“Apple may be doing what the rest of the electronics industry has so far been unable to do: kill off the iPod,” Dan Warne writes for APC Magazine.

“Apple’s charismatic CEO Steve Jobs has announced he will sell the iPhone worldwide for $US199 — a move that he said would make the iPhone more affordable and therefore more able to compete for all mobile users’ business rather than just the high-end,” Warne writes.

“But Apple’s premium pricing of the first-generation iPhone was no mistake. Apple knew that if its most powerful iPod — the iPhone — was cheaper than other iPods, consumers would be confused and ultimately iPods would appear to be devalued,” Warne writes.

“An 8GB iPhone will, in fact, end up costing about the same amount as an iPod nano — a strategy that’s clearly designed to attack other smartphone companies, but may, along the way, kill off sales of the iPod,” Warne writes.

“Naturally, no-one’s game to suggest that the iPod will die-off altogether any time soon,” Warne writes. “There will always be a market for small iPod devices for jogging, leave-in-the-car iPods for car entertainment and so on. But it’s likely that the iPhone may become the replacement for many people’s iPod and mobile phone — bad news for other handset makers.”

More in the full article here.