
Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days? - ingve
http://www.birchtree.me/blog/who-buys-ipods
======
Kequc
The best iPod was discontinued immediately. It's square with a screen on it,
this one:

[http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-
si...](http://www.zdnet.com/i/story/61/18/017591/zdnet-ipod-nano-sixth-
generation.jpg)

Giant clip dominates the back, just large enough of a screen to choose or
control music, and just enough space to store way more than I need.

I travel a lot, it's great to have a separate music device. I can listen to
music and not have to worry where my phone is. I can clip it onto my clothes
while I'm falling asleep in a hostel or whatever. Actually I clip it to my
clothes all the time.

I don't understand why it wasn't more popular. I still use it.

I also don't understand why anyone wants to use their phone as a music player.
The idea of that sounds needlessly awkward and they'll fill their device's HD
up with largely useless music.

~~~
emsy
You're wrong :) the best one was the nano iPod with the clickwheel
[https://www.apple.com/support/assets/images/products/iPodnan...](https://www.apple.com/support/assets/images/products/iPodnano/hero-
nano-3rdgen.png)

No weird wideescreen design and you could control it through your clothes.

~~~
marssaxman
Yes! That's the one I had, until I gave it to my now-ex-wife, and it still
beats any phone I've ever had as a music player.

------
leoedin
No mention of the iPod classic. I guess not many people bought them.

I absolutely love my classic. It has every song instantly accessible wherever
I am. I use it every single day.

It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer
curating your music collection, but the reward is a far more permanent
collection of music and playlists which acts almost as a time capsule for your
emotions. Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of
reception, data, record company politics or what you remembered to sync to
your phone that week.

Anyone know a replacement?

~~~
rodgerd
> It's a shame there's no standout replacement. Sure, you need to spend longer
> curating your music collection,

There's not even that much curating needed with modern storage capacity. SD
cards are cheap, large, and so the only limit is how long I wait for FLACs to
transcode down to AACs.

> Plus it always lets you access all your music, regardless of reception,
> data, record company politics

Exactly. I can't fathom why people are so in love with relying on so many
unreliable parts to listen to music.

~~~
superuser2
>SD cards are cheap, large

Getting a smartphone with an SD card slot these days requires some compromise.
The iPhone has never had one. Galaxy S6 and Nexus 6 are arguably the current
Android flagships setting the standard for quality, and neither of them have
SD expansion.

There are people with more than 64GB of music at CD quality who don't want to
transcode it down.

------
lewisl9029
Main reasons I use a separate device for music:

1) Battery life. I'm a rather heavy user and my phone tends to only barely
last the entire workday and commute before running out (if it lasts at all).
Having a separate device for music means I don't need to feel guilty about
wasting phone battery when listening to music.

2) Storage. I tend to use very little storage on my phone, mostly due to the
fact that I keep my 40+ GB music collection on a separate device. This means I
can usually go for the model with the lowest storage for any phone I'm
interested in, and not have to limit myself to phones with expandable storage
(that seems to be on the way out as a trend).

3) Sound quality. I'm not talking about the placebo-heavy issues that
audiophiles concern themselves with. Rather, I use very sensitive IEMs and
when listening to music on my phone I can always hear intermittent background
noise (I believe this could be interference from the cell radios). I've never
had this issue with dedicated players.

------
petercooper
I do because I far prefer the Android experience for a "daily driver" but
having access to iOS is valuable as a "tech" person. Plus, iOS is streets
ahead for podcasts. The author said they "never saw that in practice" so just
wanted to be a single data point here.. maybe this is far less likely outside
of a tech/fomo audience.

~~~
akhilcacharya
I appreciate your use of the term "streets ahead", I wish it were more popular
in the States.

------
J0-onas
Why don't people get it? They are ipods. Besides the ipod touch, they are
bought to play music.

If I would use my phone to play music the battery would be dead by noon.

If it rains while im on a run, I only risk 120€ not 500-900€.

Not to mention that an ipod is WAY lighter (12.5-31g) compared to a smartphone
(130g). Which makes it less iritating when you carry it in your pocket.

~~~
icebraining
Rain shouldn't really affect your smartphone, unless it's poorly built. My
Nexus 7 fell into a _stream of water_ , getting completely submerged while
turned on, and it didn't even shut off. Opening it up revealed it was
completely dry, despite the case being snapped on.

