iPod iPods will join watch in lumped category

[lydsie]

From the Verge Q4 earnings report: "Still in freefall were iPods. Apple sold 2.6 million iPods, down 24 percent from the 3.5 million the company sold during the same time last year. That shouldn't be too much of a surprise though, given that Apple hasn't really updated its iPods since the end of 2012. Speaking to analysts today, Apple noted that the iPod was no longer its own product category. Instead, it will be lumped in with sales of the Apple Watch when it goes on sale, along with the Apple TV and Beats accessories.

"We looked at current revenue and decided that we would lump everything that wasn't a Mac, or an iPad, or an iPhone, or a service in one kind of category," Cook told analysts. "In the future, we might decide something different.""

What do you guys think that this says about the future of the line? It could go one of two ways in my opinion:

1. the watch is sold alongside current models of iPods which will continue to not be updated or will be updated in small increments, perhaps eventually phased out in favor of the watch.
2. The ipods will eventually be redesigned along with the watch to incorporate some of its software/hardware/features to maintain the lower price and entry points into the Apple ecosystem

 

[HereBeMonsters]

Selling 2.6 million devices still has to be some sort of success, especially as they're all around 2 years old now.
They're just not as much of a success by comparison as other stuff Apple make.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Selling 2.6 million devices still has to be some sort of success, especially as they're all around 2 years old now.
They're just not as much of a success by comparison as other stuff Apple make.

I think this sums it up pretty well, along with the fact that Apple would seem to prefer to not-so-gently-steer their consumers in the direction of Cloud storage for the consumption and storage of music.

This is a very different model from that of the iPod - where consumers tended to believe that they owned the music once they and paid for it, rather than continually paying a rental fee (which is clearly a lot more remunerative and profitable for the companies in question).