“We can deduce from the 1GB iPod nano announcement that the end is near for the iPod shuffle. There’s just no reason to keep it around with its stripped feature set and low profit margins… The couple extra bucks the nano commands is a bargain considering that you get a color screen with photo playback and a dock connector for connecting accessories… Don’t be surprised when the nano gets upgraded to 8GB and 16GB capacities in the late summer/early fall,” Jason D. O’Grady blogs for ZDNet. “1GB nanos are perfect for Valentine’s day, but 8GB and 16GB nanos would be killer for back-to-school.”
Full article here.
Is “Sandwich Man” whispering to O’Grady at the Wawa’s warming rack again? iPod shuffles do serve a purpose. They allow very inexpensive entry into the iPod digital music world. They are light, tiny, tough, and great for workouts. They serve an important purpose in Apple’s iPod pricing strategy. They may someday get a small screen and a name change, but they won’t be discontinued.
With all that said, this is Apple we’re talking about, so expect Apple to discontinue the iPod shuffle this afternoon. 
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The Shuffle is a low priced piece that serves as Apples hedge against competitors. The low price is attractive to kids who want an iPod and just can’t muster the difference in cost to get to a Nano, it lets them get into the iPod thing for less than half the price of even the cheapest Nano. That’s a lot of money to a 13 year old.
Adults (like me) love the Shuffle because it is so small and light weight. When all you want is a pile of commercial free music for the morning drive the Shuffle is hard to beat, no screen to scratch too, in fact virtually nothing to get scratched.
The Shuffle has extremely good frequency response and virtually no output noise, I’ve done substantial testing using a Neutrik precision test set. The Shuffle is way more than good enough to use for a high quality signal generator in testing and evaluating audio and video systems. I created a custom set of frequency tones and test messages just for this purpose. The tiny size, decent battery life and good sound are hard to beat and you can get some battery charge from any available USB port.
Jason O’Grady knows not what he speaks of when he suggests the Shuffle is going away. Apple has certainly recovered their engineering costs by now and the Shuffle still has strong legs in the market.
By the way, when’s that Apple Plasma display coming out Jason?
Certainly I feel that the sshuffle iss useful in a whole lot of environments that the nano would be unsuitable for based on price, cost of replacement and damage free design. I think the shuffle will increasingly become the second player to those who have one of the bigger models to use for sports and in les predictable environments. Sold as such it becomes a bonus in the range no a low profit white elephant. Tying up the low end even if profits are low is but a furher bonus and yes, a way into the podiverse.
Let’s not forget that it is great for small kids who want an iPod. Lots of parents are comfortable buying something that costs over a hundred bucks for an 8 or 9 year old to possibly lose or break. The Shuffle is the perfect device for a younger child to prove that they can be responsible and still have a nice mp3 player.
Sorry, the second sentence should say “Lots of parents are NOT comfortable…”
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he means the death of the 1gig shuffle is nigh. Same flash, $50 diff in price. I have a 512mb shuffle and it’s super-convenient, without the worries.
Many people seem to forget that there are an awful lot of people in the world without a lot of money. The Shuffle is affordable for the masses. This gives Apple a chance to dominate the low end.
As many have mentioned, the Shuffle is a good option for kids who aren’t in wealthy households.
One of the beauties of the design of the Shuffle is the absence of the screen. As the price goes down, a screen becomes a higher percentage of the total cost of the device, and Apple’s competitors with screens will have to suffer smaller and smaller margins while the Shuffle remains profitable.
I own both a 5G iPod and a Shuffle and use both frequently. The Shuffle is great for its small size and the fact that I can treat it carelessly because the replacement cost is manageable. I use it mostly for workouts.
“Let’s not forget that it is great for small kids who want an iPod. Lots of parents are not comfortable buying something that costs over a hundred bucks for an 8 or 9 year old to possibly lose or break. The Shuffle is the perfect device for a younger child to prove that they can be responsible and still have a nice mp3 player.”
You nailed it right on the head. I gave one to my 10 year old daughter for her birthday last summer and it’s worked out perfectly. She’s still too young to handle carrying around a delicate $200+ iPod with a screen, but the shuffle is perfect for a child like her.
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