Michal Ždanský iPod is one of the big synonyms for Apple. Music players, which first saw the light of day 10 years ago, drove Apple's economy for a long time and, together with iTunes, changed the face of the modern music world. But nothing lasts forever, and the glory of the former years was overshadowed by other products, led by the iPhone and iPad. It's time to downsize.
A classic on its way out
The iPod Classic, formerly known simply as the iPod, was the first product in the iPod family that brought Apple dominance in the music world. The first iPod saw the light of day on October 23, 2001, had a capacity of 5 GB, a monochrome LCD display and included a so-called Scroll Wheel for easy navigation. It appeared on the market with a winged slogan "Thousands of songs in your pocket". Thanks to the used 1,8" hard disk, compared to the competition that used the 2,5" version, it secured the advantage of smaller dimensions and lower weight.
With the next generation, the Scroll Wheel was replaced by the Touch Wheel (which first appeared on the iPod mini, which later changed to the iPod nano), which was later rebranded as the Click Wheel. The buttons around the touch ring disappeared and this design carried over until recently, when it was used by the last, sixth generation iPod classic and the fifth generation iPod nano. The capacity increased to 160 GB, the iPod got a color display for viewing photos and playing videos.
The last new model, the second revision of the sixth generation, was presented on September 9, 2009. At the last music event, there was not a word about the iPod classic, and already then there was talk of the possible cancellation of this iPod series. It's been almost 2 years today since the iPod classic hasn't been updated. There was a similar situation with the white MacBook, which finally got its share. And the iPod classic is probably facing the same fate.
A few days ago, the category of Click Wheel games, i.e. games exclusively for iPod classic, disappeared from the App Store. With this move, it is clear that Apple does not intend to do anything further with this category of applications. In the same way, it clearly does not intend to do anything further with the iPod classic either. And while the cancellation of games for Click Wheel is the effect, we are still missing the cause.
The iPod touch is probably the most likely cause. When we look at the dimensions of these two devices, where the iPod classic measures 103,5 x 61,8 x 10,5 mm and the iPod touch 111 x 58,9 x 7,2 mm, we notice that the iPod touch is only less than a centimeter higher, however, the iPod touch clearly leads in other dimensions. For that reason too, it cannibalizes the sales numbers of the iPod classic and is practically a perfect replacement.
While the iPod classic is just a multimedia device with a smaller 2,5" screen, the iPod touch offers almost all the features and functions of the iPhone, minus the phone and GPS module. You can run most applications here, and the 3,5” touchscreen is just another nail in the coffin of the classic iPod. In addition, the Touch will offer longer battery life, significantly less weight thanks to the flash drive (iPod classic still has a 1,8” hard drive), and the only place it loses to the iPod classic is the size of the storage. But that could easily change, as a 128GB version of the iPod touch has been rumored for some time. It's still less than the 160GB offered by the iPod classic, but at this capacity the remaining 32GB is absolutely negligible.
So it seems that after ten years, the iPod classic is ready to go. It's not exactly the ideal 10th birthday present, but that's just life in the tech world.
Why iPod shuffle?
There is less talk about the cancellation of the iPod shuffle line. The smallest iPod in Apple's portfolio has reached its fourth version so far, and it has always been a popular version among athletes, thanks to its size and a clip for attaching to clothing, which, however, did not appear until the second generation. The first generation was more of a flash drive with a removable cover for the USB connector that could be hung around the neck.
But the smallest and cheapest iPod in Apple's range may also be in danger, mainly thanks to the latest generation iPod nano. It underwent a huge change, it got a square shape, a touch screen and, above all, a clip, which until now only the iPod shuffle could be proud of. In addition, the two iPods share a very similar design, and the difference in height and width is only one centimeter.
The iPod nano offers much more storage (8 and 16 GB) compared to the shuffle's two gig capacity. When we add even easier control thanks to the touch screen, we get the answer to why the iPod shuffle could disappear from the shelves of the Apple Store and other retailers. Likewise, the sales figures for the last six months, when customers prefer nana to shuffle, make sense.
So if Apple really got rid of the iPod classic and shuffle, it would de facto get rid of the duplicates it has in its portfolio. A lower number of models would reduce production costs, albeit at the cost of less choice for customers. But if Apple has been able to conquer the mobile world with (so far) only one phone model, there's no reason not to believe why it can't do it with two models in the music sphere.
Sources: Wikipedia, Apple.com a ArsTechnica.com
Also, so that Touch can be used as a Classic in MASS STORAGE mode.
But as far as I know, mass storage with classic only works for videos, or other files. The music has to be put there via iTunes.
For classic, there are several programs that can manage content even without iTunes - for example, floola. Mass storage works completely separately, i.e. you will never see the content on an iPod.
Well, that makes sense... if they canceled the classic and let the touch practically force us to use the cloud... well, the person who bought the classic because of its capacity doesn't have to worry about anything like that, because if it would work or not, I can't listen to what I have from the touch in the cloud, therefore, classic is useful
But the cloud doesn't completely solve listening on the go, especially when abroad. I definitely want to have all the music right on the device, not stream it from the cloud.
IMHO it won't cancel it, I don't know how others do, but 85 percent of people with Audi AMI, BMW have ipod classic. Then they fit their entire music library in there, which cannot be said about the 32GB version even by mistake.
A lot of people at 35 already have 150-200 albums, and the car fits them all according to their mood. Playlists genres etc. I hope that the 160GB versions won't break for a long time.
And the 128 GB iPod touch doesn't seem like an adequate replacement to you?
The price of such a 128 GB iPod Touch will increase. In addition, the Touch as a music player still has several shortcomings. Try such a Touch controller in winter with gloves. If you succeed, try it yourself with Classic. Believe it or not, the Classic is a breeze to control in such conditions. And we can go further - try playing a song on the Touch just in your pocket without looking where you are reaching on the display. Now try the same with Classic ;-)
And I confess that I don't know if anything fundamental has changed - but the iPhone and iPod Touch used to be used as a mass storage device (flash disk) for data storage. That was never a problem with the Classic - and such handy external HDDs always come in handy...
And I would say that the Classic is more economical and the battery will last longer, but I'm not sure about that - I'm only shooting from the side...
In any case, there are bazaars and on ebay you can buy all spare parts for Classic and older iPods at ridiculous prices :-) And repairing an iPod is a piece of cake.
* Classic handles better in such conditions
minor typo :-)
I don't think Apple will get rid of Shuffle. It is ideal for athletes. It costs almost nothing, compared to the Nano. And control is much easier on the Shuffle during sports – I don't have to look at it, I just reach, feel the button and switch. Unfortunately, this is not possible with the Nano. Of course, I'm not talking about the controls on the headphones, because a lot of people use other headphones, without the controls.
I sold the last nano for this reason. But if Apple should stop the shuffle, I will buy it :) and it's less convenient, I run with an iPhone because of runkeeper. But a shuffle would be good for stupidity.
I also run with an iPhone because of the GPS log, the armband makes sure of that. But having a nano GPS, I think I'm going for it
"For that reason as well, it cannibalizes heavily on the sales numbers of the iPod touch and is practically the perfect replacement."
Shouldn't there be an iPod Classic? :)
classic is classic, I like it and I can't imagine having any touch :-(
if they release a new version with bluetooth headset support, I'll be fine for a while...