“Get ready to kiss the click wheel goodbye,” Christina Bonnington writes for Wired. “This is the year the iPod classic will die.”
“‘I don’t see Apple investing any more into the iPod classic, even just to upgrade the connector,’ Forrester analyst Charles Golvin told Wired. Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer of Gazelle.com, shares a similar sentiment,” Bonnington writes. “‘It’s been a couple of years since the iPod classic has been updated. We can assume it will be phased out, unless we see it updated on September 10th,’ Scarsella said… ‘Honestly, I think it’s time for [the iPod classic] to be retired,’ Boundless app CEO Ariel Diaz said. ‘It may be serving a small space for lots of music in a compact package, but it’s already an antiquated notion as we move to a world of streaming music instead of local MP3s and AACs.'”
Bonnington writes, “The iPod and iTunes transformed the world of music, setting the stage for the iPhone and the mobile revolution. But when the iPhone takes the stage on Tuesday, we may see that same iPod quietly disappear for good.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If true, it will be the end of a very important era for Apple. We’re charging up our old 40GB third-gen. iPod 40GB (US$499 in September 2003!!!) right now for old times’ sake (backlit buttons off the click wheel, no less). Of course, even after sitting in a drawer for years, it still works perfectly.
I have that exact same iPod as MDN. It’s a classic (no pun intended). The resale value on it even 3-4 years after it was released was amazing.
I have one of those. The battery is dead (won’t hold a charge), but it still works on a docking station to play music. It’s actually STILL my largest capacity iPod, at 40GB. I’m pretty good at taking apart 3rd and 4th gen iPods, so I can easily replace the battery.
One thing about those old monochrome iPods is that they had excellent sound. The didn’t show photos, play videos, help with your fitness, run apps, etc. They just did audio really well. My old 3rd gen iPod with new Apple EarPods sounds incredible.
My battery is dead also but you’re right about the docking station part. Still love it.
I have the same unit. It lives permanently in my car.
I still have the original with Firewire connector and mechanical click wheel.
I have the original. Still works. Of course.
If the iPhone (and hopefully iPod touch) go to 128 GB, it won’t be as bad a hit – except for price.
Buy one and keep it till when it is worth $1000 after 10 years .
There is an iPod in every iOS device and Mac!
So they say, but to me those are just substitute media file players for those who don’t have original iPods with click-wheels. Of course, that’s just my viewpoint.
Phil Schiller deserves great credit for inventing the concept of the click-wheel. Now we just need his new Mac Pro.
Let’s hope Apple releases a HIGH Capacity, solid state iPod. I vote for 256GB!
Some of us who rip our music in Apple Lossless WANT and NEED capacity!
I agree! Why stop building a great product that serves a niche no other product offers?
Right there with you Mike. Why should I pay to stream music I’ve already bought and ripped at the quality I want? If I’m up in the mountains or out in the desert I can’t reach the net anyway (that’s not a bad thing), so I’m supposed to do without? I’m going to take good care of my 160GB.
Exactly. An SSD iPod would have far better battery life and anti-shock properties. They could either slim it down a bit or keep the same size battery for even greater playing time. The click-wheel mechanism can’t be beat. I own three iPods. A 30, 80 and 160 GB versions. They all work fine and I once replaced the battery on the 30 GB when the battery would no longer hold a charge. I’ve had it since 2005 and used it for years on a daily basis. Still works fine but now just serves duty in my iHome clock radio. There was a time I used it to play language lesson mp3s all night long. That hard drive was really built to last.
I’ll understand if Apple discontinues the classic due to poor sales, but I’ll hate to see it go because it’s such a fine product with great storage capacity and relatively compact size. It’s such a solidly built product. I keep all three in cases with screen protectors so they’re in pristine condition. If Apple discontinues the iPod classic, I’ll have mine for a long time to come.
Anyone who believes that streaming large quantities of music is a replacement for carrying your own music around with you is either stupid or deluded. Unless you live in a large urban area, with lots of easily accessed free wifi, and never, ever, move outside it, streaming is useless.
