Ondrej Holzman In recent years, no Apple product has been talked about in connection with its demise as often as the iPod, or indeed all iPods. Today, the already legendary music players, with which Apple spoke to the world of music like few others before it, are losing their relevance faster and faster. The proof is also the constantly falling sales of iPods. It's an inexorable trend and not even Apple can stop it...
Traditionally, we can take more from the financial results for the past quarter that Apple revealed last month. It was certainly not a failed period, as some unsavory journalists and analysts tried to predict. After all, the 15th highest profit in the corporate sphere in history cannot be a failure, although many measure Apple by a different yardstick.
However, it is important to look at the results from both sides. In addition to the consistently very strong sales of iPhones, there are also products that, on the contrary, are not doing well. We are clearly talking about iPods, which continue to recede from their glory and become a less interesting item for Apple. Apple music players have been sold since at least 2004, when the 4th generation iPod classic with the iconic click wheel first entered the market.
While iPhones bring the most money to Apple's coffers at the moment (more than half), iPods no longer contribute almost anything. Yes, two and three-quarters of a million units sold last quarter netted Apple nearly half a billion dollars, but that's only half of what it was last year, and in the context of all the revenue, iPods represent just one percent. The year-on-year decline is fundamental, and iPods will no longer save even Christmas, when last year, in a traditionally strong period, iPod sales did not rise well above the average for the first time, but rather fell sharply into it.
Apple has successfully kept quiet about its music players for a year and a half. It last introduced the new generations of iPod touch and nano in September 2012. Since then, it has shifted its focus to other devices, and the sales numbers of iPhones and iPads prove that it has done well. If the iPhone were a stand-alone company, it would attack the top twenty corporations with the highest gross sales on the Fortune 500 list. And it is the iPhone that is taking potential customers away from iPods to an unmistakable extent. In addition to being a mobile phone and an Internet communicator, the iPhone is also an iPod - as Steve Jobs reported when it was introduced - and there are fewer and fewer users who want to have an iPod in their pocket in addition to the iPhone.
So Apple faces a seemingly complex question: what about iPods? But it looks like they will solve it very pragmatically in Cupertino. There are three scenarios: introduce new versions and hope for higher sales, cut the entire iPod division for good, or let the older generations live as long as they bring in a profit, and only when they cease to be completely relevant, stop selling them. For the last year and a half, Apple has been perfectly practicing just the last mentioned scenario, and it is very likely that, according to it, it will lead the life of iPods to the end.
While Apple's actions are often different from what we'd expect from big companies, it's not too likely that Apple would go against itself and end a product that still makes it relatively decent money, even if it's only a single percent in the context of overall revenues. Therefore, Apple has no reason to write an epitaph to iPods from this point of view. At the same time, however, it is no longer realistic to avert a steep fall in sales. The only theoretical way to stop him would be to introduce brand new iPods, but is anyone else interested?
It's hard to imagine a feature that would return iPods to their former glory. In short, single-purpose devices are no longer "in", smartphones and tablets can now do everything that iPods once did and much more. The biggest advantage is the mobile connection, which has gained great importance in today's music world. Streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora and Rdio are experiencing a big boom, which serve any music to users via the Internet for a small or large fee, and iTunes is also starting to pay for this trend. The once extremely strong combination of iPod + iTunes is no longer valid, so mobile connectivity and connection to streaming services would have to be a necessary innovation in iPods. But even so, the question remains whether anyone would still be interested in such a product when there are dozens of others with which you can also call, write an e-mail, play a game and in the end you don't even have to spend that much more for the device.
Apple seems to be aware that it can't do much with iPods anymore. Almost two years of silence is a clear proof of this, and it would be a big surprise if we got new iPods this year - when Tim Cook is finally going to introduce a product of the so-called "new category". Indeed, even that device from the "new category" can dabble well with iPods, but for now only Apple knows whether that will actually be the case. The truth is that it is not very important. The end of iPods is inexorably near. Customers don't want them anymore, and when the last three million don't want them either, they'll leave. In silence and with the feeling of a job well done. Apple has more than good replacements for them, at least in terms of profitability.
Please also a new version of the classic with a lightning connector and an unpolished back... the only iPod that Apple does not update, which is a shame.
And with wi-fi! At can be used for Air play
Of course, sales of iPods are declining when the touch has 3 years old HW compared to the iPhone, the nano has an ugly design with an even uglier GUI, and the classic hasn't been updated in 5 years
There is nothing to update on the classic, we have a couple of them at home /the last 2 generations/ and it suits everyone. The only thing is that if I start to spoil and stop producing... it will be bad. But still the best player for a walk or in the car or anywhere
there is enough to update on the classic! I myself already own the fifth iPod Classic and I would like to see improvements such as: lightening connector (because of the accessories), bluetooth or airplay (as you say the best player in the car and I would like to use it without a cable as well as I can use the iPhone) and last but not least battery (even though it's already great).