“Apple’s latest batch of iPod announcements was fairly well received, save for a few corners grumbling that the event was lacking in any big news, other than an energetic albeit thin Steve Jobs on stage,” Andy Patrizio reports for InternetNews.
“The challenge for Apple is starting to become what else to do with a music player now approaching its ninth birthday. There are only so many ways to skin a cat and despite a few nifty new features like shake to shuffle, in the end, it’s just a music player,” Patrizio reports.
“‘The iPhone clearly is overshadowing the entire iPod line,’ said analyst Rob Enderle, of The Enderle Group (Enderle is a consultant for Dell, which is reported to be working on an iPod competitor),” Patrizio reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Enderle would actually be right if he added “iPod touch” along with iPhone.
Patrizio continues, “‘Apple has clearly signaled that their focus is on the iPhone and the iPod looks like obsolete technology at this point. It’s hard for people to get excited about the iPod because the best iPod is a stripped down iPhone,’ said Enderle.”
MacDailyNews Take: People who are in the market for the world’s best digital media player are definitely excited about the iPod touch and also seem to really like the new iPod nanos from what we’re hearing and reading.
Patrizio continues, “But there’s no way Apple will get 160 million unit sales from the iPhone, like it has enjoyed with the iPod, since Apple can’t control the mobile phone ecosystem like they can with the iPod, Enderle argues.”
MacDailyNews Take: iCal’ed. The mobile phone market is so much larger than the digital media player market that Enderle will eat those words. It’ll take a few years, but iPhone will sell more than 160 million units.
Patrizio’s full article, which seems to have been dictated to him by know-nothing Enderle, including a bunch of gobbledygook about iTunes needing subscriptions (because that seems to be what Enderle is pushing on the Dell dopes who hired him to “consult”), here.
We’ll see some really ‘obsolete’ technology in about 6 months when Dell finally release their own would-be ‘iPod Killer’…
” in about 6 months when Dell finally release their own would-be ‘iPod Killer’…”
For the second time!
So Enderle thinks Apple’s iPod looks like obsolete technology.
Compared to what?
The only example he gives is the Apple iPhone.
He clearly can’t be talking about the iPod Touch looking obsolete, so he must be talking about the Classic or the Nano.
The Classic is clearly obsolete, since it’s 7+ year old technology. Apple has lost interest in this category, because they know that’s the past and not the way forward. Apple has kept 1 model to be manufactured in limited numbers for those that might want the storage. Microsoft hasn’t figured out this market is saturated and practically dead. (Dell will probably release a crappy player with a hard drive as well).
That leaves the Nano. Is Enderle really trying to tell us the iPod Nano is not very exciting because it looks obsolete next to an iPhone?
Well duh? He’s comparing a low end MP3 player to a high end smartphone.
Is this guy really that insane?
Oh wait, don’t bother answering that.
Hey, The iPod isn’t going on nine years, it’s only reaching it’s seventh birthday, it was released in 2001. The only piece of hardware on it’s ninth birthday is the Sega Dreamcast! : )
So iPod technology is being replaced by what exactly? Why, look! It’s the iPod Touch! The iPod Touch is the flagship of all flagship products. Every iPod is bathed in the iPod Touch’s glow.
Enderle proves yet again that he has chicken shit for brains.
What kills me and other porkers is the fact Mr. Enderle and his
“group” gets quoted in the media. There are many dozens of
supposed analyts I believe are more qualified than he to speak of
matters technology related. But…
…can’t wait for the new Dell Zingy DJ Zuny thingy.
iPod Touch Will sell like hot cakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s the STAR…
Check out the Ad:
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/gallery/ads/
Check out the tryout on Apple’s website:
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/
Toasters are obsolete too but people buy an awful lot of them!!!
The record speaks for itself. Enderle or underware as I call him is a total do-fuss! He’s the only promoter of Windows Vista which is a total failure proven by the fact that Microsoft is now working on Version 7 with no mention of Vista at all. He’s been 99.9% wrong about Apple since I can remember reading some of his FUD articles he puts out. iPods success also speaks for itself out pacing sales of all other products by light years.
