Apple’s iPod Touch has been mentioned a lot by news and tech blogs lately, as there have been lots of rumors going around about the device – but nothing concrete has been said by Apple yet. And still, fans are hopeful that the announcement about the next iPod Touch is coming soon. However, more recent reports may point in the exact opposite direction – it’s possible that Apple may be reevaluating the iPod Touch line completely, and it’s questionable whether another device will be released in that line.
There are several reasons why this might happen, according to experts – but it mostly boils down to a combination of recent events. For one thing, iPods haven’t been selling as well as they used to, and the line has been seeing less and less success on the market lately. This could be explained by the fact that not so many people are looking for a dedicated device for their music players nowadays, as smartphones are becoming more and more capable of filling that role – and then some.
Then there is the recent cancellation of the iPod Classic, which Apple decided to finally put to rest. It used to be one of the most popular media players on the market, but its popularity has been surpassed by Apple’s other iPods, and subsequently by smartphones as well. Now, classic iPods were seeing almost no sales, so it made sense for Apple to let go of that product.
And in the end, it seems that the company is moving towards a more unified platform with not so many devices on the table – it would appear that they would ideally want to just have tablets and phones on the mobile market. It makes sense too, for the reasons we stated above – a well-designed smartphone can have all the features of a music player, and nowadays it doesn’t have to compromise anything for that.
However, it’s worth noting that the iPods still have remarkably good software focused on a smooth playing experience. The iPod Touch was a different story as it was closer to a smartphone though, but its software was still very good for a music player device. So, if Apple are looking to reduce their device variety and focus on smartphones more, they should probably try to make sure that the best music-related features of the original iPods are included in the new iOS versions. That, combined with proper hardware and good battery life, can easily turn the next iPhone in a complete replacement for the iPod Touch, allowing Apple to focus on one device and deliver an all-around better experience on both fronts.