

iPhones are too expensive for many, especially kids. Contracts end up being expensive and a waste of money in many situations. For a lot of people, prepaid + a basic phone and iPod Touch is a great combination. Or an Android phone and an iPod Touch.

You are right in saying that it seems silly to buy a touch 5 with the better tech in the iPhones, however thats not the point. An updated iPod Touch would make sense in comparison to an iPhone.
 
TWD98j said:
I think Apple will silently discontinue the iPod Touch this year.

As sad as it may be to ponder the discontinuation of one of Apple's flagship lines, the truth is that the iPhone and iPad lines have basically cannibalized the iPod Touch market.

Given how many iPhones have been sold over the last year, plus the fact that that the 16GB and 64GB iPhones cost the same (on contract) as an iPod Touch, why would anybody need an iPod Touch?

With the iPhone you get the latest technology (bigger screen, A8/M8, Touch ID, etc) so why pay the same price for something with technology that is almost 4 years old? Plus, for another $50 more you could get an iPad.

Apple really has no reason to keep the iPod Touch around in 2015. I see it being effectively discontinued come WWDC time when they announce the devices to be compatible with iOS 9. It will go something like:

iPhone 5 and higher
iPad 4th gen and higher
iPad Mini 2 and higher

I think that is definitely going to eliminate all A5 devices from support, as they are probably looking to make 64 bit a requirement for iOS. With that, Apple may enable A6 devices to accommodate iOS 9 (iPhone 5/5C and iPad 4th gen) but the experience will likely be less than stellar - possibly crippling on those devices.

My 2 cents.
Click to expand...



On contract or off contract the Iphone costs the same price and it is generally two to three times higher in price. If it was the same price of course everybody who needed a media player could just buy an Iphone 6 but clearly it is not the case, not even close.
 
If you just want a media player you can buy a dirt cheap android phone or a used iPhone. An android phone is probably cheaper than a dedicated media player of some sort. An iPhone 5 can be found cheap enough to suffice for being a media player and has better specs than the 5th gen touch, and at least in the US costs less or on par with the cost of the touch. But if you want the cost to be less than $50 and don't care about quality go for the cheap android phone and sd card.
 
Outrun1986 said:
If you just want a media player you can buy a dirt cheap android phone or a used iPhone. An android phone is probably cheaper than a dedicated media player of some sort. An iPhone 5 can be found cheap enough to suffice for being a media player and has better specs than the 5th gen touch, and at least in the US costs less or on par with the cost of the touch. But if you want the cost to be less than $50 and don't care about quality go for the cheap android phone and sd card.
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I tried a Windows Phone and Android media player alternative and I disliked both operating systems. If you try to buy an android phone that is cheaper than an Ipod Touch you will not get a better screen and you will not get the seamless integration with Itunes.

Some people don't want to buy a used item. A new Iphone 5s is about $550, $300 more than a 32gb Ipod Touch. The closest thing you can find right now is a new Iphone 4s at Best Buy for $99 with a smaller screen and only 8gb of storage.
 
MacSince1985 said:
According to your math, your iPhone would end up costing $680 ($200 cost + 24 months @ $20) since most subsidized phones require a 2 year contract.

There is still room in the Apple ecosystem for the Touch. Affordable purchase price => open iTunes account => purchase apps and content. The shuffle still has its fans (cheap, small, sturdy, easily replaced if lost/broken). The Nano, with its pseudo iOS interface and very few apps is a too much of an in-between. If an iPod model gets dropped, that would be the one.

My guess is that any updates will be minimal spec improvements and/or price drop on the entire line.
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617aircav said:
You can get them for $200 on contract and add a line for $20 to a family plan or get any number of android phones for that or less. There is no need to get a kid an iPod and another phone, just get him a smart phone.
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See MacSince1985's reply above. Pretty much... I DON'T WANT ANOTHER CONTRACT!!! I just want the iDevice to use to play games. I've already got a contract for my Samsung Galaxy s4, and quite happy with it for internet and data stuff. When that contract expires, I'll probably stick with the gs4 until it runs out of battery (nice thing here, I can just easily replace it), as the gs5 doesn't quite appeal to me, and not sure where things are going with the gs6.

Plus, many schools have iDevices that they let kids play with as part of their learning curriculum. I'm sure many schools would rather save the $300 to $500 per device and give them more easily replaced IpT than Iph. If they break the Iph, you're quite hosed because you got that on contract and now it was for nothing. Plus, they may not want kids going online. Especially those in the Kindergarten to 5th grade or so range.

I've seen news clips where schools have Ipads too. I'm fairly certain those are wifi only, and perhaps older generations too. No point in spending extra money for the cellular models, not to mention the data plans if they're not permitted to go online. If they are allowed to go online, then a wifi network set up would be cheaper.

