RSSThe new iPod nano: A flop?
By Tim Conneally | Published October 19, 2009, 6:06 PM
The good news in Apple's earnings call this afternoon, according to CFO Peter Oppenheimer, is that the Cupertino company has sold more Macs and iPhones than it ever has in the past, beating previous Mac sales records by 444,000 or 17% year over year and beating iPhone records by 7% unit growth year over year.
The bad news is that the MP3 player product class where Apple has actual market dominance, not just dominant mindshare (as with the iPhone), has begun to slide, despite a 100% increase in iPod touch sales year over year.
In all, Apple sold 10.2 million iPods, which is down 8% against last year. So if sales of the iPod touch are up, what's the deal?
"Customers love the iPod nano," Oppenheimer said in today's earnings call, but he did not say how many were sold, nor did he specify how well the 160 GB iPod Classic and 2 GB - 4 GB iPod Shuffle sold. With substantial growth in iPod touch and an overall decline, this can only mean that every "old school" iPod sank.
This is the quarter where there is typically an iPod sales spike related to the fall update to the product line. As with previous years, the updated iPod line debuted on September 9, which provides adequate time for a surge in the newest devices until the end of the quarter on September 24.
In 2005, for example, when the first iPod nano debuted, iPod sales were relatively flat for the quarter, but over a million Nanos shipped in the 17 days following the device's premiere.
Again, the big product debut this time was the iPod Nano with camera, microphone, and built-in FM radio, but there appears to have been no related surge.
As Betanews contributor Carmi Levy wrote on the day before this year's iPod refresh, "The cynic in me believes the Day the iPod Died was when Apple shifted away from its hard drive-based iPod classic, and moved toward the flash-based iPod touch. Indeed, the touch -- either the model Apple is selling now, or the one that'll be on sale following this week's announcement -- has infinitely more in common with the iPhone than it ever had with the original iPod. Which means it isn't really much of an iPod at all. Which, from where I sit, means the iPod, as a brand, refers to yesterday's technology."
Though the iPod still holds a 70% market share here at home, it looks like the purpose-oriented iPods of the past are losing out to devices supporting user-installable apps.
@Slim_Is_In you can also use the opera adblocker xD so u don't have to add those adresses by hand :D
http://fileforum.betanew...-For-Opera/1252663378/1
Score: 0
|Thanks for the news, but the download app offer nothing new... and since i trust and only use the built-in official one will do just fine. Less is more, i prefer no addon... thanks for the news BTW
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|The new nanos aren't that bad other than the screen scratches easy(non of my other mp3 playes ever scratched when in my pocket by themselves) and a drunken idiot must of been the one to decide where to put the camera.
Score: 1
|The iPod line is on life support. That was obvious when they announce a mic and FM radio and camera on the 4th gen nano and not for the rest. Of course the camera part was just dumb. The market is so saturated with all sorts of generations of iPods and with the economy the way it is, most users are sticking with what they've got until it dies. There's nothing real substantial that they can add value-wise to these units now except the mic and radio which are way overdue. And let's not even talk about the new shuffle..... I'm waiting for them to either go back a gen or just dump it on the next refresh. I have a 5G iPod (bought used over a year ago for $90) and perfectly happy with it, plus having Rockbox I can push the device a bit further so it's not too ancient in a few years (if it lasts that long anyhow)
Score: 2
|Good news if you have enough money to piss away from here to eternity. Enjoy your vendor lock-in! Hope you like the overpriced, proprietary, patent-encumbered iCrap they shove down your throats every update.
Looks like Betanews just could pass up yet another opportunity to put up a few more CrApple advertisements. Must be hard-up for money. So how much is CrApple playing you guys nowadays?
Score: 5
|They never force anything down your throats, if that happen... it will not fit (notice it never happen)
And about advertisement, I've never seen any... because i use Opera were in Tools > Advanced > Blocked Content > I've listed these in :
http://*.doubleclick.net/*
http://*.google-analytics.*
http://*.googlesyndication.com/*
http://adserv*
http://digg.com/*
Pages are nice and neat with no ads to be found. just clean browsing! Its good that apple is their choice nice to hear :)
Score: -3
|Don't see it as a flop, its already selling millions.
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|uhh maybe it's because everyone who wants a Nano already has one.
Score: 1
|Ok so about two weeks ago I got a nano. It was cool, very light, nice features, my only issue was the voice menus were very annoying. But still a nice little device. But on thinking about it. I thought "For an extra 50 bucks I can get the Ipod Touch 8gig. So I exchanged it and paid the 50 bucks for the 8gig touch. Awesome im very happy with that. For 50 bucks I get an mp3 player that can play games, and use apps. No brainer here.
