The release of the Apple iPod Touch 6G was preceded by a lot of speculation and serious rumors. People were very divided about the future of the iPod line after some rumors came out claiming that Apple are planning to completely cancel the iPod and stop working on new models, focusing on their main mobile devices instead – the iPhone and iPad.
And while we did see a new iPod Touch this year, and its launch has been moderately successful, people are still asking themselves if they can expect to see even more in that line in the future. Are Apple going to make further iPods or is the Touch 6G going to be the last we’ll see from that line?
The main issue, according to critics (and even fans) is that smartphones have reached the point where they’re fully capable as music players and can do the job just fine, removing the need for a separate dedicated device. The situation used to be quite different a few years ago, admittedly, when smartphones were still in an infantile stage.
The devices used to be slow and cluttered and not very convenient for this purpose. But as hardware and software moved forward, the average modern smartphone can do pretty much everything an iPod can, and more. Because of this, people have gradually stopped using iPods and other music players as their own dedicated devices and have switched to using their mobile phones for this purpose.
Or at least that’s what the common narrative seems to be – but the fact that the iPod Touch 6G has reportedly been able to stand relatively well on the market seems to point out in the opposite direction. The company apparently has no trouble attracting new people to the line and keeping their sales in a relatively good state, so they might not have much motivation to cancel the iPod brand at the moment.
Let’s also not forget that iPod is a very famous name and a huge brand, and even if Apple don’t want to make any more music players in the future, they would be a bit silly to just drop the brand name completely and stop using it at all. They could possibly repurpose it for something else and retain the popularity attached to the name, and there are indeed various options available to them for that.
One proposed move that has been brought up occasionally in online discussions is the possibility that iPod might become the name of a new software service by the company, possibly something linked to their iTunes music store/library. There would be a bit of a conflict between iTunes and that service if that’s true, but then we also don’t know what Apple could use the name for exactly either. Plus, this is just a random suggestion that has been brought up a few times by community members and definitely nothing founded in reality for the most part, so we don’t know how plausible it might be exactly.
In the end though, pretty much everyone associates the iPod brand with hardware and not software, so that might not make that much sense after all. Apple are also a company that knows how to keep their fans interested in hardware that they might not be fully interested in otherwise, so even if the iPod does start to die down, we have no doubts that they have an ace up their sleeve that they’re just waiting to pull out.
Apple the makes the best and most affordable “MP3” player, although I use mine primarily for Audible audio books. I was able to upgrade to the IPOD classic 160 GB last year before it was discontinued. It is a SHAME that Apple is still introducing products with so little memory capacity when memory is so cheap today. When you factor in apps, music, movies, email and games, the lower capacity models will not cut it. In addition to the products Apple sells, the free educational and informational products available on the Apple site cannot be practically used on the lower end devices – the user will have to spend too much time using ITunes installing and deleting apps, songs, audiobooks and movies to make room for new content. This is frustrating enough on a desktop. I hope the IPod touch line is extended and improved and I hope that HD FM Radio and GPS navigation, along with Improved battery life are introduced in the next model along with at least 512 GB of storage.(The IPOD Shuffle should have at least 16 GB and the IPOD NANO at least 128 GB of storage.)
The IPod was the big product in Apples corporate turnaround. People who otherwise would not have invested in Apple products embraced the IPOD, which served as an entry point to the Apple ecosystem and the IPOD touch, without the contract obligations and data costs of the IPHONE can continue to fulfill that role. Given its manufacturing costs, it remains a very HIGH MARGIN product for Apple. I would hate to see it kicked to the curb.