Lastly, I don't have kids, but I hear parents aren't too keen on giving their children Iphones or any cell phones right off the bat. Perhaps once they enter jr. high or high school. But until then, the IpT is the much better way to go. Even if you armor that stuff, they can still misplace and lose it. It's a MUCH BIGGER hassle replacing something you bought for a lot of overall $$, on contract, then something that's not tied to a contract.

TWD98j said:
I think Apple will silently discontinue the iPod Touch this year.

As sad as it may be to ponder the discontinuation of one of Apple's flagship lines, the truth is that the iPhone and iPad lines have basically cannibalized the iPod Touch market.
Click to expand...
Was it ever mentioned explicitly or implied by Apple that the IpT was considered a "flagship" line? It seems like many of our perceptions are being injected by the user community.

TWD98j said:
Given how many iPhones have been sold over the last year, plus the fact that that the 16GB and 64GB iPhones cost the same (on contract) as an iPod Touch, why would anybody need an iPod Touch?
Click to expand...
I get to "quick link" the response to this, so with that said, see the first part of this post :)
 
In my opinion, most parents will go for iPad Mini instead of iPod touch. The price of iPad mini is often lower than the price of iPod touch (when shopping around). It isn't the iPhone alone that is killing the iPod touch. It is the iPhone and the iPad mini that are making the iPod touch redundant. My kids (under 10) won't get a smart phone for another few years. They do have iPad minis...
 
The first thing parents will give their kids is their old iPhones, albeit not tied to a contract they will use them as wifi only devices.

The second choice usually automatically defaults to iPad mini, if parents don't want them to have a smartphone yet. I see more kids with these than I do any other device. Kids don't have any other devices or things to keep track of usually, so they don't mind carrying them around as it's the only thing they need to carry.

If anything the iPad mini has cannibalized the touch the most. I do see a lot of kids with iPhones but most are just playing games on them so it's really a waste unless you give them an old iPhone especially if the kid is too young to text or is too young to know how to form a sentence. A lot of kids are getting smartphones around 7-8 years old where I live, but t depends on the parents. I also know parents who refuse to let their kids touch any electronics besides a basic television.
 
If Apple doesn't plan on discontinuing the iPod Touch, then they should update it this year. Will they? Who knows. What I do know is that it's silly for them to keep selling it as is, when there are so many great games that can't be played on it. If they want to get rid of it, just get rid of it. If they plan on keeping it though, they should at least update the processor this year so that more Touch owners can buy and play more games, which only helps Apple.
 
sportsfrk214 said:
If Apple doesn't plan on discontinuing the iPod Touch, then they should update it this year. Will they? Who knows. What I do know is that it's silly for them to keep selling it as is, when there are so many great games that can't be played on it. If they want to get rid of it, just get rid of it. If they plan on keeping it though, they should at least update the processor this year so that more Touch owners can buy and play more games, which only helps Apple.
Click to expand...

LOL that should happen last year (October) not this year.

Yes, it is not silly but lame.

They pretty much want us to buy an iphone 6.
 
Retire the 5c and make the iPod touch a phone. iPod touch phone, add cell phone functions with 128 gb / 256 gb, and keep all the color choices, sell for under $499.
 
spider1135 said:
In a way it is, but it is low end of iPhone, cheaper to buy, and target for music lovers and younger buyers with higher recording time, 256gb iPod touch 6 phone.
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Cheaper to buy with 256gb? i don't think so lol, do you have an idea how much cost an iphone 6 with 128gb? 849 dollars.

I'm afraid to tell you storage is not cheap...that's the reason why there's still an ipad air 2 and an iphone 6 with only 16gb...(among other things).

But thanks to Samsung and their main phone galaxy s6, the limit from now on its gonna be set to 32gb minimum.
 
smorrissey said:
Cheaper to buy with 256gb? i don't think so lol, do you have an idea how much cost an iphone 6 with 128gb? 849 dollars.

I'm afraid to tell you storage is not cheap...that's the reason why there's still an ipad air 2 and an iphone 6 with only 16gb...(among other things).

But thanks to Samsung and their main phone galaxy s6, the limit from now on its gonna be set to 32gb minimum.
Click to expand...

It made with iPod touch material not iPhone material. It just a iPod touch added with phone function and 128gb for under $499, 256 gb will be more.

It is like combine iPhone 5c and iPod touch together.
 
spider1135 said:
It made with iPod touch material not iPhone material. It just a iPod touch added with phone function and 128gb for under $499, 256 gb will be more.



It is like combine iPhone 5c and iPod touch together.
Click to expand...


Not going to happen, iPhones already exist.
 
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