nüvifone™. The navigation phone.Will Apple kill off the iPod Classic?
The iPod Classic may be an endangered species.
(Credit: Apple)If you've read the stories on Apple's latest earnings, you may have noticed that Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer took the time to break out the sales of each model in the iPod franchise, which is seeing year-over-year declines for the first time in its history. In her piece, our own Erica Ogg wrote:
"During the third quarter, Apple sold 10.2 million iPods, compared with 11 million a year ago. It turns out that the shifting appeal of the Shuffle, Nano, and Classic model iPods are to blame. But Apple apparently saw this coming." She then goes on to quote Oppenheimer, who says those declining sales are "the reason we developed the iPod Touch. We expect our traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with iPod Touch and iPhone."
As rumors continue to circulate that Apple will introduce new iPod models this fall (as it traditionally has), the big question is whether the iPod Classic becomes the odd iPod out. In a recent MP3 Insider podcast, CNET editor Donald Bell points out that orders for new Samsung hard drives that would go into an updated Classic appear to be nonexistent, according to Ars Technica and Apple Insider. And shortly after the earnings were posted, TechCrunch writer MG Seigler asked whether the iPod as we know it is dying.
The prevailing bet among iPod followers is that the Classic may stick around for a little while, but it probably won't be upgraded and will be quietly put out to pasture. The fact is that the iPod Touch offers a lot more functionality and, most importantly, it can run iPhone apps, which people find appealing, and they generate revenue for Apple.
Of course, there's a lot of folks out there who need a high-capacity iPod to store all their tunes and videos. The Classic remains a pretty decent value from the standpoint of a storage player, and we're seeing great deals on refurbished fifth-generation video iPods. If indeed Apple comes out with a 64GB iPod Touch this fall--as we expect it to--it will still cost quite a bit more than a 120GB iPod Classic. And that will keep Classic owners clinging to their antique iPods.
Personally, I hope Apple keeps the Classic around until the prices for flash memory drop enough to make a high-capacity Touch affordable. But I have a feeling the Classic will be gone by then.
Comments? Will Apple save the Classic or let it die?
Additional viewing: MP3 Insider 154
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Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter.
Which are better then the normal iPods anyways.
Feature for feature and usability the Zune kills the nanos - classic
Instead of you guys spinning a wheel to try and get to where you need to go I simply swipe down get to my menu and im good to go..
Its perfectly truthful.
iPods lack features and everyone and their mom has one they lost the cool factor they once had.
If you are just pulling a number out of your .... just to say that a lot of people don't have MAC's then that's fine. If on the other hand you are trying to draw a connection between market share and users then the 95% number is a complete falsehood.
Over the years reading tech sites and magazines I have heard this repeated so many times that it has become a pet peeve of mine. I've been hearing this thrown about for the better part of a decade, going back to a time when the sales of computers for home users was dwarfed by sales for business use. I can't honestly say what the breakdown on sales consumer/business wise today or when/if one became more than the other. But I can say from personal experience that I have visited customers sites that have thousands of computers on site, and counting all their locations across the US alone they have tens of thousands of computers if not hundreds of thousands of computers in their corporate structure.
I am just guessing and I may be wrong myself, but I wouldn't assume that more than maybe 60% (although I actually think it is lower) of windows computers sold in the world have an actual user attached (the % of people in your statement).
On the other hand I would say that a far greater percentage of MAC's sold have an attached user (higher consumer / business ratio) over the last few years. I would also speculate that a higher percentage of MAC users have additional Apple products, in this case iPods in comparison to Windows/PC users who own Zunes.
On top of that I would also say that there is a large percentage of people that do not even own computers. While in this day and age it seems like everything is on the internet, and everyone has a computer, cell phone etc. the reality is that a large percentage of the world do not have these items. Even in the US there is a large percentage of households without these things.
As I said, I do not have any data to back up these speculations, and I know of no way to ever get accurate data on this as all marketing survey data is extremely flawed in my opinion and makes assumptions, don't include data from on-line direct sales, count channels stuffing and what have you.
I am open minded, and would love for anyone to disprove me on this matter.
I also have to laugh when people display total ignorance as to why Apple is way ahead in the music department. They are beating MS because they don't feel like they have to include every feature in the book. They simply provide what most people want with an interface that doesn't require you to carry around a ten pound manual to figure out how to use the darn thing. It is not about the everything and the kitchen sink, it is about usability and ease of use.
As for the comment about bloated software, that is a real hoot when you consider Windows is one of the most bloated pieces of software on the planet.
Also, a 64gb touch is likely to cost in neighbourhood of $400, if apple keeps their price points the same. sorry but I'd rather hold on to my classic until a touch with ample storage can be had for around $300
Admittedly, I'm left with a pared-down selection if I do not have a WiFi connection. If I do have WiFi, then storage space doesn't matter since I can stream my own collection at home to my iPod touch via SimplifyMedia. Also, there are streaming music apps like Pandora, last.fm, Yahoo! Music, FlyCast, Mediafly, etc. where I get plenty of music that isn't in my own collection.
