Do you have a box or desk drawer somewhere in your home that is filled with a few outdated products? I just checked, and the corner drawer in the kitchen– the one with batteries and cables– had three old iPods inside.
After a search elsewhere, Nathan and I came up with three more iPods, including an iPod Touch we completely forgot about. Two iPod nanos, a Touch, an iPod shuffle, a very old iPod Mini, and a click-wheel iPod with Firewire. What’s going on with iPod? Nothing.
iPod Neglect
Apple saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall long before the iPhone debuted in 2007. Remember ROKR? Think of it as a mediocre cellphone with iTunes capability. Apple knew the smartphone era would eclipse the iPod and it did.
Apple has this strange history of neglecting products that were modestly acceptable four or five years ago. Mac mini. Mac Pro. MacBook Air. iPod Touch was updated last in 2015. Basically, it is a very old, very mini iPad mini, and uses an Apple A8 CPU (today’s iPhone has an A12 Bionic).
What happened to iPod Touch?
Neglect.
Oh, and the fact that continually upgrading the device to match technology in iPad and iPhone would have created a handheld device that would not be affordable. Today, iPod Touch has an old CPU, two old cameras, an old and small display, five colors, and two options for storage. 32GB for $199, and $128GB for $299.
Overpriced? Probably.
Earlier this week Apple sold the last remaining stock of iPhone SE models for $299. Which would you prefer to have for $299? iPhone SE or iPod Touch?
Is there a market for iPod Touch?
No. Or, at least, not much of a market, and certainly not enough of a market for Apple to do anything except to resort to an old habit and sell old technology and call it new. A new 9.7-inch iPad starts at $329. An aging iPad mini at half that size is available for $399.
What’s wrong with that picture?
Apple seems to relish the fact that it can sell old technology as if it is new and nobody will be able to tell the difference.
That iPod Touch is all but dead is sad. Apple leaving old products on the vine instead of growing new ones or pruning dead branches is sad, too.
Sad.
Javier Gallardo Vía says
Yes, totally agree.
But… what if a new iPod Touch were cellular-SIM capable, just for data (VoIP…) ?
willis says
This is a great idea but starts to make the iPod touch a bit expensive. Cellular capable iPads are $130 more than Wi-Fi only. If Apple could get the price tag down to below $300 for entry level, great, but I won’t hold my breath.