Friends have had similar experiences with their Moto G, a Wiko and a cheap
non-branded tablet.

~~~
tdkl
Yeah it's surprising how well built are phones nowadays. I was running/cycling
with a Nexus phone which I exchanged yearly and there never were any issues.
Then when I got a Garmin FR110, I went for a Sandisk Clip MP3 player, who was
dead in one month due humidity/wet conditions. Bought a cheapo Android phone
who will stay on Kitkat forever and sticking with that instead.

------
fsiefken
I recently bought the nano 7g, I have a smartphone and a tablet. It's great
for swimming, running and commuting, but the main thing is that I sometimes
want something smart and light with me that's not connected to the internet.
The nano fulfills these requirmenets; my steps and speed are monitored, I can
do a workout with my Jabra sports, listen to ebooks, podcasts, music, watch
boardgame or esperanto instruction video's, view pictures for meditation etc
and even read little booklets on it as I convert text to pictures and errants,
todo or 'scheduled' lists from org-mode. Theoretically I can use an external
microphone with it to record notes or thoughts during the day. In essence it
is potentially an ideal accessible and wrist wearable computing device, so I
am experimenting with the usability of this in practice. It now is mounted on
two 1cm wide velco straps on my left wrist, wirelessly connected with
bluetooth headphones. Internet is overrated anyway, less is more and small is
beautiful.

~~~
snegu
This is exactly why I love my Nano, and I was surprised to see him say he's
never sold one to somebody under 50.

The nano is perfect for exercising as it's light and fits in the tiny little
pockets on my exercise clothes. I'd much rather use that than put my phone in
a big armband.

However, I will say that I wish it had streaming music.

~~~
fsiefken
Yes I was surprised too. I've got a Samsung phablet thing, but it's a bit
tedious to strap to my arm or thigh... even though I do use it for Zombies Run
when working out. Regarding the lack of streaming music, perhaps subscribe to
your favorite musical genre podcasts? For example I have Classic FM, A State
of Trance and haven't even looked further as my old school mp3 playlist
collection is good enough. And then there is FM reception, old school
streaming...

~~~
snegu
I had no idea there were just straight music podcasts. Thanks for the tip!

------
irremediable
Some older relatives bought me a Shuffle for my birthday a couple of years
ago. It actually turned out to be a good gift, because I was always afraid of
losing my 100GB MP3 player when exercising or travelling.

~~~
ja27
Yeah I'm surprised the Shuffle doesn't sell well among younger
joggers/runners. I can't imagine running with a 6+ strapped to my arm.

~~~
tdkl
Lack of storage.

------
jallmann
I have a few iTouches here for testing, kept at various iOS versions. Much
cheaper than buying iPhones. Will probably pick up a new 6G soon, since the
5Gs are getting a bit long in the tooth, and no telling what iOS 9 will do to
it.

I'm glad (and actually somewhat surprised) that Apple updated the line, rather
than axing it. iPod Touch sales must be minuscule compared to iPhones.

~~~
ceejayoz
> I'm glad (and actually somewhat surprised) that Apple updated the line,
> rather than axing it. iPod Touch sales must be minuscule compared to
> iPhones.

It's possible they're in part a way to use surplus parts from the older iPhone
lines. They usually lag a generation behind in their look and specs.

------
bluedino
>> 10 year olds don't have MP3 collections like I did when I was a kid

I felt old at first but then I realized mp3's started getting really popular
15 years ago, then I felt old for sure.

------
superuser2
In the days of CDs, there were units that would hold ~100 CDs vertically on a
turntable, rotate the correct CD into position, grab it with a robotic arm to
lay it on a traditional CD reader, and play it. [1]

My grandfather had ~5 of these 100-disc CD changers, fully loaded, in various
rooms around the house. Plus wall-to-wall bookshelves, many of them packed
with CD cases.

A CD is 700MB of audio. Let's estimate, conservatively, that he owned 800 CDs.
That's 70 gigs of audio. He wasn't exceptional in terms of music library size.
That's who buys iPod Classic: people with more than 32GB (or recently 64GB) of
music who want it all in one player.

iPod Classic also lives basically indefinitely (mine is at least 6 at this
point, still works perfectly and the battery life is measured in weeks) and
can be operated entirely by feel. Nothing ruins music while falling asleep
like having to look at a bright backlit LCD screen to change the song and
getting sidetracked into Facebook.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-PD-F908-CD-Changer-
Discontinue...](http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-PD-F908-CD-Changer-Discontinued-
Manufacturer/dp/B00000K31K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1437289141&sr=8-2&keywords=100-disc+CD+changer&pebp=1437289147111&perid=04RQEYSVZRZ6YMNZREXV)

------
noobie
I am actually a proud owner of an iPod Shuffle! It is perfect for long trips!
It has no screen thus the battery lasts for 12~15 hours! Even after 2 years
and it charges pretty fast (~2 hours).

It only stores 2Gb but since I've concluded that I can't hear the difference
between 320 kbps and 128 kbps songs, it can hold a substantial number of
songs.