Now my 80GB Archos player serves mostly as a pocket photo album and movie player...
Having ventured beyond iPods and into flash-based alternatives from rivals over this past year or so I deluded myself into somehow thinking that the sluggish transfer rates was just due to some inefficiencies that non-Apple MP3/PMP builders hadn't engineered out of their devices (Sony, Creative)...then when I carried out a long overdue content update and nuked the audio files on my 2G Touch and rebuilt all of its media content a couple of weeks ago I reminded myself that it was also an NAND-based Apple characteristic as well. It may not do apps, and its screen isn't bleeding edge, but my old school 5.5G ain't dead yet, not by a long shot...just like its ever-spinning hard drive (now that I've said it...knock wood).
I have nothing against spinning harddrives and the speed isn't what bugs me. People put their players through hell and spinning harddrives fail in the best of conditions. In a portable device, the odds of one failing go up dramatically. In our service department I constantly see people bringing in iPods with failed harddrives.
I agree about the space, but that spinning HD in a portable player needs to go.
That's the frame of mind Apple has with the iPod Classic. This market is getting smaller and smaller as people download individual songs instead of full albums and thus have less music. Why waste money on a huge hard drive when it will hardly be filled? That being said, I don't see the Classic going for a little while, but I agree that there's not much you can do to it now that it's been reduced to a single model (120GB).
The space gets used up very quickly. It's really nice to have everything on there as well, in case you really want to listen to a particular tune or play a bunch of related songs or songs by the same artist, or a friend wants you to suggest some tracks. Then you suddenly realized you rotated them off?
I guess the people who use their iPods like that is slim. All I'm saying is they exist. If Apple doesn't have a product to fill that demand, someone else will. (Microsoft, Creative, etc.)
good luck with the sept 2010 for 128(80 is more likely), i think it'll take at least another 2~3 years... but then again I could be wrong
I could buy myself a previous generation 160Gb, but it doesn't support the newest fancy features like "Genius".
Sad news...
Apple has crippled the Touch by restricting it to sync with ONLY one computer. Yes, there are APPS which will copy files on and off a Touch using WiFi, but there are file size limits.
The Classic can connect to any computer with a USB port (or Firewire, too, with my old pre-Photo.)
Being a Mac user, I can actually copy OS X APPs to the iPod and run them from it. I can copy data files / folders/ DMG encrypted sparse bundles, and carry them around in a small package that also holds lots of music. I can download music to the Classic, then plug it into any of my Macs and iTunes happily accesses the files and lets me play whatever I want on any computer.
Plug a Touch into a different computer than the ONE Apple limits it to, and if you're not paying attention, everything on it will be obliterated.
I ca
After getting millions of us to get our whole music catalog into iTunes, now they start cutting out useful models?
I could care less about apps, games, etc ... I got an iPod for music. I will want one for music, likely for the rest of my life.
If they get rid of the Classic [and it's large capacity, which I have easily filled - music, podcasts, movies, etc] ... then I'll migrate to another player - and likely to another music system [not iTunes].
Once I migrate away from iTunes due to Apple's lack of support .... I'm not moving back. To people who have 120 GB of media in their library - just importing is a slow, slow process.
If they encourage me to go to another manufacturer ... it's goodbye Apple, forever. At least for me.
In other words, Apple won't care if you say good-bye because you and the other 100 people like you aren't worth keeping the product around.
Deal with it.
Consumers aren't paying more for less. They are paying what they feel is a fair price. Otherwise they wouldn't make the transaction. Just because someone's idea of value differs from yours doesn't make their judgement wrong.
The understanding of economics in this country really is horrible.
I agree completely with your statement. People do not ever HAVE to buy any product.
It will indeed be a sad day if they force people who want a larger capacity to buy a touch (presumably the upcoming 64GB version) at a significantly higher price.
I feel like by canceling the classic we're going backwards, mainly with space. You'd think Apple would come out with higher capacity MP3 players for us movie lovers especially since they allow you to buy movies from iTunes.
If there was a 320GB iPhone I'd be set!
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July 22, 2009 3:25 PM PDT
- apple's not stupid. they're not gonna ditch the the high-capacity classic until they have a touch that can match it in capacity, and that's not going to be too far away. maybe another year or two.
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by fcz1
July 23, 2009 6:28 AM PDT
- They may keep it until they can match capacity, but what about price? I'd rather keep my 5th gen 30 gig iPod than shell out $400 for a touch with the same capacity. Or I'd rather spend much less money for far more storage. Like others have said, I use my iPod to listen to music. You know, what it was designed to do.
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by brettcamp
July 23, 2009 10:57 AM PDT
- thats what im talking about ^^^
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