Rob, stick to Winblows, because you don’t have a clue about Apple’s business and how it’s eating up market share both in the consumer level and now business and industry too.
I have the iPod classic (160GB) and an iPhone (EDGE, 8GB); I use the iPod a lot more than the iPhone. Reason — battery life; I can listen to it and not worry about killing the battery just when I need to make a phone call. I love the iPhone for the phone capabilities, and for checking things on the Internet when I’m away from home (especially bus schedules and email), but for straight media playing, especially music and podcasts, I’ll stick with my iPod. (Even thinking about getting a nano for workout purposes.)
Hard to be the best!… Everyone looks at you and wants you to make wonders at each move…
@Eric:
Toasters are obsolete too but people buy an awful lot of them!!!
Absolutely correct. What needs to be asked of these pinhead consultants are questions like:
WHY AREN’T OUR TOASTERS NOW INTERNET-ENABLED?
WHY ISN’T MY TOASTER BURNING MY TOAST WITH A LAZER BEAM?
WHY IS MY TOASTER STILL THE SAME FORM FACTOR?
WHY DOESN’T ANYONE OFFER A SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE FOR MY TOASTER?
etc.
Over the past 40+ years, the household toaster haven’t been burdened down with a hundred bells & whistles … like why is that, Oh “Mister Industry Expert?”
And during that same time period, the domestic clock-radio alarm has had a few changes, but not that many. My current favorite is the ‘Automatic Daylight Savings’ feature of a few years ago, because with Congress changing the rules on it a few years ago, I now have to reset my clock 4x/year because there is no “disable feature” switch…a design befitting a Zune.
-hh
Isn’t he the guy who said the mouse was a “toy”?
Enderle is still the most obvious moron out there with a forum.
He works for Dell , no agenda there.
Nothing he says is relevent…ever.
A complete a-hole with an agenda.
“Isn’t he the guy who said the mouse was a ‘toy’?”
That was John Dvorak.
“The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a mouse. There is no evidence that people want to use these things.” – John Dvorak, (1984)
What does foot taste like, John?
Enderlie did predict the Mac switch to Intel about a year before it happened.
Of course, with all the bizarre things he says, one of the most bizarre had to turn out right, didn’t it?
Aha!
So Enderle admits that the iPod is tech!
“MacDailyNews Take: iCal’ed. The mobile phone market is so much larger than the digital media player market that Enderle will eat those words. It’ll take a few years, but iPhone will sell more than 160 million units.”
Only true if the cost of data plans come down over time.
There are really not that many people who want to pay $100/month for a phone plan.
Unless, of course, it becomes possible to get an iPhone with a non-data phone plan and just use wifi for data. Then, they’d probably sell 160 million in a short time frame.
It’s the costly data plan that is currently holding back adoption of the iPhone, especially for the poor folks living in Canada.
The iPod doesn’t have a monthly fee. Once I buy it I can use it without additional costs (other than electricity).
“Toasters are obsolete too but people buy an awful lot of them!!!”
Being old technology doesn’t automatically make a product obsolete. What does that is a newer or better way of achieving the same thing coming along,
So What technology has superseded the toaster? Pop up toasters have definitely made the ones you had to watch yourself, or toasting forks for holding over the fire obsolete. But there’s currently no better mass market bread toasting mechanism available.
“Over the past 40+ years, the household toaster haven’t been burdened down with a hundred bells & whistles”
Maybe not 100, but highter end ones have digital countdown until popup timers, sensors for toast brownness (rather than simple timers), different times for first cycles, halogen bulbs instead of wire elements and so on. But the point is the toaster has little further room to go in improving the core job it does. The same can’t be said of portable media players and cellphones.
Just as the smartphone made the standalone PDA obsolete, the music phone has made the standalone mp3 player obsolete.
“My current favorite is the ‘Automatic Daylight Savings’ feature of a few years ago,”
Buy a clock-radio that recieves NIST radio based time broadcasts to correct itself. Not only will you never have to set daylight savings time again, you will never have to set the time again. So even the humble clock radio is touched by much better technology.