iLounge

1

Considering there wasn’t one new iPod model this year, the fact there was only a 20% decrease in sales over the previous year is pretty impressive.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on January 24, 2012 at 3:10 PM (PST)

2

I wonder how many of the iPod’s were the iPod Classic with the hard drive? I know people keep saying there’s no longer a need for the Classic now that there’s the iPhone and iPod Touch, but as someone who has an extensive music collection (legally acquired BTW) that still won’t fit on my 160GB model, I know I’ve been eagerly waiting a bump in capacity for years so I can access all my music, regardless of where I am (and the Cloud isn’t the answer until there are no caps on streaming from the wireless, cable, and FIOS - and Apple’s iCloud feature is useless for people with collections greater than 25GB.). I use my iPhone 4 as a miniature tablet, camera/video recorder, and communications device but not as a music device. So, as long as old folks like me are still around, I think the iPod still has a long life ahead of it.

Posted by Michael Bevel on January 26, 2012 at 5:34 AM (PST)

3

@2: Not many

They do specify that more than half were touches somewhere else, exactly how many more than half is the question I’d like to know. I see lots of touches and iPhones and iPads when I’m out and about. I haven’t seen a classic in over three years, and I’ve never seen a 6G nano either. I’m sure these things sell, certainly enough that Apple hasn’t dropped them altogether, but it’s really not niche they’re concerned about and nor should they be as much as their fans would like.

Think about it: they did NOTHING for the non-iPhone/iPad world and still outsold the entirety of every other tech maker out there 2:1 in non-phone/non-tablet “mp3 players”. And that is with actual competition in most of the niche gadget categories (even the touch has the very competent Galaxy Player). They have had no competition whatsoever for the classic for years. Whatever it sold, they can’t have much reason to update until whatever changes would have to be made to the motherboard & chassis along with firmware re-writes are substantially offset by expected sales increases, and I’m not even sure that’s possible for something that applies to such a small niche of consumers. It’s entirely possible that it’s profitable to continue making them as is, but the cost of improving it is too high for the sales volume.

Posted by Code Monkey in Midstate New York on January 26, 2012 at 10:15 AM (PST)

4

Tim Cook said that they sold 62 million “iOS devices” during the quarter.  If you assume that Apple TVs are not included here (I assume they aren’t), then 62M = 37.04 M iPhones + 15.43 M iPads + 9.5 Million iPod Touches.  Since they sold 15.4 Million iPods, the iPod Touches represent 62% of the iPods sold.

So there were 5.9 Million non-Touch iPods sold.  Currently that lineup includes the $49 Shuffle, the $129 Nano, and the $249 Classic.  Based on price, you’d expect the Classic to be the least popular. 

On Amazon though, the Shuffle is #6 in MP3 Players, the Nano is #7, and amazingly the Classic is #5.  How odd.

Before I looked that up I’d have expected that with the launch of iCloud Apple would probably kill the Classic off this year.  Yes I know iCloud isn’t enough for some people, but Apple is not known for keeping small percentage products around.  They like to make fewer things and make them well.  Even if killing off stuff makes some people unhappy.

I guess I still think that, but I’m surprised by the sales ranking…

Posted by Fanfoot on January 26, 2012 at 12:29 PM (PST)