Apple Discontinued iPod Classic Because They Couldn’t Get Parts Anymore?

Tim Cook was interviewed yesterday at the WSJD Live conference, run by the Wall Street Journal. Among his comments in the interview was one that the Wall Street Journal quotes or paraphrases Cook saying:

Apple stopped making the 160GB iPod Classic because it couldn’t get the parts anymore from anywhere in the world.

This is surprising. If they couldn’t get the hard drives, why couldn’t they just have re-jiggered the device to use flash memory? They could have made a 128 GB device – a bit less than the 160 GB the hard-drive based model held, but more than the iPod touch – for those people who still want a music-only device.

HT1353_33.jpg

The iPod classic didn’t have the sales figures that the iPhone and iPad have, but it was regularly in the top five music players sold at Amazon. That might not be a lot of units, as more and more people use a smartphone to play music, but given that the design changes would have been minimal – they could have kept the form factor – I don’t think the choice of retiring the device was about parts. I think it no longer fits in Apple’s concept of what their devices should be like. They do still sell the iPod shuffle, but my guess is that won’t last much longer. However, they have no problem getting parts for that device; it uses flash storage…

16 thoughts on “Apple Discontinued iPod Classic Because They Couldn’t Get Parts Anymore?

  1. I agree that a flash-based iPod makes great sense. I have upgraded three 5th gen. iPods with 256GB SD cards and they work great.

  2. I agree that a flash-based iPod makes great sense. I have upgraded three 5th gen. iPods with 256GB SD cards and they work great.

  3. Only one way to call BS on this Apple hornswoggling: Zune reboot! Barring that, the 128GB Sony Walkman A17 also gives off the blinding light of retrogressive mono-purpose technology for those looking to be led out of Apple’s legacy-obliterating shadow.

  4. Only one way to call BS on this Apple hornswoggling: Zune reboot! Barring that, the 128GB Sony Walkman A17 also gives off the blinding light of retrogressive mono-purpose technology for those looking to be led out of Apple’s legacy-obliterating shadow.

  5. Nah, it´s because we all going to be so amazed by the new iTunes streaming/beats service that we are all going to subscribe, so no need for an iPod anymore. As we are all going to be amazed by the next year amazingly amazing best line up of products of the last 26 years at the next keynote.

  6. Nah, it´s because we all going to be so amazed by the new iTunes streaming/beats service that we are all going to subscribe, so no need for an iPod anymore. As we are all going to be amazed by the next year amazingly amazing best line up of products of the last 26 years at the next keynote.

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.