Michal Ždanský Apple's financial results for the last fiscal quarter, they brought very interesting numbers that did not only concern record sales of iPhones and iPads or the highest turnover in the company's history. They show an interesting trend on both sides of the Apple portfolio spectrum. On the one hand, the surprising growth of Mac computers, on the other, the steep fall of iPods.
The post-PC era is undoubtedly depriving PC manufacturers of much of their profits. Primarily thanks to tablets, sales of classic computers, whether desktop or notebook, have been declining for a long time, while they were growing strongly even before the introduction of the iPad. As in the case of the iPhone with the tablet, Apple has changed the rules of the game, which usually have to adapt or die.
Declining PC sales are particularly felt by companies whose income was mainly personal computers and workstations. Hewlett-Packard is no longer the largest PC maker, overtaken by Lenovo, and Dell has pulled out of the stock market. After all, the reduced interest in computers also affected Apple, and it recorded a decline in sales for several quarters in a row.
However, it was a few percent smaller than the global sales decline, which Peter Oppenheimer reassured shareholders during the financial results announcement. But in the first fiscal quarter of 2014, everything is different. Mac sales were actually up 19 percent, as if the news resonated with Tim Cook's words in several interviews marking the 30th anniversary of the Macintosh. At the same time according to IDC global PC sales fell - by 6,4 percent. Mac thus still maintains a unique position on the market, after all, thanks to Apple's high margins, over 50% of the profits in this industry are accounted for.
The completely opposite situation exists with music players. The iPod, once the symbol of the Apple company, which led the revolution in the music industry and which helped Apple to the top, is slowly but surely leaving for the eternal hunting grounds. The 52 percent drop to six million units, which earned a turnover of less than a billion, speaks for itself.
[do action=”quote”]The iPhone is actually such a good music player that there is no room for an iPod next to it.[/do]
The iPod fell victim to another achievement of modern technology – the iPhone. It is not for nothing that Steve Jobs declared at the keynote in 2007 that this is the best iPod the company has ever produced. In fact, the iPhone is such a good music player that there's no room for an iPod next to it. The way we listen to music has also changed with the rise of streaming services. Cloud music is an inevitable trend that the iPod cannot achieve due to limited connectivity. Even an iPod touch with full iOS is limited by Wi-Fi availability.
The introduction of new players this year could slow down the downward trend, but not reverse it. It's not a surprise for Apple either, after all, the iPhone was partly created out of fear that mobile phones would cannibalize music players, and it didn't want to be left out of the game.
Apple probably won't stop production of iPods right away, as long as they are profitable, they can continue to maintain them, even if only as a hobby. However, the end of music players is inevitably imminent and, like Walkmans, they will go to the warehouse of technological history.
That's right, the iPod and especially the iPod touch has been irrelevant for a long time. At least since 2009.
Mainly the impossibility of being online even outside is out of the question... Then most of the applications are unusable. Because it's good.
iPod nano and Shuffle then fought only with their consistency...
Nj, times are changing... I have a Shuffle at home, but I don't use it anymore, because somehow I can't run Runtastic on it :YES, I also have a Classic 160GB, but it can no longer compete with the convenience of listening via Spotify... So both iPods have already been ordered. Just like today I don't turn on my MBP because it will be replaced by an iPad...
Lol so you probably only look at facebook when your MBP replaces your ipad heh
Well, to be honest, I have a notebook at work, I don't do anything after work, my studies are behind me, so I don't write almost anything on the MBP anymore... And the iPad is ideal for relaxing in the evening... I download a movie on it, do some digging, handle a few e-mails , I'll read a piece of a book or some "magazine"... I really don't need more at home...
aha... well, if you spend the whole day working on notes, that's ok... I thought it replaced it functionally, which is probably not possible :) but for those activities it's ok of course :D
What makes spotify so comfortable when there are tons of things I want missing and there are nasty audio ads every moment. Grooveshark is better
Of course I pay for Spotify. I never wanted to pirate music, but this service convinced me to stop downloading. As for my favorite performers, I can find absolutely everything there. It's convenient in that, whether I'm listening on my computer at work, on the road from my mobile or in bed from my iPad, I have my current collection ready there, I don't have to update anything via the computer like my iPod. And if, exceptionally, there is no music there, I download it anyway, put it in the desktop version of Spotify and synchronize it over the Internet...
Grooveshark doesn't give a cent onterpret, that's why I don't want to support it.