Is the iPod About to Kick the Bucket?

With the iPhone and the iPad becoming Apple’s new bread and butter over the last several years, what is to become of its former child star – the iPod? Last week Christina Bonnington of Wired speculated that the music player line could be on its deathbed. We examine why this could be true – however with one big exception.

Gadgets are only going to get more and more unified. A few years ago it wouldn’t have been uncommon for gadget consumers to own: a home desktop computer, a notebook computer, an iPod, a Kindle, a portable gaming console, a home gaming console, a GPS unit, a Palm PDA, and a cell phone. Now, for many, that list can easily be whittled down to two devices: a desktop computer and an iPhone – while after all keeping most of the same functionality as previously. We think that’s pretty amazing – and it’s only going to keep moving in this direction.

The biggest reason for this is iCloud

The biggest reason for this is iCloud. One of the iPod Classic’s greatest reasons for being purchased is that it can hold an entire music collection for most people. An iPhone can only hold 32GB. When iCloud shows up officially this Fall, users’ music collections will all be stored in the cloud, ready to be downloaded to their iPhones at a moment’s notice. This is a huge stake in the heart of dedicated music players.

Perhaps this will as well be the year that Apple bumps up the Flash storage of its iPhones? We’ve been stuck on the 16GB and 32GB options for several years now. Since iCloud doesn’t stream music perhaps Apple will offer the iPhone at 32GB and 64GB price points in 2011? Manufacturing costs could keep this from happening, however you can bet this was anyway tossed around in Cupertino design meetings. If the iPhone is bumped up in storage, that’s another big reason to kiss the iPod music players goodbye.

The iPod touch is the top portable gaming console that many parents give to their children. For Apple, it’s a great way to sell more iOS apps and get youngsters in the habit of using their products. It’s so much more than a music player, and only slightly less than an iPhone. Some who have portable MiFi hotspots even use it as their primary phone.

Apple knows that the iPod touch gets the AppStore into many hands who might not mostly be shopping in the AppStore.

It is possible that the iPod touch could lose the “iPod” from its marketing and be rebranded as something else. If the rumors of an iPod touch with 3G connectivity are true, like as not it could be called the iPhone Lite or iPhone Data? A 3G iPod touch without an earpiece over the screen would in all seriousness limit its appeal to those who want to use it for Skype calls. Nevertheless if you put that earpiece there, you really have a new model of iPhone. Why not rebrand it that way?

Some have speculated that Apple’s leaving the iPod touch out of the MacBook promo this year signifies the end of the line for Apple’s oddball iOS device. Earlier, those students who purchased one of their notebooks for school got a free iPod touch thrown in. This year, that’s been replaced by a $100 iTunes gift card.

While this could signify a rebranding, it could as well be something much simpler. The iPod touch has a high-res Retina display, same as the iPhone. Even though it’s a cheaper-built display than the iPhone’s it for all that has that 326 PPI density. The withholding of the Touch from this year’s school promo could just be a case of devices with Retina displays costing too much to be thrown in as a freebie. Their only other option would be giving MacBook buyers a two or three-year-old device. We aren’t surprised that they opted to pass.

The iPod be phased out?

Will the iPod be phased out? Yes, in the course of time, the portable music player that sparked Apple’s meteoric re-rise to stardom will probably bite the dust. It won’t likely be this year, nevertheless you can expect it to be coming sooner or later. But during the iPod touch could be renamed and absorbed into a different line, don’t expect it to go extinct any time in the near future.

Having before written for Android Central and Android Police, Will is shifting his focus to iOS at GottaBeMobile.

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