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Is the iPod Classic going away?

2 points by teilo ↗ HN
In his keynote, Jobs said that they are releasing "all new iPods". Absent, however, was any mention of the iPod classic. The largest iPod is the Touch 64Gb. I hoped that at minimum Apple would release a 128Gb version of the Touch. At that point I could see retiring the Classic. However, right now nothing touches it's 160Gb capacity. However, it has poorly responsive controls and a hopelessly outdated UI. I was hoping some sort of rev would address this. An iPod touch w/hard drive would be amazing, but surely is not to be. Anyone care to speculate whether this niche will be filled?

6 comments

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ugh
No: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_...
teilo
Yes, I know it is available at present on their store. I am asking about its future prospects. Jobs made no mention of it, while claiming that they were updating "all" the iPods. What is the future for a device like this?
ugh
There probably isn’t. They will most likely continue to sell them unchanged but as soon as the iPod touch more or less catches up in terms of capacity (I’m guessing 128 GB) the iPod classic will be dead. (That could happen in one year.) As you said, Jobs said nothing about the classic (even more extreme: he said that shuffle, nano and touch are the entire iPod lineup), that certainly should tell you something.

I say good riddance, the iPod touch is terrific, all the classic has going for it is capacity.

jessriedel
I wondered this too. Frankly, I don't understand why there isn't a 1TB iPod classic. I understand that eventually flash will replace hard drives, but it just isn't economical yet for the largest sizes.

64GB Touch: $400

160 GB Classic: $250

teilo
Well, remember we are dealing with a 1.3" HD, and those are nowhere near 1TB in capacity.
jessriedel
Really? The 160 GB iPod Classic was introduced Sept 2007. It seems like the technology should exist to at least have 500 GB at that form factor (though maybe the demand doesn't exist).