
What should Apple do with the iPod? - barredo
http://www.splatf.com/2011/09/apple-ipod/
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dpcan
Market it against the Nintendo DS.

I bought iPod Touches for my 2 oldest kids and my wife last Christmas. So,
this year, instead of buying $30-$40 games, they have been able to buy several
$2 games throughout each month.

It's been a blast, the savings are starting to really show, and they even like
the games better.

~~~
georgemcbay
"they even like the games better."

That's just what they tell you so you don't feel bad for getting them iPod
touches. They secretly play Nintendo 3DS games at friends' houses.

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ericd
Yeah, I really wish people would start making some meatier games for the
iPhone to go with all the 5 minute junk food distractions that are about as
entertaining as bouncing a ball. There have been a few games of more
substance, but for the most part, it doesn't hold a candle to the DS' library.

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mdemare
For "extremely meaty", try King of Dragon Pass, an indie PC hit from 10 years
ago just released on iOS.

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ericd
That looks like what I was talking about, thanks! I just downloaded it. Any
other recs?

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Gring
Carcassonne is also very complex and rewarding to master. It's also a great
social game when everybody sits around one iPad.

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daimyoyo
I think as long as it remains profitable, they should keep it. The R&D costs
are already well recouped so it's basically little more than a profit center.
I understand Apple doesn't exactly need the money, but I think it would be a
bad idea to kill off a licence to print money like the iPod.

~~~
qq66
Apple likes to keep a limited product lineup, so if a model isn't particularly
necessary they can replace it with another product (such as an Apple TV
variant), as well as consuming display space in stores.

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skizm
Please please please make a waterproof one. The only reason I use my ipod over
my phone for music is because I do not like to sweat all over my phone when I
work out. Also for running in the rain (maybe for battery life on a long plane
ride). If they made a waterproof ipod nano that would solve all my problems.
Also if they for that direction just make headphones and a case that I can use
to swim with. There is h2oaudio.com (which is awesome) but I would rather it
just come straight from apple.

</2cents>

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gry
It will become like the Mac business. Routine updates with nothing to announce
unless it's special; unibody fabrication or designs like the Air.

That is until they reset their business.

The iPod product will be rebranded and remain iOS device that does everything
but have a phone. iPod rebranded with iPhone form and function, except no
phone functionality.

A Mac line, iPad line and a handset line. Face it, calling is now a feature on
a computer. It's not a phone with features.

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tomelders
The only graph that matters there is the first one, and no one should be
surprised that units have dropped. They should be surprised that they've
dropped so little since the iPhone does everything the iPod does and more.

% of revenue presented like that is misleading. The iPhone and the iPad are
selling like hot cakes and making a ton of money, but they're not iPods.

Revenue growth at around -6% may look bad, but that just means they're making
1.48 billion minus 6%. If you don't think that's a lot of money, you're mad.

iDevice revenue breakdown.... what's the point of that graph?

Here's what Apple should do with the iPod. Keep innovating. $1.48 Billion is a
lot of money. It's a business in it's own right.

IT'S MORE THAN A BILLION DOLLARS!!!!

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Steko
Obviously they don't have to do anything with it, it's still profitable and
has high margins. There's obviously some potential to grow though.

The touch is basically a prepaid phone with no phone chip. They could add that
phone chip and absorb the margin hit through scale in China, etc. Bound to
happen sooner or later.

The nano is a redesign away from assaulting the global watch market (over $40
bln this year).

The shuffle, I could seem them innovating the form factor, why not abstract it
right into the earbuds.

The classic is dead, growth wise so they can keep selling it but don't think
it'd shock anyone if they shut it down tomorrow.

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ROFISH
I think the classic will die when you can fit 256GB into an iPod Touch, either
through flash memory or a thicker hard drive version. Otherwise the iPod
Classic still sells to those that _HAVE_ to have 200+ GB of music with them at
all times.

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Steko
Yeah well there was still a market for x-serves but it wasn't big enough so
eventually they killed it.

The only way I can see them getting growth out of the classic would be to put
the massive memory to work hauling HD video around instead of music. That does
suggest an interesting iOS device maybe aimed at high end camcorders if they
can find a tiny 1 TB drive in the pipe somewhere.

