Any Classic Rumors???

[dukesup1978]

Looking to invest in a new Classic, but would hate to do so if a new one may be released soon. I know there is no way to know for certain, but IYO, you think there's any chance a new Classic will be released this year? In the past they've always been released in Sept/Oct, is there still a chance it could be released in this month of Oct? A new Classic was not introduced this year with the other ipods, so I think it is unlikely a new will be introduced in 2010, however, I did want to hear others opinions on the possibility.

[The Intruder]

I think it is very safe to say apple will NOT release a new classic this year, i will actually be surprised if they ever release a new classic.
A lot of my friends have classics so i too will not like to see it die.
i was actually thinking about buying a second hand classic just because i know they will be extinct in a couple of years and it will be hard to get my hands on one.
Lets just hope that Steve ###ot Jobs will be nice and update the classic for it's 10th anniversary.

[Doberman211]

I have only read the first page so forgive my repeating things, but here's why it would be stupid to discontinue the classic.

1. Lots of people (like myself) HATE the constant need to take the iPod out of your pocket and look at the screen to click play or pause.

2. Its a damn iPod people! You don't need to have tons of games and the Internet and the ability to check your email. That's something for a phone or a computer. Anyone who disagrees is a 13 year old who needs a kick in the pants.

3. It's heavy. I need it to have weight. The new iPod nanos, I tried out my friends and it fell off the table when it was charging. When it has less weight than the charging chord, there's a problem. Some people need it to have weight so I know I didn't lose it somewhere during the day.

4. Industrial strength. I don't know about you, but I've dropped my 80GB from 6 feet up and it was fine. You ever try that with your weak touches? I think not. The screen would crack into millions of pieces even with a case. I live in Canada, so there's snow for half the year. Never had a problem with it, never will.

5. Capacity. I recently upgraded to a 160 gig when I was fearing they would be discontinued, and I shall never forget it. My friends were telling me to get the touch, but I stick with the classics. And gues what? My friend got an iPod touch three weeks later, and his screen cracked! Big surprise. Anyways, I have a 90GB librairy for just music. And I listen to ALL of it. I'm not getting stuck with a 32 GB touch screen that I would probably break before walking out of the store with it. And I have something called a laptop for the email checking. Capacity is the most important aspect for many. The classic will beat anything in that aspect.

The classic came first, and some need it. Some just prefer it over the touch. The only reason the touch is being sold at such an alarming rate is that all the pre - teens beg their parents for one until they get one and break it then want another one. It looks new is the only reason.

When you think iPod, you think click wheel and small screen. Some would like it to stay that way. That is all and thank you for your time.

And I am writing this from the iPad so forgive any typos.

[kornchild2002]

Originally Posted by Doberman211

1. Lots of people (like myself) HATE the constant need to take the iPod out of your pocket and look at the screen to click play or pause..

They obviously don't mind this aspect now as the iPod touch has become Apple's flagship model. Even the new nano, which most people are really digging, drops the old design.

Originally Posted by Doberman211

2. Its a damn iPod people! You don't need to have tons of games and the Internet and the ability to check your email. That's something for a phone or a computer. Anyone who disagrees is a 13 year old who needs a kick in the pants.

I guess I am just some 13-year-old then. Yes, it is an iPod but adding more features to electronics is something that drives the business. Where would we be now if people had said "its just a computer, you don't need more than 4GB of storage. What are you going to do, store EVERYTHING?" Where would we be if Apple had said "its just an iPod, who needs more than 10GB of storage? Only obsessed 13-year-old kids want to carry around more than 10GB of music!"? We would still be in the dark ages.

Originally Posted by Doberman211

3. It's heavy. I need it to have weight.

The key line there is "I." You need to have that extra weight. Apple and the rest of the industry keeps pushing size and weight down while the market keeps buying up the products.

Originally Posted by Doberman211

4. Industrial strength. I don't know about you, but I've dropped my 80GB from 6 feet up and it was fine. You ever try that with your weak touches?

Yes, we all know that a hard drive is a lot better than having any type of solid state storage. Who needs that when I can have spinning disks and a needle reading data? I know people, including myself, who have dropped a hard drive iPod from 2 ft off the ground and had the hard drive give out. I also dropped my 1G iPod touch quite a bit and it was always fine. The ability for an iPod to survive a drop has more to do with how it lands, what it was doing at the time (drop ANY hard drive iPod from 2 ft+ while the hard drive is actually spinning and it will likely die), and what type of case is protecting it.

Originally Posted by Doberman211

The classic came first, and some need it. Some just prefer it over the touch. The only reason the touch is being sold at such an alarming rate is that all the pre - teens beg their parents for one until they get one and break it then want another one. It looks new is the only reason.

So I guess you completed extensive market research before making that claim? The point is that smaller, touch screen devices with more features keep driving the market. Gone are the days when everyone had to carry around absolutely every song in their collection. Like it or not, that is an extreme niche market now. Most iPod sales are taken up by the iPod nano, touch, shuffle, and the classic coming in either slightly above the shuffle or dead last. I can already tell you that there aren't that many "pre-teens" to make up the sales numbers for the iPod nano and touch.

My point is that yes, there is still a market for the iPod classic. Apple would have completely killed the classic this year if there wasn't some type of market for it. The market is definitely a minority and represents only a very small percentage of iPod sales. Trying to insult iPod touch owners does not do anything to solidify your claims (which revolve around your personal opinion). There are facts and there are opinions. It is fine if you want to keep supporting the iPod classic. Just know that not every iPod touch owner is a "pre-teen" or someone who is 13 years old. Wait, doesn't that make us iPod touch owners all teenagers? Last time I checked, the age of thirteen made someone a teenager. So are we all teenagers or pre-teens?

