The Ipod age is over

Here is one very simple thing for you: Apple don't sell a product called an iPod any more. Sure there is the iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod touch. Confusing? Yeah.

Man, you sure hate Apple.

iPod sales are dwindling because iPhone sales are increasing.

I think this article skirts the reason without stating it outright: more mobile phones are including mp3 functionality, so why bother carrying two or three gadgets when one will do the job (I'm sure camera sales will take a hit from the improving phones too).

The latest iPhone is the best example of the convergence of phone and mp3 player - if it was cheaper I'd have bought one, but as it was the cheaper Nokia 5800 still outweighed my desire for an iPod Touch or Nano, plus another phone

Not one "die u rotten scum" comment on this...what gives Apple fanbois?

Can it be that even them lot are thinking that its not even cool to bash articles like this?

The end is nigh for sure

If the ipod has moved on like a fad, what has it been replaced with? What are you listening to music on now? The only reason sales are declining is because Ipods have so much storage room on them that people can hardly ever fill them up all the way. Whats the point in buying something new and expensive when your 8 year old Ipod does just fine?

die u rotten scum my Jobs Device is superior to all your computer LOL!!!1!111!!!ONE!!111!!

The only reason I can now see for buying an iPod (Classic) is the amount of data they can store - few competitors in the market.

The camera is going to make me less likely to buy, not more. I want a simple, basic device with a long battery life and lots of storage, rather then something I'll never use.

If they really want to put extra's on the iPod - stick with the market, go with FM/DAB receiver, improve the OS, improve connectivity (B/T, wireless) so it's easier to transfer music.

I struggle to understand the use of a camera on an iPod. I use my iPod sitting on a train, being anti-social, not during activities that I might want to take photos - i.e. with mates. Is Apple loosing their way on this?

of predicting Apple's sales and marketing I'd suggest that this is ample evidence that they're bound to announce another record quarter's sales.
Nick, you'll get more credence trying to peddle your books on black magic and the occult ( http://www.nickfarrell.info/nick-farrell-magical-biography.html ) than you will trying to peddle your IT analysis and opinion. Face it man, you're just not good at it.

Well said. I want my ipod to play music, I want a phone to make calls. If I know i'm taking photo's I'll take a camera with me, not rely on a phone. Convergence is one thing, but not at the loss of simplicity and the fundamentals of the original product

Don't let the apple fanbois get you down. Your articles always make my mornings less boring.

... with chips on both shoulders. Shame that the fruit-flavoured fanbois don't seem to be reacting to it. Could it be that stuff like this that is so over the top isn't worth argument?

PS: Notice you made no mention of iTunes or apps at all. Don't really fit your theme, do they?

What's left to give HP OfficeJets competition as the most unstable, bug ridden, time wasting, anti-customer crap in the Hardware+Software bundle category?

Oh, yea, The iPhone. Never mind.

Why does a 16GB mp3 player cost $100 and a 32GB one cost over $200? I still don't get this.

ok, wifie got me a nano as present.
all i really had agains pods is the fact apple is rotten fag company.
the device itself was pleasure to work with (with good earbuds, not the cheep crap they bundle), really liked the interface and coverflow feature. repalced crap-tunes floola (stored and executed from ipod itself) and all was good. for a week.

i returned the device. the reason is my refurb 15$ sansa is working strong and i have much better use for the 150$. way to much for what ipod is. and now that it has camera i'm even less likley to buy again.

When I type "apple hate" in Google, the 1st thing that comes up is Nick Farrel and The Inquirer.

Its amazing.

"Sony's Walkman outsold the Ipod in Japan for the first time in four years. That means that finally punters are starting to believe that price and sound quality are a little more important than smug factor."

Tip: check your sources before going to print. The iPod last week outsold Sony in Japan, due to the new models Apple introduced. Looks like the smug factor is back for another ten years.

From Nick's website, previously mentioned on this board:

"At the age of four Nick suffered from a series of night time terrors. He saw things that were particularly frightening. He knew they were not dreams but they appeared real. These visions lasted until he was 17."

I would posit that, apparently, age 17 was not the cutoff point. Reading the column (and virtually all his oeuvre) the talk of smugness looks extremely self-referential. Comically so.

With the prospect of five years of Tory snouts in the taxpayers trough ahead of us, it's good to have,"a laugh a day,when Nicks not away", to cheer us up.

Something what is to be bringing Smuggy back:D

An Ihula-hoop possibly.

I don't want to fad away...

Holy crap, is that really the ferrety one's website? That thing is a complete and utter abomination! Even the worst of the drek that was GeoCities never got that bad! No thought given to accessibility, mystery meat navigation that's entirely image based so screen readers are left out, and a complete lack of good taste. No wonder Apple is anathema to him.

