“When it comes to portable media players, there’s no product I could recommend more highly than an iPod Touch [sic]. The trouble is, no one asks me for recommendations anymore,” Donald Bell writes for CNET. “When people catch me using an iPod Touch, I’m met with mixture of awe and confusion. The awe comes from the assumption that it’s some kind of svelte concept smartphone from the future. At less than a half an inch thick, the iPod Touch makes the iPhone 4 look like a hamburger.”
“There was a time when the word ‘iPod’ sent trembles through an entire industry. A time when products bearing the name conferred a feeling of smug rock stardom onto their owners. But those days are gone,” Bell writes. “At last count, iPod sales made for just 5 percent of Apple’s revenue, down from 12 percent the preceding year. Apple still has a 70 percent share of the MP3 player market, but it’s a shrinking market no one cares about anymore.”
Bell writes, “Better, I think, to retire this iPod with dignity than to hasten its fade into obscurity. Apple can make a better device, and the company has always done well to prune away products that no longer make its customers excited. It’s time for the iPod Touch to step down and make room for something exceptional.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: First off, it’s “iPod touch.” If you’re going to be calling for its death, you should at least get the name right. Secondly, Apple sold 15.4 million iPods in its fiscal 2012 first quarter which ended December 31, 2011 for revenue of $2.528 billion. During the quarter, iPod touch continued to account for over half of all iPods sold or, in other words, $1.264 billion. Flushing away $1.264 billion for no good reason doesn’t make much sense unless you work for CNET, Microsoft’s “R&D” department, or the government. Yes, believe it or not, there is still a market for a thin, light, Multi-Touch™ iPod for myriad uses (gym, car, etc.) with which we are all very familiar.