[lepht]

Originally Posted by Doberman211

5. Capacity. I recently upgraded to a 160 gig when I was fearing they would be discontinued, and I shall never forget it. My friends were telling me to get the touch, but I stick with the classics. And gues what? My friend got an iPod touch three weeks later, and his screen cracked! Big surprise. Anyways, I have a 90GB librairy for just music. And I listen to ALL of it. I'm not getting stuck with a 32 GB touch screen that I would probably break before walking out of the store with it. And I have something called a laptop for the email checking. Capacity is the most important aspect for many. The classic will beat anything in that aspect.

Capacity will not be nearly as important when apps like Audiogalaxy are out there. I have 90 gigs worth of music and a 16gig 3g with only 5 gigs of music on it. With Audiogalaxy, i can stream anything from my collection over 3g and wifi so i don't have to waste time picking and choosing what to add and take off my iphone.

[skruggie]

Originally Posted by lepht

Capacity will not be nearly as important when apps like Audiogalaxy are out there. I have 90 gigs worth of music and a 16gig 3g with only 5 gigs of music on it. With Audiogalaxy, i can stream anything from my collection over 3g and wifi so i don't have to waste time picking and choosing what to add and take off my iphone.

I don't like to stream because it screws with my play count, and messes up my smart playlists. I do occasionally stramonium to my iPad from home because of convenience, but that will never be the main way I listen yo music for this reason.

[lepht]

i guess to each his own. i only care about hearing the music and having a proper album cover. I am sure that one day a streaming service could update playcounts and be able to use smart playlists. I would hope/assume that iTunes will one day have a streaming function.

[kornchild2002]

Straming won't be an option for a while as it requires an always on data connection and that consumes mass amounts of data and battery. That 2 GB of data offered by at&t won't last long if people are always streaming their audio content. On-board storage is still the best option for accessing media on a device. Streaming might be a viable option if we get devices that can go for 40 hours on a single charge while having widespread 3G coverage (something not offered by at&t).

[dragon_dude]

I think they are going to make it a bit like the itouch. You can view stuff by multi touch and they are going to make it faster

[Sticky111]

i would love to have a stock ipod thats strictly for music and has a massive HDD. i wish they would have a different hard drive because the lag really is annoying. i have two 240 gb ipod 5th gen ipods. i use one and it has 163 gigs on it.

[frodoboom]

If that's true then what in the name of all that is holy is stoping them from putting a wifi card in the classic? nothing! they could do it if they wanted and don't tell me they can't. the emate had wireless-b and it did absolutely nothing with it. They could even put a GPS in the ipod classic if they wanted to; heck; why don't they put fm radio in it like they did with the nano. My point is that it would be too easy to enable the ipod classic to run "apps" like it runs ipod click wheel games or be able to access the itunes store or run pandora. They are just to slow to figure that out. It would be a breakthrough to have say a 500gb ipod that you could download a whole bunch of whatever on there. I'd go for it in ten seconds, but i guess that's what i've been doing since i bought the first ipod.

[kornchild2002]

The issue is not whether Apple can physically design something like that or not (as they can), the main problem comes from the actual design. A device with a fast processor (something that would be needed, the ARM chips in the iPod classic are way too slow to do anything complex), extremely large hard drive (you do realize 500GB drives are still 2.5" in size?), wi-fi/FM/bluetooth antenna, a large display (what would be the point of having all those features on something with a 1.5" screen?), and a battery to power all of that would be as large as TI-89 graphing calculator.

Apple, for better or worse, has focused on shrinking the size of each and every iPod line throughout the years. The 3G iPod from 2003 was a little smaller than the 1G and 2G models, the 4G was a little smaller than the 3G, the 5G was substantially thinner than the 4G, the 5.5G had an 80GB hard drive in the same form factor as the previous 60GB 5G, the iPod classic in 2007 was a hair thinner than the 5 and 5.5G, and so on. Making something gargantuan (such as what you described) would be a complete step backwards.

Also, devices like that aren't very successful. They demand high prices, their large sizes turn people away, and the competition continues to make products like this with little success. RCA tried it back in 2003 (albeit without wi-fi) and it flopped, Archos continues to do something like this by making small tablet PCs (with 3-4" displays) running Android but they all fail, etc.

There is no doubt a market out there for high capacity portable players but they are an extreme niche these days compared to the majority of the music consuming community. Turning the iPod classic into a tablet with a hard drive (that is exactly what you described) is something that Apple will do and that won't save the classic line. If anything, that would be a sure way to kill it off.

The iPod touch will eventually have capacities larger than 64GB so any discussion of a renovated classic is moot at this point. Apple pretty much killed off the classic in 2010 and they aren't showing any signs of changing that. The iPod product line shown off at the end of Steve's presentation in September 2010 was the only iPod line that will continue to receive updated releases: the iPod shuffle, iPod nano, and iPod touch.

[AMarie22]

Personally i sold my 32gb iPod Touch FOR a 160gb Classic. I totally agree with the color choices. A larger screen would be nice... I think they need to make more cases for the classic. The apple store in my town has 1 case. That looks like crap.

If you haven't bought a classic yet, do so. I doubt we have much longer.