A 7% decline year-over-year from second quarter of 2008 to 2009 is not that bad in the middle of a huge recession. Apple's ipod unit is doing considerably better than most other consumer businesses.

In the long term, sure, dedicated music players will yield to unified cell phones. But look at Apple - with 600% unit growth year over year (in the middle of that same huge recession) for the iPhone - they are poised to transform much of their ipod market share into cell phone share.

And - given the ongoing revenue streams for cell phones are way better than that for music players - I don't suspect there are any tears being shed at Apple.

If you add iPhone sales to iPod sales, the upward growth curve of the iPod universe continues unabated. Originally Apple introduced the iPhone as their best iPod ever. Apple saw this coming a long time ago and decided it would be better cannibalize its own products then let someone else cannibalize them. They did the same thing when they discontinued the very successful iPod mini and replaced it with the iPod nano. Most companies never discontinue a product when it's still very popular.

I suspect that iPod sales are dropping as iPhones have taken some of the market share, and that iPod market share has reached saturation point. I have two iPods, I don't need a third nor do I need the features in the upgrades.

"So why won't sticking a movie camera into an Ipod help it survive? Blame Apple. It killed the Ipod itself when it created the next new fad. The Iphone does all that an Ipod does and a lot more besides. Yes, it is a bit more expensive to acquire, but the youthful generation that thought the Ipod was a good thing believes the Iphone is better."

Sounds about right: it's Apple's "fault" that they're buying something more expensive instead from, err, Apple. Honestly, I'm having some difficulty interpreting this as "bad news" for Apple, though.

God how this online mag sucks now. You no longer have the inside scoop on anything. You lost all your reporters with contacts and insider information. You suck. I'd rather read the drivel at the register than this.

Apple is for losers over 50 FTW!

Didnae like my comment, Inq?

Nick never struck me as the sensitive sort, although he never struck me as a follower of esoteric and obviously very sane cults either.

Liar!

OK, you made me look.

I was expecting your article to finish with how Saint Steve and the Zune will come to rescue us all.

"I'd rather read the drivel at the register than this."

Funny but you're joking right? The Register has become truly awful.

The sad thing is that there are loads of guys reading this that will believe it or get some kind of enjoyment from it. It's almost like you virtually masturbated them Nick. Sad guys who think they're in IT but actually they're there by shear luck. Floating along believing every bit of IT hype that they hear. Sad. Sad. Sad.

What a bunch of useless drivel, it's amazing...the iPod has DOMINATED music player sales for almost 10 years now, without ANYONE coming up with something better...and you still call it a "fad"? Apart from the fact that iPod demand continues excellent in this period of crisis, Apple has already predicted the next big wave of gadgets, which does NOT have to rely on music to succeed. All in all, Nick, you are just a laughable moron; at least you have all these "IT-savvy" guys to follow you, of course.

I really liked Apple computers up to 1995, haven't looked back since. Well I have, but they have consistently been too expensive.
I resisted buying any MP3 machines but I finally got a Samsung YEPP P2 (they were being blown out when the P3 was released). It's got bluetooth so it pairs with my Sony stereo using A2DP. Perfect! No iPod has ever been able to do that (wait I guess the iPhone can do it). But one thing the iPhone can't do, that the P2 can do, is pair with a cheapie bluetooth flip phone that I can keep stowed away somewhere (where I live, to use an iPhone will cost minimum $80 per month contract for 3 years -- ouch).

Thought the last comment in your article, much to fanboys chagrin, was spot on
(Unfortunately it just meant that another proprietary corporation that hates its customers...)
you're wrong when you write that "the world wouldn't be the same. The Ipod was hardly revolutionary, and yes, the world would have been pretty much the same (slightly less smug perhaps) without the ipod... There were several similar devices on the market before the ipod. None as overpriced though.

Wow this site sucks now. I used to come here almost every day for a few years back about 5 years ago. Stopped back now and read this and who this hack is that seems to write all the garbage on the site. Sorry inquirer, will not be returning. I don't like many apple products, but this farrel guy is an idiot. Ignores basically every mitigating factor in the ipods demise to say that Apple is in bad shape - even though they are not! Wow..

You have never been to the INQ before so your threats of leaving are pretty pointless.
Funny you get drawn to a web site off Google it says something you don't like and you post pretending that you are not coming back. Perhaps to get the writer fired????
The INQ has always slammed Apple, Intel, Microsoft, HP... everyone. That makes it an entertaining read.
I have been watching these comments boards and they are always packed with Apple users claiming that they will never come back.

Your website is even worse than your journalism. What a twonk.
Still, much is explained now.

What do you call someone who can't even spell iPod? Certainly not a credible writer about digital trends, that's for sure ;-)