With every new Apple event, fans of the click wheel-based iPod classic begin wringing their hands in anticipation of the fate of their favorite large-capacity music player -- could this be the year Cupertino finally puts it out to pasture?
Wired published an article Friday that takes yet another look at the iPod classic and where it fits into Apple's current product lineup -- and more importantly, if 2013 could be the year the device finally meets it maker.
The move wouldn't come as much of a surprise -- after all, Apple hasn't updated the hard drive-based iPod classic since 2009, and it's the sole remnant of a now bygone era with click wheels and 30-pin dock connectors (the latter also appears on the iPad 2, which seems likely for retirement this week as well).
"I don't see Apple investing any more into the iPod classic, even just to upgrade the connector," remarks Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester.
One thing the iPod classic does offer over the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad is massive storage capacity: 160GB, which Apple claims is enough for 40,000 songs. By comparison, the iPod touch and iPhone top out at 64GB, while the iPad is capable of up to double that amount.
"It's been a couple of years since the iPod classic has been updated," Gazelle.com chief gadget officer Anthony Scarsella said. "We can assume it will be phased out, unless we see it updated on September 10th."
While there's not much reason to slap a touchscreen on the iPod classic, fans have long dreamed of Wi-Fi connectivity for the ability to sync or maybe even stream wirelessly, and with iTunes Match now available, music fans wouldn't even necessarily need to sync their entire music collection.
But those appear to be little more than pipe dreams now, as we wait to see if the iPod classic remains in the product lineup after Tuesday's media event…
Follow this article's author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
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