Here in the UK free wifi is patchy, and almost inevitably involves having to go through the hassle of logging in every time you find one, even if its one you’ve used before, and registered with. Equally, networks charge the earth, and cap data at 1Gb/month, 2 if you pay more.
Streaming audio will easily use 1Gb in a week, so how can streaming replace the amount of time I spend playing the 155Gb of music on my Classic that costs me nothing?
The click-wheel is intuitive to use when the pod is in a pocket, which a touch-screen clearly isn’t, and remote controls can only do so much.
A Touch with 256Gb will go some way to replace a Classic, but true music lovers will feel badly let down by this; only those who see music as a form of aural wallpaper will gain anything.
A very poor decision from a company that professes to have music at its very heart.
A very GOOD decision from a company that professes to have music at its very heart……Because they will give you a BETTER option to replace it.
A doubly-poor decision for those of us who enjoy music that isn’t broadly popular. A lot of good stuff just isn’t there on streaming services. Not all of us give a rat fart about John Mayer.
I got my first iPod in 2002, a 10GB version of the original. It was a revelation. No more carrying loads of CDs to work, only to find I didn’t have anything I cared to listen to.
I miss that old iPod. I wish I hadn’t given it away when I got my second one.
——RM
Just bought an iPod classic 160 gig from Game stop for about $99. Runs great.
do the new ear pods work with the classic. i was thinking of getting one, but only if earpods could. when i’m walking i love being able to switch songs, pause and adjust volume without taking iPod out of my pocket
Still have a silver iPod Mini (2004) that works like a charm.
Current role: playing music in a nursery.
Mine is green, originally a 4 GB Mini. It just got a new battery plus a 16 GB Compact Flash Card. It holds my entire music selection and will serve me (hopefully) for another 9 years.
I still have the latest one but the had drive literally crashed (I drop it ) and I’m planning to install a 1.8″ “ZIF” SSD into it and have many more years of use for it in my car.
Should buy a new one. Put it in a case with a speaker. Then load it with music that was originally only available on 78’s. Kind of a twist on the Victrola.
My old 20Gb 2nd gen iPod bought in 2002 I think I gave to a friend still works. My 2004 60Gb Classic still works and my 2007 160Gb Classic still works (though the first two of that model I got new were both DOA and it took a 3rd one to work) and I still use them and love them. I would love to have a 128Gb or higher flash ram iPod. I still don’t like using my iPhone as a music or video player as I like to maintain battery power. That’s what iPod’s and iPads are made for. All in one’s are nice but not that useful for me except on the rare occasion.
The iPod Classic – is still a wonderful staple and probably not go away for the foreseeable future!
Cool… Now a 50.000 iTunes Match. Thanks.
My 30Gb 5th Gen is plugged into the USB port in my car. I set iTunes to convert everything to 128k so my whole library fits on it. Very handy, having all my tunes in the car separate from my phone…
“it will be phased out, unless we see it updated on September 10th”
It will, unless it won’t : that kind of assertiveness from reporters is so uninformative, one wonders why they bother writing anything.
Just checked the Apple refurbished site and not a single Classic can be found. Plenty on eBay but you get what you get there.
It’s still being sold by Apple as NEW
http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/
This article is speculating that it will soon be discontinued, but it hasn’t happened yet. When it happens, it will be sad to see the last iPod with the “click wheel” interface say goodbye.
Ah, today’s writers: “We can assume it will be phased out, unless we see it updated on September 10th.
I have a 40 GB clickwheel, a 60 GB iPod Photo and an 80 GB Classic, and plan to keep using them for as long as they hold up. I too have iPod splitting skills. As for the demand for the iPods, there are tons of them for sale used on eBay and they still draw a hefty price.
Why so we need an article about this?
Also. Streaming takes bandwidth, something we are getting less off.
I got myself an ipod classic for Christmas this year, but sadly, it’s incompatible with my current operating system or version of itunes. Just recently, I got rid of this old one I had which was 3rd generation from 2003, and having that thing for almost ten years, which in computer time is 100, I’m going to miss it and all the music it played. Good thing I deleted all the songs off there, removed its battery, and took the device to an ewaste facility before it really went out on its own. All websites that resell old electronics indicate that that old thing has absolutely no selling value whatsoever.