Score: 1
|You want audio quality: guy Cowon (any model)
You want cheap audio quality: buy Sansa (Clip / Fuze)
You want real feature sets / format support: buy anything but Apple
You want over-pruiced junk that doesn't have decent audio quality and is essentially an advertisement for a proprietary music service that suckers you into paying lossless prices for lossy music that the company dictates what you can do with thanks to its heinous DRM posture: buy Apple
Apple DAPs == sucker products
Nano: latest in a LONG line of Apple con jobs
Score: 3
|I received a Nano as a gift cause I wouldn't spend the money for it. I don't like the idea of having all the sht being installed just to put songs on it. That's pretty communistic to me. Fortunately there are 3rd party apps to do that so I can uninstall Itunes. Don't need the camera cause my phone has one which I never use. The radio is ok but where I live I can receive only one good classic rock station. I guess what I'm saying is that I like New York City but wouldn't want to live there, and I certainly wouldn't carry my Ipod around there either!
Score: 1
|Meh if people did a little research they would see that there are much better MP3 players out there that don't make you use the hell that is itunes.
Not that it really matters anymore. MP3 players IMO are on the way out. Most cellphones today can play that role.
Score: 3
|while itunes for me works grea on mac the windows version is def hell :-/
Score: 2
|@siryak: I agree with you completely. Now if the cell phone vendors (besides Apple) would just implement gapless playback I believe there would really be no reason at all to need a dedicated mp3 player ever again. Until then, I will keep my Zune close.
Score: 2
|the only reason i bought an itouch was because there is wifi at work and i could surf the net while on break. then after getting some of the streaming audio apps, the only reason i bought an iphone a year later was so i could listen to those radio streams while driving in the car. other than the capability of both devices to connect to a wifi network and that one's apps works with the other i have no use for any apple products at all. my iriver h340 is a better player and much more friendly to advanced users and has a bigger capacity built in with the possibility to upgrade it with a home hack should i choose to. i can put music on my iriver in two steps- connect by a standard usb-b connector to my computer, click and drag from my music folder to the iriver. nothing easier. try doing that with any ipod withOUT itunes installed.
apple did a real good job of making mp3 players univerally acceptable and widely used. however they failed completely by dumbing down everything. its annoying for the advanced users to use outside programs to put music on players. itunes is one of the worst pieces of coding that infests hard drives, especially windows builds. it tries to take over your music library resorting and moving files where you don't want them and it works correctly a portion of the time. i have a sizeable collection of music. none is on either my itouch or iphone and all of it could fit on either device with space to spare. tell me what is wrong with clicking and dragging audio files to a player. and they are not opening up to other file formats either. my h340 can play ogg files natively even without being rockboxed. my itouch was developed at least 2-3 years after the 340 was constructed and barely playes ogg files jailbroken.
apple will be fine if they ever find a way to put a flash drive with a high capacity in an ipod classic, but clearly the future in apple's mind for audio players is the itouch and these additions they slapped on the latest nano are just bandages for this particular piece of technology. they probably didn't put in a camera or a built in microphone in the latest itouch incarnation so they could squeeze a few more nanos out for a few more cycles.
Score: 1
|"[iTunes] tries to take over your music library resorting and moving files where you don't want them ..."
Since you're a self-proclaimed advanced user, I'm sure you know just how easy it is to turn off this setting, then.
Score: 4
|yeah. i know how to turn off the setting. i don't even let it get the opportunity because i don't use itunes for anything, simple solution. i use winamp to do my synching. but i wasn't talking about just me. there are some people who don't know where this setting is and wouldn't know how to turn it off who also have their music sorted just how they like it. i've seen some people whom i would consider tech savvy complain about the same thing, especially if one computer is used for multiple players in the same house.
the fact still remains. these programs and programs like this should not go around rearranging your music in places you don't want it going. and someone should find a way to add media directly to ipods/iphones libraries without using itunes.
Score: 2
|The iPhone and Touch blow chuncks as a dedicated MP3 player. The touch screen is such a pain in the butt to use when your trying to drive. You can use most functions on a classic without even looking at the screen. If your using it with headphones it is fine. But using it in the car drives me nuts. I just replaced my 4th gen Classic with a 5th gen Nano. The old classic was on it's second battery and harddrive. The disk was starting to go again so I figured I would go solid state. I hate the color screen though. The old monochrome screen was so much easier to see and was always on. I guess if you don't have an iPhone then a Touch may be a good choice. But for me there is no replacement for the good old click wheel.
