The demise of this iPod is greatly exaggerated
Since Woz spouted off about the death of the iPod in an interview yesterday, some pundits are all a-twitter about what this means for the world’s favorite media player. While I can’t argue with the fact that the devices have become commoditized to within an inch of being useless (the change from Wolfson Audio to Crystal DACs is just one of a number of cheapening moves Apple has inflicted upon the little devices), they will continue to have a presence in everyone’s go bag for years to come.
And here’s why: They’re not just about the music, stupid.
Well, not anymore, anyway. Big Steve’s infamous sound-byte about why the iPod would never play video was proven false almost as soon as it was uttered. Since then, the iPod has transmogrified itself into a full-fledged portable computer. I think the response has been fairly unanimous in praise for the new format and capabilities. The App store is doing well and developers are enthusiastic. The NDA has been felled.
It’d be foolish to think that Apple was going to just stand around offering music players forever. If that were the case, the iPod would indeed be a passing fad. But as a portable computer, I see it only becoming more popular, and there’s no-one offering any serious competition to the iPhone and iPod touch devices, except maybe Blackberry. Though in my experience, they don’t really compare. The apps are often clunky, each one looking like it’s living in a completely different OS. They feel… Java-ey. The Nokias, though I hear good things, can’t provide the same multimedia experience of the iPods. Apple’s token drive-based iPod, once the flag-ship device, only has a single configuration now, and I can only imagine it’s going to be replaced altogether by flash-based devices within a year or two.
Woz’ prediction of the iPod fading from popularity would certainly be true if they’d stuck to the music, like they’d threatened to do over two years ago. But the platform is evolving and over the next few years, I’d be very surprised if the term “iPod” didn’t become synonymous with svelte, multi-media-capable, networked tablet computers. They’re from the future!
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