Apple to execute touch-less iPods
Ten years is long enough?
The iPod will be ten years old next month, but despite that, the much-loved music player is facing extinction.
That's according to online speculation that points towards the player's steady decline, both in sales and popularity, and concludes that with no iPod announcements scheduled this year, it could finally be the end of the road for the world's most widely-known MP3 player, Cnet reports.
Shuffle off to the vaults of history?
A supposed person-in-the-know subsequently revealed to TUAW that this is indeed the case and both the iPod Shuffle and iPod Classic will be getting the axe this year.
While it wouldn't divulge its source for the information, the site was quick to point out that details came from a real-life Apple insider. Ooo, it must be true.
Apple apparently mentioned "product transition" at a recent AGM and the discontinuation of non-touchscreen iPods could be exactly that. The move would make the iPod Nano the company's lowest-end product.
With tipsters coming out the woodwork left, right and centre, the reports appear to have some weight. We'll find out more on 4 October, should Apple decide to bring it up at the iPhone 5 event. ®
COMMENTS
No. I use every scrap of the space in my 160 classic. Until they can offer me the storage and the battery life of my Classic they can keep their damn touch.
Even if they did, "and they don't" I'd end up carrying what amounts to TWO iPhones. Not gonna happen.
If this goes down, all I can do is hope someone fills the empty space.
Humm I am in two minds about this I love my 160GB Classic, and I am not really a fan of touch everything so I might wait till this is official and go out and buy a spare in case this one goes tits up or rush out and get one in the morning just incase.
I hope they don't kill it off, it's a nice device.
It's the cloud.
Apple are moving away from local storage, and have been for a while now. With the rise and rise of 3G, 4G and Wifi hotspots, it's getting harder to justify stuffing masses of flash memory into every consumer electronics device Apple make. I'm sure they'd rather have that flash memory in their laptops instead.
On the other hand, wireless communication isn't as ubiquitous as many IT fanatics appear to believe.
Another issue is the availability of suitable 1.8" hard drives for the iPod Classic. At this point, I suspect Apple are pretty much the only customer ordering them in large numbers, so there probably isn't much of a future for this mechanical technology. Flash is winning the war in this sector. Pragmatically, it makes little sense to keep the Classic model.
So, there are two possible scenarios for the upcoming launch:
1. Apple are planning to beef up their flash-based devices—e.g. a 128GB iPod Touch—and kill off the Classic to avoid having the two products compete with each other.
Or...
2. Apple want to launch iCloud with a bang, and try to push customers over to a cloud-based music system instead. (Remember, iOS 5 will likely be launched at the upcoming launch, as well as a new iPhone.)
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple decided to do both.
(Also: ditching the Shuffle makes sense too. It's an aberration given Apple's usual focus on high-margin markets. There are plenty of cheap MP3 players to choose from at that price range; Apple don't _need_ to compete there.)
which is fine
If you can suggest another MP3 player, that has 100+GB of storage.
My 80gb classic is on its way out, and I've been trying to work out what to do for some time. Don't want a Touch, as that would have to be the 64gb, which is far too expensive, and duplicates too much functionality of my iPhone, also, not enough storage......
Can't touch this...
It makes sense that the "touchless" iPod will dwindle out. The Shuffle does the job, but the Nano which is the same size with a touch interface outshines it, but at a premium.
The Shuffle is a cheap and cheerful iPod, I have one that I use at gym and when cycling. It's almost industrial, it also takes life's knocks and drops with ease, quite water resistant and operating it is simple asI don't have to gawk at it to increase volume or move between tracks. I also have a 30Gb Video and that docks directly into my VW's armrest and allows me to control it from the car's radio and steering wheel controls.
Another factor is that almost everyone buying a smartphone of any variety gets a decent MP3 player by default, although some, myself included prefer "stand alone" MP3 players because as great as a phone based MP3 players are, MP3 playback does chew into one's battery life.
It would be sad to see the end of the clickwheel based iPods as so many great devices were based around them, like my VW audio system and my Philips alarm clock which docks and charges my 30GB iPod Video, but has my iPhone whinging that "charging is not supported by this device" when docked into the Philips radio/alarm/iPod dock gizmo
Well, technology moves on and I will always cherish my beloved 1Gb Shuffle and 30Gb Video, they've certainly not outlived their "usefulness" just yet.
