14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has removed the sidebar link to its iPod Classic player on store.apple.com in the refurbs section, prompting some to speculate that the product is reaching end of life. The device has long been due for extermination as iPod sales have been steadily declining for the past five years.
While the Classic has certainly enjoyed a fair dose of popularity in its prime time, the player has failed to attract new generations of buyers in recent years. Same goes for the rest of the iPod line. The reason is simple to figure out. Every iDevice sold by Apple has a built-in iPod.
Why carry two devices, especially one as a hefty as the iPod Classic, which is about the size of a deck of cards and weighs more than any other iPod sold by Apple? That’s right. There’s no reason to do it, and Apple is finally doing something about it. Or so we believe.
The player is still listed as available for purchase on the online Apple Store. Retailing for an expensive $249.00 / €259,00, the iPod Classic does have one big advantage over its siblings – storage. It’s got the biggest capacity by far of any iPod, offering 160GB of space for all the music and videos your heart desires, and then some.
“With 160GB of storage and up to 36 hours of music playback, iPod classic lets you enjoy up to 40,000 songs or 200 hours of video wherever you go,” according to Apple.
The iPod Classic was released in an era when watching a video on a ridiculously small screen was actually not that ridiculous at all. The pixel density on these things is also barbaric. Today, everything is Retina and even a 4-inch display is touted as too small to do anything on it.
These are just a handful of the reasons why Apple will most likely discontinue the iPod Classic this year. We don’t have any actual figures as to how many of these things still sell per quarter, but it’s safe to assume people have stopped looking at it as a viable solution for media playback. Plus, Apple hasn’t bothered to market the thing for years. When a product doesn’t even deserve a mentioning in the TV spots and ad banners, it’s pretty clear what’s going on.
With the Beats acquisition underway, we should also expect Apple to revive its iPod business with all new players and headphones. Some believe that once the iWatch makes its debut, all iPods will be rendered completely obsolete.
But for those of you with an affinity for the player, you can still go ahead and buy one as of this writing. Hurry up, though. It might disappear any minute now.