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nknight
They're probably selling 20-30 times as many iPod Classics/year as they ever
did xserves, even at their peak. The xserve also didn't do anything to act as
a draw toward other Apple products, and required frequent revisions to keep
up. I bet ongoing iPod Classic R&D budget is statistical noise.

~~~
Steko
I'm not making a close analogy and I'm not saying they should shut it down.

I'm just saying Apple will know when the classic isn't worth the
time/energy/shelf space and I wouldn't be shocked if they announced this is
the case in weeks rather then years.

And I guess I'm making a wild guess as to how they might keep an HDD based
idevice relevant although I don't think that's particularly likely either.

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whichdan
For what it's worth, I have a relatively large music collection (100gb+) and
used an 80gb iPod for two years before getting a 32gb iPhone. The difference
in usability was /huge/, to the point where I didn't miss the 50gb of space.
If I didn't have a smartphone and had the option of a 128gb iPod Touch, it
would be a no-brainer for me.

Personally, I don't think anything would be lost by discontinuing the iPod
Classic, as long as something with a sizeable capacity replaced it.

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jcampbell1
Apple would be nuts to get rid of the shuffle. Keeping the iTunes ecosystem
strong is really important, as the kid with a shuffle today is best served by
an iPhone in the future.

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TallTalesOrTrue
Keep it around. Its a hook to get people to use the mac ecosystem. That's the
product that started the resurrection of mac. I'm sure Apple will keep it
around and keep on making minor changes to it overtime.

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bkorte
They should do nothing. Keep upgrading the capacity upgrading periodically.

I bet that in the same keynote as the next iPhone release, Apple will rename
the iPod Touch to just "iPod".

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signalsignal
With the iCloud service ramping up, I suspect that the iPod classic may get
PC-less syncing at some point. But then it would have to include some sort of
wireless option as well.

~~~
glhaynes
I'd be surprised if they spent the engineering dollars on writing the non-iOS
code to do that and integrating wireless equipment into what I _think_ is the
lowest-selling model of iPod, a product whose sales are rapidly being replaced
by iOS-based iPods and iPhones.

~~~
sliverstorm
If they thought about this ahead of time, perhaps developing for both
platforms is similar enough they could add the feature to both the
iPhone/iTouch and the iPod Classic at the same time?

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marze
200M iPod users are nothing to sneeze at: they represent an enormous pool of
potential iPhone and iPad users, and Apple has been using the iPod Touch as a
"gateway drug" for iOS for years now.

The Retina display 16G iPod touch has to be the lowest margin product in
Apple's lineup, due to its place as a low cost stepping stone to the more
expensive iOS devices.

It would be cool if they made the Nano a wrist mounted remote display for the
iPhone, though.

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p4wnc6
They should make it into a phone.

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SurfScore
Apple has always been one to do what THEY think is best, and then make
everybody follow along. They did it with iOS and flash, basically saying "hey
we don't like this, you shouldn't either, so we aren't going to let you use
it." for better or for worse, this has always been Apple's Modus Operandi, and
whether or not you believe in it, judging by their stock prices, it's worked.

One of the biggest killers of the iPod is the fact that the iPhone is no
longer exclusive to AT&T. How many millions of people bought an iPod because
they had Verizon and didn't feel like dealing with AT&T? This is only going to
get worse with the iPhone 5, which will presumably be on all major carriers.

I think the emergence of Android has made all altogether killing the iPod
unrealistic. I have yet to see an Android phone that handles music as well as
the iPod does, and Apple knows this. I think what is going to happen is that
Apple will revamp the line again in a year or so, and do something to make it
relevant. I would say the iPod touch, ironically enough, is the one in the
most danger of being killed off, what with it's big brother iPad owning the
tablet market and the iPhone doing everything that it does and more.

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smackfu
I still see a lot of nanos at the gym, but there are also a lot of people just
using their iPhones / Droids. (And for actual street running, the nano is a
bit better being smaller and lighter and not $600 to replace when you drop
it.)

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georgemcbay
For street running I personally prefer my phone to a small dedicated music
player. Having a phone means having access to all of my music via Google Music
plus gps with apps to track my speed/distance progress.

~~~
smackfu
I just think it's a little heavy to strap to your arm, and holding it in my
hand seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

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rob08
I actually hadn't thought of the rumored new iPhone 5 design as a possibility
of it being the next iPod Touch. Maybe that's why we haven't heard any iPod
Touch rumors yet?

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jmmcd
The ipod shuffle is awesome, I use it everyday because it's tiny and I don't
care what happens to it. I almost never use my ipod touch or classic.

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Apocryphon
Not everyone needs or wants a smartphone yet. Keep it.

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pointyhat
I think they should bring back the "old" Nano. A lot of people haven't bought
the new one as they still like tactile controls and want a screen large enough
to watch a video. They also don't want an iPhone or to pay for the touch. They
shot themselves there.

There has been a lot of innovation with the iPod but some of it hasn't always
been that great. Consider the "stick" shaped shuffle which reverted back to
the old design in the latest revision. I consider the touch-based iPod Nano to
be the same sort of unnecessary crock.