Score: -1
|The thing about driving is that you're supposed to be driving.
You're not supposed to be on the phone, playing with electronic devices, eating, drinking, reaching to the floor to pick up your cigarette, or anything else that distracts you from driving.
Score: -1
|Get a grip people. They're music players not religions.
Score: 1
|Its not a religion, but a cultural
Its the worlds best music player, uncomparable, undefeated, ultimately unstoppable
Only passing to its younger brother the iPhone/iPod Touch
God bless Apple
http://store.apple.com/
Score: -10
|Are you mentally retarded? It is nothing more than an mp3 player and not even close to the best, it just has marketing.
Score: 4
|Then why did it take so long to get a basic feature as FM radio?
Score: 1
|because there is no demand for FM Radio. People buy mp3 players because they want to get away from the Radio with all its Howard Stern imitators and ads.
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|"world's best"? Wow, you've never used any other MP3 players, have you.
Score: 4
|@maxpowerxp :
So whats the world 2nd best MP3 Player?
Whats? LOL!!!!1
Score: -1
|This is the HUGEST fanboy post I've read through this entire thread. The iPod is a decent music player but it most certainly is NOT the best I can guarantee you that. Chalk up another one for the Apple megalo-marketing machine you poor, poor soul you..... uncomparable? lol a touch screen does not make it better. Undefeated? PLEASE - my old Rio Karma kicks the crap out of an iPod any day of the week. Ultimately unstoppable? Many other vendors have already done so. We just happen to live in the United States where we lag behind everyone on cool, consumer affordable toys. Just ask Asia and Europe.
Score: 3
|"Undefeated? PLEASE - my old Rio Karma kicks the crap out of an iPod any day of the week".
Rio Karma is dated in 2003>2005 ....R.I.P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Karma
Short lived, glad we wont miss it!
Looks like some clone that i've seen it somewhere... wait a minute, i think some time ago i've seen something alike in a bargain bin :)
Score: -5
|It's almost like when you perceive an insult to your shiny little status symbol, your english skills slip further
Score: 2
|2 things: the market is saturated and people who might be spending on typical players are saving money for gasoline or putting it toward a phone that plays music also.
Score: 5
|Well if they're educated, they would've gotten a better job which they wouldnt be financially struggle and half of those uneducated had some drug habit problems (no iPhone for them)
The iPhone people are real people with real cash!
Score: -7
|Not to mention the economy is not exactly doing well. But, hey, its an opportunity to put those Microsoft ad dollars to work and bash Apple
Score: -2
|"iPhone People" and zombies like yourself that view branded technology as a status symbol prove the adage that a fool and his money are soon parted
Score: 1
|It means the more unifunctional Zune HD is fcked?
Oh wait, you were trying to make a different negative point (about Apple) from outstanding news, weren't you?
Score: -7
|Typical Apple Fan Boy. Owned 3 Nano's. When the 3rd one died, enough was enough, time to move on to better technology.
Score: 5
|are you calling yourself a fanboy? Okay. What's your point?
Score: -7
|The Zune Hybrid Digital was DOA. no one is buying it, the hardware stinks, the software is even worse and its 3d performance is worse than the iPhone 3GS.
Score: -6
|If "3D Performance" is how you measure a PMP's worthiness, just shut up and buy a DS or a PSP already.
Score: 4
|Meh... my iPod is nothing more to me than an external hard drive that my Alpine knows how to access. I don't think I've ever plugged anything into the headphone jack.
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|I don't care because I am creative fan :)
Score: 2
|Glad I bought my ZUNE HD.
Score: 4
|And i'm excited that i've bought my iPod Touch
With better support
Apps
Games
Online
Multi Touch
Hi-Res
More accessories
and it keeps getting better, i know that it won't die for a long time to come
Score: -10
|Better support?? Where are you getting this crap Slim? I feel so bad for you. It's like you're walking around completely oblivious.
Score: 2
|Logon to the app store, like the millions
Score: -1
|Not to worry, Apple always has a solution. This is a company that cannot fail.
Score: -18
|I-paperweight?
Score: 4
|You keep thinking that if it helps you to sleep better at night.
Score: 1
|Uneducated, fail
Score: -9
|Its only passing on to Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch... good try *eyes roll*
Score: -6
|A company that cannot fail, eh? Did you post this on your Newton, by any chance?
Score: 4
|The only reason why Apple won't fail is because they horribly overprice their products and you are silly enough to pay for it.
Score: 3
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