iPod Classic discontinued by Apple

[Arthur]

Why buy a 160GB iPod Classic for ~£165, when you can buy a £699 128GB iPhone 6 or £789 iPhone 6 Plus instead!

 

Source: 9to5Mac

 

It only took four years, but the iPod classic is finally dead. As part of the Apple website overhaul, the iPod Classic has finally been removed from sale. The new website has been modernized in many ways, but as a byproduct the Classic has been cut from Apple’s lineup.

 

It was only a matter of time, of course. The last time the iPod Classic was updated at all was in 2008, when storage capacities were adjusted. The design of the iPod Classic dates back to circa 2004. Alas, it is no more. Apple no longer sells a device with a clickwheel.

 

The iPod shuffle has a four-way button pad that looks like a click wheel, but it does not feature the same trademark touch feedback design. This UI invention has long been surpassed by full touch screen interfaces, seen on Apple’s latest iPhones and the brand new Apple Watch.

 

Also, with Apple ridding itself of the iPad 2 earlier this year, the iPhone 4S today and now the iPod classic, you can no longer buy a 30-pin device from Apple even though they’ll likely live on in 3rd party stores / world countries.

[Arthur]

What the ....

 

[flyinghaggis]

I didn't realise they still even made it TBH. Given virtually all phones can now store/play MP3's so there's no real need for a dedicated device. Especially when you have Spotify and other streaming services available .

[rickjames]

I didn't realise they still even made it TBH. Given virtually all phones can now store/play MP3's so there's no real need for a dedicated device. Especially when you have Spotify and other streaming services available .

 

When you have so much music and you don't want to pay for a subscription streaming service then there will always be a need. I have a 160gb that goes around with me everywhere.

 

Also smartphone battery life is rubbish.

[FN-GM]

Do you really like all 160GB of that music?

[Arthur]

Given virtually all phones can now store/play MP3s so there's no real need for a dedicated device. Especially when you have Spotify and other streaming services available .

Given that it is impossible to control an Android smartphone through the MFSW in most cars, an iPod is still useful to have.

 

The iPod Classic also has more space than most smartphones and streaming services like Spotify don't always have every track or album you want to listen to.

 

If you wanted to, you could even upgrade the HDD inside the iPod with a 1TB mSATA SSD.

[3s-gtech]

I have a Classic that has had the HDD swapped out for a CF card. 32GB, much quicker and better battery life. As all my accessories are 30 pin, so the old model makes more sense to me - much better than using the headphone jack in car as it charges without a ground loop buzzing through the speakers.

[synaesthesia]

Even with the above in mind, I still don't believe they should exist. In very the same reason the last generation of gaming consoles shouldn't exist, but it's all money money money!

[Norphy]

Do you really like all 160GB of that music?

 

What's the point in having music that you don't like?

[Garacesh]

I didn't realise they still even made it TBH. Given virtually all phones can now store/play MP3's so there's no real need for a dedicated device. Especially when you have Spotify and other streaming services available .

 

Smartphone battery life is terrible if you use it as an MP3 player.. If my phone is broken, lost, stolen, forgotten or otherwise indisposed, I still have my music and vice versa.

 

I have a 4GB Sansa Clipp mp3 player. Cost me about £40, cheap, robust, reliable and carries a MicroSD slot so I can improve it to whatever size I like (I think I have a 16gb card in at the moment). This is the second one I bought after my first one (that I'd used for about 6 years) finally died on me. Better product life than a phone, better battery life than using a phone, much more discreet. There's a multitude of reasons to have separate devices.

[FN-GM]

What's the point in having music that you don't like?

 

That's what I am thinking. But some people buy the 160GB fill it with all the full albums including stuff they don't like.

[synaesthesia]

like U2?

[rich_tech]

I still have my dead iPod Classic 4th Generation here, had some serious overheating problems and burnt out within about 9 months and the replacement lasted about another three years before the disk went bang. I have a couple of USB players now for my walking, but it is a sad day to see a product like this die a death, same as my sisters creative Zen player !

[3s-gtech]

If the disk is dead, get on Ebay to buy a ZIF to CF adaptor, buy a decent sized CF card and some spudgers to open it, and crack it open! They're pretty cool when upgraded.

[spacebar]

I only realised yesterday that the first ever iPod has a real HDD. I always assumed it was a very small (by today's standards) flash drive .

[Norphy]

Back when the iPod was first released, 5GB would have been huge for a flash drive. You could barely get them at 128MB at a half decent price. To get anything bigger, you needed the likes of IBM Microdrives, a magnetic hard drive in a CF case or a 1.8" or 2.5" hard drive. This is why early MP3 players were either tiny or had mechanical hard drives in them. Edited September 15, 2014 by Norphy

[Arthur]

I only realised yesterday that the first ever iPod has a real HDD. I always assumed it was a very small (by today's standards) flash drive .

I bought a second gen. iPod when it was released in 2002 and this had a 20GB HDD. Even today this is more space than a lot of smartphones have.

[synaesthesia]

Used to refurbish these quite often with the 1.5" drives. The drives came in really rather short supply at the time (this must have been 2007ish) but I had a pallet full of Toshiba Portege R100 (yes, the notebooks that were thinner, lighter and better than the Macbook Air which was the thinnest notebook ever apparently) that used the same drives. The Porteges ended up with CF cards in them and had a nice batch of drives (usually 20 or 30gb) for the iPods, which sold quite well.