iPods

Are the iPods Apple's Forgotten Children?

Now that Apple has become the company of the iPhone and iPad, has it forgotten about the product line that started it all?

• By Will Greenwald
• October 4, 2011 04:26pm EST
• 

The biggest news to come out of Apple today was the iPhone 4S, but that doesn't mean it was the only news. Apple announced the new iPod touch and iPod nano as well, and like the iPhone 4S, the new fifth-generation iPod touch and seventh-generation iPod nano look very similar to the previous versions.

Let's be blunt: unlike the processing power upgrade of the iPhone 4S, the new iPod touch and iPod nano are nearly identical to the older versions. Same capacities, same features, same OS (the new iPod touch ships with iOS 5, while the old iPod touch will get iOS 5 in a free update available October 12), same chassis, nearly same prices. If it wasn't for the white version of the iPod touch, it would be easy to say that Apple wasn't offering upgrades, but discounts. The iPhone 4S gets a shiny new processor and lots of new graphical power, but the iPod touch and iPod nano are getting little more than new color schemes, fitness features, and clock faces.

That brings us to the iPod itself. The first device series. The iPod classic. While the iPod nano is arguably going into its seventh generation, the iPod classic is still in its sixth. While Apple refreshes its other iPod and iOS devices roughly once a year, the iPod classic is the same device it was when it came out in 2008. Physical hard drive, 160GB of space, click wheel, color screen, $250 price tag.

It's clear the iPod classic is still selling, otherwise Apple would have stopped supporting it. However, it's gone nearly untouched. It's clear Apple has no plans to refresh the iPod classic, make it solid state, or give it any new features. It's also becoming uncomfortably clear that Apple is learning towards treating the iPod touch and iPod nano the same way.

The iPhone does everything the iPod classic, iPod touch, and iPod nano does, and more. The smartphone functionality makes it a better device than the others in every way, and its success as the top smartphone proves that. Similarly, the iPad does much more than Apple's iPods and offers apps and functions even the iPhone can't match. Apple's iOS propelled Apple to dominance in the smartphone and tablet mobile device fields, and with solid state memory so inexpensive now, the iPhone and iPad have simply muscled out much need for the iPod classic. Even the iPod touch and nano are becoming also-rans, with Apple's repeated attempts to retool the nano and half-hearted attempts to pitch the iPod touch as an iPhone without a phone part clearly demonstrating that.

Even if you don't have an iPhone, odds are your cell phone will do everything an iPod classic can. Android smartphones are capable of playing movies and music and browsing the Web, and even most feature phones can play MP3s and movies. Yes, the iPod classic offers the most storage, but hard drives are much less hardy than flash memory, and nearly all smartphones are smaller and lighter than the iPod classic. The lower storage capacity is a more than fair trade off.

Apple will keep selling iPods, but it seems unlikely that it will work on them anymore. Apple iPods have become legacy devices, still available for people who haven't moved on to tablets and smartphones but not offering anything new. They're a technological dead end, and unless Apple comes out with an amazing new feature for a small, non-cell-phone-network device to have that makes it compelling, it doesn't look like the iPod classic, iPod touch, or iPod nano are going to go anywhere. The iPods were great, but it's the age of the iPhone and iPad.

For more, see Why the Zune Couldn't Touch the iPod Touch. For more from today's Apple event, see the slideshow below.

 

 

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