~~~
lostgame
_whistles_ I'm surprised, and almost jealous. I produce music for a living and
128 is actually painful to my hears.

------
XCSme
I have an iPod shuffle, and I bought it myself :) But also bought one more as
a gift. I use it when going for a run, or when I have to travel a lot. I like
it for being simple, very well crafted (like to play with my fingers along its
perfectly smooth edges). One drawback is the memory though, only 2GB, or max
4GB for older versions.

------
geon
I use iPod Touch-es for a corporate app, and have just begun rolling out the
first few trial installations.

In May/June we noticed a shortage of iPods, which was kind of scary since we
are eventually going to need several hundreds for our users. It is a relief to
see that Apple is continuing the iPod Touch product line.

------
mjrbrennan
I love my iPod classic, I had my first one for six years before it died and I
immediately went out and bought another. I really hope this one lasts. The
main reason I don't like streaming is because a) I have to use my phone
storage instead of a dedicated music device and b) we have really shitty data
plans in Australia, with exhorbitant prices for minimal GBs. I don't want to
use up my entire plan just from streaming music when I have a perfectly good
music player that does one job and does it well.

------
executive
Kids whose parents will not buy them an iPhone + data plan. Next.

~~~
ghaff
I would have expected that there were so many old off-contract iPhones
floating around these days that they would have pretty much have destroyed the
market for new iPods for the kids. I personally have two of them (plus an
ancient 40GB iPod pre-classic). One I actually use for various purposes but
the other would be a fine kid's iPod. Still, I guess there is enough demand
for the scenario you describe.

~~~
ceejayoz
I bought two iPod touches for my kids. I don't _want_ my kids having an old
iPhone. For starters, a new device comes with a warranty and reasonable
assurance it hasn't been beat to hell internally. I also don't want my kids
inadvertently dialing 911 - they don't need a cell connection (even without a
plan) as first graders.

~~~
ghaff
Understand. I was mostly referring to many families having lots of hand-me-
downs at this point.

>I also don't want my kids inadvertently dialing 911 - they don't need a cell
connection (even without a plan) as first graders.

Genuinely curious. I certainly managed to get to adulthood without a cell
phone but I guess I assumed most parents gave their kids some sort of cell
phone these days. When do parents think that kids should have at least very
basic feature phones these days?

~~~
ceejayoz
> When do parents think that kids should have at least very basic feature
> phones these days?

I'd say when they start going out on their own. Letting first graders wander
around town unsupervised is unfortunately a good way to get the police to
arrest you, and if they're supervised they don't need a phone.

------
pdog
It's nice to have a dedicated music device for:

    
    
        1. travel
        2. commute
        3. outdoors
        4. running
        5. gym
    

Any other use cases?

------
chrisbennet
Am I the only one who's bugged that the favicon for a site called "birch tree"
is an evergreen/spruce/fir tree?

------
Houshalter
I have an iPod touch and its not very good for audio. Often it doesn't
remember where you stopped. You have to take it out and look at the screen to
pause it. Despite there being a big redundant button on the front. It requires
some proprietary software to load audio onto it, which is difficult to figure
out and has some strange quirks.

I miss my old generic MP3 player.

~~~
Superpelican
My BlackBerry Classic (like most BlackBerrys) has a dedicated play/pause
button between the volume buttons. It's one of the things I love about it :) I
can pause my music without turning on the screen.

------
rmason
I was at an entrepreneur meetup group just this week and we got discussing the
iPod. Seeing a lot of teenagers with them and couldn't understand why. Guest
from Chicago who does a lot of travelling verified that it wasn't just our
local area but nationwide. Guess they've become retro hip again.

~~~
chrisdroukas
> Seeing a lot of teenagers with them…

Could this perhaps be explained by a teenager's relative (price, legal?)
difficulty entering into a cell contract?

------
oldbuzzard
The 240/320gb iPod Classics were insanely popular with DJs and other music
folks until Apple cancelled them and still have a strong resale market.

While that may not constitute a viable commercial niche, it does suggest a use
case among a tech savvy community.

~~~
jfb
I wish that the iPod were ever available in those storage capacities, but
160GB was as large as they got. Of course, thanks to this [1] fellow, the
sky's the limit..

[1] [http://www.tarkan.info](http://www.tarkan.info)

------
icewater0
You can put Rockbox on iPods (and many other devices).
[http://www.rockbox.org/](http://www.rockbox.org/)

------
sebastianavina
I use an iPod nano on the gym, is small enough, lightweight, and doesn't ring
with a call when I dont want to be disturbed.

