“At Apple’s online store, for instance, the silver Classic is now shipping in one to three days, as compared to 24 hours last week,” iPodNN reports. “Best Buy’s website notes that the same color has gone from one-day shipping last week to being backordered by one to to two weeks. At Target, shipping times are now listed as two to four weeks.”
iPodNN reports, “The black-tinted Classic appears to be unaffected by shortages. Apple allowing silver stock to fall low could nevertheless signal plans to kill off one or both models, or else finally release an update.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Some people say that iPod classic is an anachronism and, as a reader once emailed us, “there’s no need to attempt to carry around all of your media unless you don’t understand playlists.” Others swear by the device. Do you use an iPod classic? If so, why do you choose that iPod model?
The problem with non-click wheel based systems is that it’s difficult to make adjustments without looking at the device. I like having my Classic in my pocket or on a belt clip when I’m on the go, and if I need to adjust volume or want to forward to the next track I can easily do it without even looking.
I like having my entire collection of music, videos, whatnot with me. If I get bored with my Top Favorites playlist, I can switch over to instrumental, or listen to some good choral church music (such as the Fauré Requiem or Bach’s Magnificat), whatever my mood. Then I can take it out of my purse, plug it into my iHome clock radio or my Philips Fidelio speakers, and have some good music to fall asleep by when I’m at home or on the road.
My wife has her current 120 GB classic almost full. I keep moving stuff back and forth with my 32GB touch, but she wants everything right there. Guess I had better get a 169GB classic before they stop making them.
Playlists? I have more than 30 days of music, most of it classical and opera, on my iPod classic. I travel widely and I mostly use my iPod in shuffle mode, or to listen to albums which suit my mood. In truth the iPod is a poor solution for classical music – and that is because iTunes can’t easily manage composers who might be listed in any of several ways. For instance, if I want to listen to mozart piano concertos the composer might be “Mozart” or “W. A. Mozart” or “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart”. A similar problem exists with artists where Pavarotti” might also be “Luciano Pavarotti”. A piano concerto might be listed as “Concerto for Piano” or “Concerto K123”. Despite the use of playlists it is often difficult to find things on the iPod and, if I am at home, I resort to a search in iTunes on the mac.
One day it would be nice to see a solution which really works for classical music….
@ Byronic
Whenever, I load “classical” music (or any new music) into my iTunes library, and the supporting data is messed up or not consistent, I just use the iTunes “Get Info” window and edit the fields so they make sense (for me). You can select all songs in an album (or larger groupings such as “Composer”) and make wholesale changes at once.
You’re basically saying an iPod is a “poor solution” for something because of the way someone entered data into a database that iTunes uses for song track info. Well, you can do something about that easily…
I hope they don’t kill it. Keep evolve it like they have done. It still sells and many ppl don’t want the iPod. They just want a music device for when they are running and such.
I don’t have a Classic, but I do make use of two older iPods. I have a 2GB Nano that I use when walking the dogs. The other one is a 4GB mini retrofitted witha 16GB CF card. I keep the mini in my car except for the few occasions when I take it in the house to refresh my playlists.
However, I do find using the Click Wheel to be rather laborious after having iPhones for almost 3 years. I couldn’t imagine trying to thumb my way through an iPod Classic LOADED with music!
I have 117GB on my 160GB iPod Classic which is over 80% of my music collection on it (I’m not finished). I’ve had some form of an iPod Classic since 2005 in my car. I use an iPod Touch in my house or any location that uses wi-fi. Yes, the use of playlists are great on iPods that that have lower storage capacity but every once in a while I want to hear a song or artist that is not on a playlist and is stored in the iPod Classic. I like having my whole music collection with me.
The iPod Classic is still a good solution for audiophiles who would rather listen to Apple Lossless or uncompressed libraries. Personally I can make do with my library of lossless files down-converted to 128 kbs files on my iPod Touch but some people would prefer not to compromise the sound quality that way.
@Jezebel,
You’re wrong. It’s perfectly acceptable to say 80 GB. “Gig” is slang to begin with. I wouldn’t use it personally because it’s ambiguous and 3 letters instead of 2, but I’d certainly not add an S to it. Try going to an IT department and ask for a 500 GigS hard drive… They’d laugh at you just like a cashier would laugh if you asked for a 2 literS bottle of Coke, or a Texan if you called it a 10 gallonS hat.
Another isssue with the S is that it’s often used to shorten for data rates… 128kbs. Some would add the P and write 128kbps, but nobody, except you I guess, would write 128kbsps.
I hope Apple just replaces the HD with 128GB flash storage, make it thinner, and leave the click wheel nav. I would be happy with that. Until then, I will continue to use my 80GB classic.
I use the classic due to the interface! I can go from podcast to podcast much faster then with my iPhone. If they discontinue it, I will be buying a new one before they all disappear!
I actually just upgraded to the 160 classic this weekend because, unlike some, I do feel I need almost all of my music in the iPod and I do understand playlists. I am a huge music fan with a giant library and I like not having to choose which songs to have with me in the pod and which to not.
Love the Classic. Don’t kill it, make it with bigger storage. Used every day in my car where I want all my music with me all the time
I’ve heard from friends about the value of the iPod Classic. Many want to give their young kids an iPod, but without the distractions of the Internet and games avail on the iPod Touch. For those who want a simple device that can carry all of their music. There are plenty of such people. I say let’s keep the iPod Classic!
Purely speculating here, i believe the financials should guide the future of the iPod classic. none of us knows the return on investment of another update to the non-touchscreen iPod. It is very likely that Apple simply wants to focus on broadening its touchscreen offerings, however, i suspect that there are enough price-conscious iPod buyers who simply don’t want or need a Touch to justify the expense of another iPod Classic model update.
Here’s an example: in more than one recent corporate office visit i have made, i have seen scores of workers in their cubicles working away frantically while plugged into iPod classics – not using their work-issued computers by choice or by office policy preventing iTunes on their machines. Sure, they could afford iPod touches, but many prefer the disc volume that allows them to load up a week’s worth of tunes and gives them space for external hard drive filespace too.
I expect Apple will want to release a new iPod – slimmer, that offers flash memory and a more crisp display, perhaps sharing some internals with the iPod Touch, but without the expense of the Touch conductive screen. Strategically, this would be an necessary product to keep cheap knock-off media players from attacking the less expensive end of the market.
I use an iPod Classic because I prefer to keep all of my music (over 80GB currently) on one device and to switch between playlists minute by minute and hour by hour, depending on my mood. My playlists are cut by rating and by date added, so I have “1 stars” (music I plan to delete later), “3+ stars”, “4+ stars, “5 stars” as well as playlists like “4+ stars added in last 6 months,” 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc. I would go crazy if I were forced to decide what music to listen to in advance each morning. I also use ALAC files or 320kbs MP3 files almost exclusively unless I am forced to use a lower-quality file. (I don’t use WAV files because I can’t embed cover art.) I have a separate iPhone 4 and would be happy to get rid of the classic if Apple would upgrade the iPhone’s capacity to at least 128 GB.