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iPod The Fate of the iPod Classic..

C

chocboy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
29
0
Many of us remember the Classic's heyday. It was a dark age for Apple; with Jobs in serious health threats and a then-small company on the fringe, something had to be invented, something so revolutionary, that it would appear in almost every American's pocket. This came in the form of the first truly interactive MP3 player, the iPod. No more lugging the heavy radioes around. No more worrying about scratched CDs or organizing tapes. No more running with bulky WalkMans. It was a new era...the era of the digital music libary. The era of having an entire hard drive in the palm of your hand. The era of the iPod.

And the era lives on. But new, snazzy, young iPods have now matured: the Touch, Nano, and let's not rule out the Shuffle. Now there's iPods that can do everything the Classic does..but for a lower price, lower weight, and more features. It seems like the Classic is falling behind. Who wants a now-bulky, square, and 2004-retro MP3 player? The fad's all touch screen and microtechnology now, and the poor Classic just hasn't got that in it.

And while you'll still come across those who vow to stay loyal to the Classic, those who will always revere its 160-GB memory capacity, the Classic might be on its final decline. It's been left out of the amazing iPod updates....left behind in a frantic craze for the latest and greatest, and the Classic has reached a point where little can be done to help its situation.

What's everyone's take on this? Do you think the classic device that helped put Apple on the rise to become an intellectual superpower will survive? Or will the now-standardized Touch and Nano kick it off the playing field?
 
It's the Classic. You may be too young for this. But it is sort of, and only sort of, like when Coke became New Coke, to then go back and become Coke Classic. Of course that whole thing was a publicity stunt to say that nothing about Pepsi is classic. But it worked. People pretty much hated New Coke and Classic became more popular than ever.

Now Apple didn't do any of this. But with all the Nanos, Minis, Shuffles, iPhones, and Touches, they decided to brand the original style iPod the Classic. One thing it did, is pretty much absolved them of having to update it at all. Maybe something every 2 or 3 years, to keep the materials or whatnot current. But my guess is the Classic will hang around until a time when the Touch breaks the 128 or 160GB barrier. At that point it maybe that touchscreens are so prevalent in so many things, etc, that it becomes a relic. But I give it at least 3 more years minimum before it gets EOL'd.

Until then it doesn't need anything, it's just Classic. :)
 
roland.g said:
It's the Classic. You may be too young for this. But it is sort of, and only sort of, like when Coke became New Coke, to then go back and become Coke Classic. Of course that whole thing was a publicity stunt to say that nothing about Pepsi is classic. But it worked. People pretty much hated New Coke and Classic became more popular than ever.
Click to expand...

I heard this in my advertising class at the university.

Anyhow, I always thought the iPod was what saved Apple from dying as a company. I always think they could do something to update the device. I would like to see it updated. They could always put 128 GB flash in the iPod classic and make it a little bit slimmer. I would like to see something celebrated for the iPod classic when the 10th anniversary comes around.
 
I agree. There will always be a market for those who only care about memory size and functionality, like if you want to use your iPod as an HD movie database to play on your TV. But I have a feeling that eventually, Apple's going to start phasing it out. It'
 
I think it would be pretty cool if for its 10th aniversary Apple update the Classic to look like the first gen but give it modern specs.
 
It doesn't even get acknowledged as an iPod by Steve himself..so I bet they just drop it off silently next year unfortunately.

Even though the current 160GB will exceed the iPod Touch capacity for at least 2 years. [2011 might introduce a 128gb model, 2012 will likely be the same capacity, maybe larger capacity in 2013]
 
I don't want it to get axed. After all, it's what arguably brought Apple back from the dead. Every single Apple product and its popularity has everything to owe to the iPod "classic". Pre-2001, if anyone predicted that Apple would be as giant as they are now, every single one of the world's technology industry journalists/analysts would have laughed in your face.

The iPod put Apple on the map. It changed the face of the industry so drastically, in a way that absolutely nobody could have predicted. In a way, Apple owes this tiny little player big time.

IMHO, they should put an SSD in it. The prices have been going down lately so I don't see why they don't put in a 128GB or 256GB drive in it. Make it thinner, make the screen a bit bigger, and bring back solid white and solid black. Most people use their Classics as a media storage house anyway, so why not add special software that aids that? Syncing + sharing files with iTV would be a good start, as well as scheduled photo/video/music backups similar to Time Machine.
 
I like the idea of a large capacity music player. My 120 Classic gets used almost daily. Wishful thinking here but I think the Classic is a "given". As in of course Apple makes a Classic iPod, that's a given. Yes, it's a niche product, but I don't see it going away any time soon. Really not much you can do to a Classic to improve it except up the capacity. Better DAC perhaps. What can be done to the Classic to attract more buyers? Can you really do anything to a music player to attract Touch fans?
 
Next year it will be discontinued for sure. But it's better like that guys, flash memory is going to increase and cost less, that's the future; more space and faster devices for lossless music :cool:
 
I have always been an advocate for keeping the classic, and continue in that vein.

However, I picked up my old 120GB classic yesterday and (after using my nexus one with its very high res screen) found the display to be appalling, and in general the whole device seemed really quite 'old'.

