10 Years and 320M Units Later, the iPod is Slowing Down

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jacobdrj

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Maybe people would buy more media players if they would have kept increasing cappacity... There were a couple players that hit 160 GB, and then, poof, went down to 120 GB, and and then they dropped to 32/64 GB flash players... And not that many of those either...

There IS a market for a large capacity personal media player...

Someone should arise to fill this niche, should the major players abandon the market...

(Heh, I loved the 3rd gen 40 GB iPod... Served my needs. It got stolen. My brother LOVED his 30 GB 5th gen... Served his needs. It got dropped in the snow and died. My buddy LOVED his 120 GB Zune, until he lost it... The only thing stopping us from replacing these devices was the cost involved, and now, the lack of available new devices.)

 

xcomvic

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Not matter if you're an Apple Fanboy or not, you've probably had at least one iPod in the past 10 years, or used a buddy's. It's impressive and revolutionary. I am very interested in finding out what's next on the portable front...
 

amk-aka-Phantom

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[citation][nom]xcomvic[/nom]Not matter if you're an Apple Fanboy or not, you've probably had at least one iPod in the past 10 years, or used a buddy's. It's impressive and revolutionary. I am very interested in finding out what's next on the portable front...[/citation]

Nope, not impressive and I prefer my iRiver e10 or a smartphone (when I had one) hands down... there's NOTHING new about the iPod that the normal mp3 players did not have, and now that every phone can play music, the device ought to be phased out.
 

cTs Corvette

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[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]and now that every phone can play music, the device ought to be phased out.[/citation]

If only they could make a phone battery that would withstand a work-day's worth of MP3 use and phone calls.
 
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Creative Zen ftw until i dropped it a month ago,also have an ipod touch 3g but almost never used it,the sound is so bad ,i prefer plain old cd,or a memorex 8gb ,sound quality is pretty good.
ipod have great design but the sound quality is so lame.
 

de5_Roy

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"Since its original introduction in 2011,..." wasn't it launched in 2001?
(i never liked apple, still don't) imo ipod touch may be the highest selling non-phone handheld gaming device. if ipod touch makes up 1% of that 250 mil., that's 2.5 mil. i think. i wonder how many psps, nds sold....
if apple splits the speaker on both side of the display, may be add 4 buttons or 6, use the corners of the screen like analog sticks, ipod will make a decent gaming device(overpriced as usual) and compete with n3ds and psvita. ;P
 

species8472

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[citation][nom]amk-aka-Phantom[/nom]Nope, not impressive and I prefer my iRiver e10 or a smartphone (when I had one) hands down... there's NOTHING new about the iPod that the normal mp3 players did not have, and now that every phone can play music, the device ought to be phased out.[/citation]

Not so fast dude. I am quite happy with my net10 pay-as-you-go phone but it does not serve my musical needs. That's where an iPod Touch comes in plus, it is so much more than just an mp3 player.
 

wingartz

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[citation]Since its original introduction in 2011, Apple launched 22 different models of iPods and the original version has survived in the form of the sixth- generation iPod Classic[/citation]
Wait what?? i've been living under a rock?? its 2001
 

jacobdrj

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[citation][nom]icepick314[/nom]now if MS would bring back Zune HD back...[/citation]
Zune HD, while a VERY nice device (the only legit device with HD radio), still suffered from some of the same problems that prevented me from getting a new iPod when mine got stolen:

Not enough on-board memory. No option for expansion memory. No user replaceable battery. Not enough options (or apps) for media functionality (radio DVR, for example, proper voice recording). I didn't want WiFi if it didn't easily allow me to sync my media, and the web browser, while cute, wasn't really important to me. They should have focused more on media compatibility, and media related features.

I was expecting a 1 TB HDD based PMP by now, and 128GB flash PMPs. Instead, I have been effectively de-supported...

I am sad.
 

house70

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Had one few years ago, had the HDD fail a couple times, then the OS on it failed forcing a restore each time. Eventually decided to make my own with a solid-state drive and some parts from eBay, replaced battery too, never paid Apple for another one again. A little labor war involved, but it runs like a charm. If there were some drag-and-drop mp3 players that would not need any fancy software and be serviceable like that, i would replace it though. I can't stand iTunes, that is the worst piece of software ever written.
 
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@jacobdrj The storage space probably isn't expanding because most people don't have music collections larger than about 50GB, so there's much of a market for such large devices. Eventually as the price per GB goes down we certainly will see mp3s with huge storage, but not yet.
Another thing to consider is that if somebody has a music collection in the 100s of GBs it probably means that most of their music was gotten illegally, because most people simply don't have the money for it - c'mon, think about it. Lets say that 100 GB is about 20,000 songs. On iTunes, that would cost 15,000-20,000$! A mp3 device with 200+ GBs would seem to enable this kind of 'criminality'.
 

jacobdrj

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[citation][nom]bobbobato[/nom]@jacobdrj The storage space probably isn't expanding because most people don't have music collections larger than about 50GB, so there's much of a market for such large devices. Eventually as the price per GB goes down we certainly will see mp3s with huge storage, but not yet.Another thing to consider is that if somebody has a music collection in the 100s of GBs it probably means that most of their music was gotten illegally, because most people simply don't have the money for it - c'mon, think about it. Lets say that 100 GB is about 20,000 songs. On iTunes, that would cost 15,000-20,000$! A mp3 device with 200+ GBs would seem to enable this kind of 'criminality'.[/citation]
While I understand that that is the impression, I do not believe that this is the case. In fact, it is quite the opposite:
PMPs are not just for music. They are also for videos. Videos are becoming a dominant part of PMPs like Apple's iPod 5th Gen and the Zune HD. It was one of their killer features.

And for audiophiles, the reason to have a large capacity is for higher quality audio, for higher quality PMPs... FLAC takes up a lot of space, and people who use FLAC tend to be (in my experience) people who own CDs and are looking for a more convenient way to enjoy their whole collection.

I wanted to convert all of my music into FLAC from my CDs, and TBH, I have no reason to do this, as far as portable media is concerned, because there is no player on earth right now that will give me enough space to enjoy all my music at maximum quality...
 

cTs Corvette

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[citation][nom]jacobdrj[/nom]I wanted to convert all of my music into FLAC from my CDs, and TBH, I have no reason to do this, as far as portable media is concerned, because there is no player on earth right now that will give me enough space to enjoy all my music at maximum quality...[/citation]

With the new firmware update, the Sansa Clip+ supports up to 64GB microSD cards. One player, several cards, problem solved.
 

jacobdrj

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[citation][nom]cTs Corvette[/nom]With the new firmware update, the Sansa Clip+ supports up to 64GB microSD cards. One player, several cards, problem solved.[/citation]
I do have the Clip+. I was unaware of that update. Still no video, but I am glad to see the little ah heck is still kicking!
 
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