[Nukie]

The iPod killer is already out there. It's the iPod Touch (and the iPhone). I predict the iPod Classic will be phased out and eventually be replaced by the iPod Touch. The price for either is quite comparable.

[phillipxenxciel]

its just good business, every beginning has it end~~infact~~i already see the replacement for the ipod~~the iphone/itouch~~they still call it ipod but its a total different thing. i personally enjoy playing Asphalt4 and listen to music in train~~thats a total different experiences.

[rwin84]

iPod will not die. iPod can't die it is immortalized. It's kinda like Kleenex, its a brand name that has become more than a brand its a standard for tissues. Before I digress any further, it has become common place for people to refer to any mp3/portable music player as an iPod. That is a statement of the products longevity. Band-Aid, Tylenol, Slurpee are all representations of the same idea. You dont go to the store to buy disposable, self adhesive bandages or frozen flavored slush drink. You go to the store to buy the standard. The standard which has and will stand the test of time while marginally giving up some market share to imitation (not duplication).

[lillewis51]

Originally Posted by sziklassy

Well, in a sense they already have. Look at the ipod touch versus the first generation ipod. Other than a name they share very little in common. Sure they play music, but that is about it. It is an evolution. They are basically evolving into handheld computers and phones (such as the iPhone). i think what we will see is everyone will EVENTUALLY have a smartphone type device that just plays music, hence reducing the need for an ipod since, well, my phone plays music, why clutter my life with something that is made ONLY to play music? This is probably why Apple got onto the iPhone bandwaggon. I would not at all be surprised to see the iPod phased out and its place taken over by the iPhone... really that has already begun in my eyes.

To those who are freaking out... don't worry, Apple doesn't want to give up their hold of the mp3 player market. Hell, it is what makes them their money!

thank you. i completely agree. the ipod will deff die out but it will be implemented into new products, such as the iphone.

[Sullivan0930]

ipods will never die. apple will make new products that play music and call them ipods. like dell, hp, any computer company. think of ipod as its own company, making its own products, because thats what it seems to be to me.

[Cody Overcash]

Originally Posted by Sullivan0930

ipods will never die. apple will make new products that play music and call them ipods. like dell, hp, any computer company. think of ipod as its own company, making its own products, because thats what it seems to be to me.

I concur. While the design may change a bit and features added etc I don't see them going anywhere anytime soon.

[egarc]

I don't believe the stand-alone audio player will ever completely die. We need iPod Shuffle's and iPod Nanos for running/working-out and for our children who are too young for a mobile phone.

I do believe the iPod Classic will be retired once the Nano has over 100GB of flash storage and that'll probably happen sooner than later.

I may not have great vision for the future but I believe the future will still have stand-alone music players and a good chunk of them will be called iPods.

[kelticfury]

I'd get a cranial jack William Gibson style!

[WillyDavidK]

I think like some others that the iPod touch/iPhone is the iPod's (in a traditional sense) replacement.

Nanos will probably stick around for a while, because of the portability, but I think they will be less common. Maybe Apple will change the name to iTouch since a lot of people are already calling it that (bothers me a bit personally, but I could see Apple doing this. They changed their company's name recently, afterall)

It's also important to distinguish what the woz is defining as an iPod. It sounds to me like he is referring to the standard model, now called the classic. The biggest one, with the most storage. I don't think anyone would disagree that the classic model is on it's last leg, and probably only has one more generation ahead, if that (that would be 8 generations of iPod!! iPod 1G-5G and iPod Classic 1G-3G)

Honestly, it's already happening!! Think of how many more people have bought a nano or touch/iPhone than iPod classic. I've only known one person to get classic, but 4 or 5 that have gotten the nano, and even more that have iPhones and Touch's.

The key factor in the phasing out is the development of flash storage, which is happening pretty rapidly. Once they can get a flash chip roughly the same size as the 8GB chip in the new nano 4G with 64GB or more of storage, they will probably stop making hard-drive iPods all together. Better for the environment, lower production costs, higher margin - it just makes sense.

Personally, I think we will probably see the last gen of the iPod classic around August '09, and by 2Q 2010 we will be looking at the new iPod nano, in 32GB and 64GB, and the official abandonment of the classic

[czarnachmura28]

.... Apple will say hello to G. Lucas and We will have all Iphone , Ipod programs in 3D = ipod and iphone will never end , its call evolution

[sziklassy]

Lol everyone has said the same thing in the last 20 posts :P

[ryantron]

Originally Posted by tattoojack

i have been to the future and the new world order is led by an ipod that, thanks to a power surge, attained AI and is now enslaving the human race!

sounds like a lil something fron the jpod tv series

[yamir49]

The fat guy is just mad cause he don't with Apple no more.....
Let time be the judge.....

[WillyDavidK]

The fat guy?? Someone needs a little history lesson...

[khaoticsquirrel]

the ipod has evolved into something else, the iphone.. there is no need for ipods anymore with all this technology combined into one device.