I think that they should do some sort of update for it (ceramic white glass front perhaps?), but can't see it happening
 
The iPod classic doesn't really sell that well. When I has buying accessories they even had the fat ipod classic 160gb for sale.
In my uni there are 2 people that I know that have one. But everybody either has an iphone or an ipod touch. Many people buy an ipod touch nowadays because of the apps not because of the music.

Many stores in my country only carry the ipod and a few sony walkmans and of course the chinese crap that many companies rebrand. They don't even know what cowon is.
The niche that needs high capacity lossless music players shouldn't even be looking at the ipod classic. My classic doesn't sound good, my old walkman sounds better. Most likely they only exist because steve has a lot of them in stock.

The real problem is that portable audio players are losing market to convergence devices. Almost every cellphone includes an reasonable audio player with an 3.5mm jack. They are even cheaper. I can buy an phone with 8gb, wifi and all that stuff for less than an 8gb ipod nano.

If apple made an true audiophile ipod classic that would be great, but hdd players will eventually die. So why would apple bother developing something new?
It makes me sad that the good old music player is about to disappear.
 
^ Agreed. I went to Futureshop to pick up my 6G Nano the other day, and the entire iPod display case was completely empty, save for my Nano (which I called earlier and put on hold :D) and row upon row of iPod Classics. I asked the salesman and FS literally only sells about 1-2 per week as opposed to their either iPods which sell out in a matter of days.
 
Too bad that ipod classic looks more an historic icon than a music player:(
What made :apple: into the big company that once was almost fading into nonexistence, it's now fading into nonexistence by :apple:.
Quite ironic isn't it?
But times change and minds change. Let's hope that :apple: has something special for the 10th anniversary of the ipod.
An 10th anniversary iPod that matches the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh would be great.
 
i still love 'em

even though i just got my new nano, and have had a touch in the past, and even though the screen is smaller than the touch. i still use my iPod 5.5G to get loaded up with videos and take on car trips.

no matter what they make there is a use for it! well in my opinion there is...
 
They can have my 160gb classic when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers! I use mine daily during my commute, while at work and around the house. For me, I enjoy having my entire music library (currently at 126gb) at my fingertips. Hopefully mine will last a long, long time.
 
Apps, Apps, Music?

blackburn said:
But everybody either has an iphone or an ipod touch. Many people buy an ipod touch nowadays because of the apps not because of the music.
Click to expand...

This is what bothers me. Down the road, if everything is apps, where is the music player going to be? I dislike the small size of the new nano. The iPod shuffle does not display album artwork and song names. Where is the legit music player?
 
The Classic will be gone as soon as there's a 128GB iPod Touch, which is surely next year.
 
SlamJam12 said:
This is what bothers me. Down the road, if everything is apps, where is the music player going to be? I dislike the small size of the new nano. The iPod shuffle does not display album artwork and song names. Where is the legit music player?
Click to expand...


you may not like the new nano, but it really is a music player. not much else on it.
 
Apple is not the kind of company that likes to look back at past successes and reminisce about the "good old days." To Apple, once the iPod Classic has outlived its usefulness in their minds, they will axe it. They have proven time and again that they are willing to kill old products and old features that are "backward-looking." They would rather be looking toward the future, even if future products end up cannibalizing previously popular product lines of theirs.

Yes, the iPod Classic helped in part to save Apple, but Apple's modus operandi is not to look at past products and think "we owe 'em one." It is rather to look at past products and think "that was the past, this is the future."

Personally, I think the iPod Classic is doomed once the Touch hits 128GB, and will probably be kept around until then (and possibly even for a brief time afterward).

-- Nathan
 
NathanA said:
Personally, I think the iPod Classic is doomed once the Touch hits 128GB, and will probably be kept around until then (and possibly even for a brief time afterward).
Click to expand...

To quote myself from another thread:

I respectfully disagree with you. Even with a 128GB SSD in an iPod Touch, the cost will be FAR more than an iPod Classic. I know there are other people like myself that are interested in a very high capacity music player, but without all the other "fluff" features of an iPod Touch that do nothing but add to the cost.

Here's to hoping that the iPod Classic has a long life ahead of it! :)
 
Alaerian said:
To quote myself from another thread:

I respectfully disagree with you. Even with a 128GB SSD in an iPod Touch, the cost will be FAR more than an iPod Classic. I know there are other people like myself that are interested in a very high capacity music player, but without all the other "fluff" features of an iPod Touch that do nothing but add to the cost.

Here's to hoping that the iPod Classic has a long life ahead of it! :)
Click to expand...

Absolutely like this quote simply for the differences between the iPod touch and iPod classic. I thought that the iPod nano could become the music player but the new one just doesn't cut it with the size. Its purpose is for the runner. The iPod classic still has portability and many ways to be upgraded.
 
I just bought a 160gb classic last week! Love it. Yes, it's got an awful interface (the moving scroll wheel was infinitely better), but it lives in my car connected to my Pioneer navigation system and works great there! I would never carry it around, that's for sure.
 
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