Having gone without a refresh since 2009, the iPod classic is one of the oldest products still on sale in the Apple Store. Will Apple finally update it this fall to add flash storage and a Lightning connector? Probably not. In fact, some expect the Cupertino company to finally kill it off.
“I don’t see Apple investing any more into the iPod classic, even just to upgrade the connector,” Forrester analyst Charles Golvin told Wired.
It’s not hard to see why Apple is still selling the iPod classic. It’s the only iPod that offers 160GB of storage, which is enough to store up to 40,000 songs, 250 hours of music, or around 25,000 photos. That’s ten times the storage you get in an iPod nano, and two-and-a-half times the amount you get with the high-end iPod touch.
What’s more, the fact that it’s four years old must mean the iPod classic is fairly easy for Apple to produce now — it’s been doing it long enough — and it’s probably very cheap to make as well. So even though the device may not sell incredibly well, its high margins probably mean it’s worth the space it takes up on store shelves anyway.
And there are still plenty of iPod classic fans out there. “I’ve had it forever,” Michael Simmons, co-founder of Flexibits — the company that makes Fantastical for Mac and iOS — told Wired. “I’m a musician. I love music so I have a ton of music.”
Simmons likes the fact that he can store tens of thousands of tracks on the iPod classic at any one time, which means he doesn’t have to worry about frequently syncing it to swap out albums when he’s running out of storage. But he could see himself switching to an iPod touch if Apple was to release a 128GB version.
Until that time comes, however, it’s likely the iPod classic will stick around. It may be getting a little long in the tooth, but there’s clearly enough demand to warrant its place in Apple’s product lineup.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the iPod classic, or do you think it’s time it was scrapped?
Source: Wired
