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It's called phased obsolescence. It is a terrible time to find a replacement for a lost ipod. I've been waiting until today's Apple event before getting anythi

It's called phased obsolescence. It is a terrible time to find a replacement for a lost ipod. I've been waiting until today's Apple event before getting anything. I was ready to be pleasantly surprised. Turns out Apple has just enough market share and momentum to waive their hands around for renewed sales. Why break ground when you can still make great profits off the old stuff? Nano is a software update. Touch has a new color (wowsy!). Phone has speaking app installed, a slightly faster chip. It is new technology at the slowest drip possible. Give me a small ipod with tons of storage. Easy enough, right? Look at the cost of memory these days. You can buy a 32GB SD card for $40. But Apple won't do that. The whole iCloud business looms. The iCloud is just a way to capture and sell you data. So they provide iTunes, integration with everything, then reel in the fishes. They haven't updated the capacity of any of their devices for four years. The ipod nano no longer has a camera, no longer shows videos, has a smaller screen than ever before, and the maximum capacity remains 16GB. But they come in a dazzling array of colors; come and get them while they last!!! Should I wait another 6 months? 12 months? I've thought about getting one of the old nanos, but I'm learning something about the mac I use for work. The computer itself is awesome, even though it is about 7 years old. It is actually faster and more stable than the 64-bit PC I got a few months ago. The thing is, fewer and fewer programs work on it. Google Earth was automatically updated and no longer works. A bunch of other programs are the same. This old architecture (PowerPC) doesn't support any new Adobe products or really any thing else that is new. Even browsers are starting to act weird. But it isn't the hardware, its great. It is that new software doesn't communicate with it anymore. So, I suspect the same will be true with these mac devices. Software will be designed specifically for new devices. So on older devices, either you won't be able to get the newest software or software will be automatically updated and cease to work. For instance, the click wheel now only exists on the ipod classic. Once the classic is discontinued, you can bet that any ipod with a click wheel will start having problems with any new OS. And they update the OS at least once a year. So you can't go back, even if the device remains superior. Welcome to Apple's vision of the future, the - phase it out, throw it away, buy it new - society.

gwright 15y ago
Apple's vision of the future? Lots of room for different opinions on the life cycle of electronics but: 1) What you are complaining about is a decades old, industry wide phenomena and not something vaguely unique about Apple. 2) Apple products tend to retain functionality and re-sale value much longer than their competitors.
ugh 15y ago
Apple's plan is to obsolete the current iPods by continuing to sell them. What?!
azulum 15y ago
i have had many apple products over the years and only bought one of them new. apple products are in my experience built to work until they break and the cost of fixing them is more than a replacement. this happens much sooner in tech than in other spaces because it changes so quickly. the CPI has stayed relatively flat† because advances in technology have allowed more purchasing power (though for lower cost goods). the iphone is a technological marvel that was priceless ten years ago because it couldn't exist. † year by year table of CPI since 1913 ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt
mahyarm 15y ago
You shouldn't be expecting a fundamental CPU architecture shift to stay backwards compatible 7 years later. Backwards compatibility costs something when you do major shifts such as these. Statistically, the amount of people who have PowerPCs have dwindled to mostly insignificant so the extra cost required to support them is not worth it. It's like asking website designers to stay compatible with IE6 or Netscape Navigator 4, it's not worth the extra work. It's like your complaining about a countrywide shift from gasoline to ethanol and how your gas-only car engine is finding fewer and fewer gas stations to fill up with pure gasoline as the decades go by. You'll find things that do not change fundamentally or lend themselves to relatively easy upgrades last for a very long time. Houses, simple tools, cars until they wear out, etc. Things that change and improve frequently like tech does.
jsz0 15y ago
It's called phased obsolescence. Isn't it really the exact opposite? If you have the last-generation iPod or iPhone there's really no good reason to go upgrade. It extends the life of your current device indirectly. With the 3GS being free with contract you can bet it will be very popular which means developers will have to take some extra time to make sure their apps worth with a 2+ year old device. (which also means they will have to work well with older iPod Touches) Apple is upgrading all the iOS devices to iOS5 except for the original iPhone 2G, 3G and the first generation iPod Touch. So probably about 200 million or more users are getting some significant software updates in a week or so.

gwright 15y ago

Apple's vision of the future? Lots of room for different opinions on the life cycle of electronics but: 1) What you are complaining about is a decades old, industry wide phenomena and not something vaguely unique about Apple. 2) Apple products tend to retain functionality and re-sale value much longer than their competitors.

ugh 15y ago

Apple's plan is to obsolete the current iPods by continuing to sell them. What?!

azulum 15y ago

i have had many apple products over the years and only bought one of them new. apple products are in my experience built to work until they break and the cost of fixing them is more than a replacement. this happens much sooner in tech than in other spaces because it changes so quickly. the CPI has stayed relatively flat† because advances in technology have allowed more purchasing power (though for lower cost goods). the iphone is a technological marvel that was priceless ten years ago because it couldn't exist. † year by year table of CPI since 1913 ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt

mahyarm 15y ago

You shouldn't be expecting a fundamental CPU architecture shift to stay backwards compatible 7 years later. Backwards compatibility costs something when you do major shifts such as these. Statistically, the amount of people who have PowerPCs have dwindled to mostly insignificant so the extra cost required to support them is not worth it. It's like asking website designers to stay compatible with IE6 or Netscape Navigator 4, it's not worth the extra work. It's like your complaining about a countrywide shift from gasoline to ethanol and how your gas-only car engine is finding fewer and fewer gas stations to fill up with pure gasoline as the decades go by. You'll find things that do not change fundamentally or lend themselves to relatively easy upgrades last for a very long time. Houses, simple tools, cars until they wear out, etc. Things that change and improve frequently like tech does.

jsz0 15y ago

It's called phased obsolescence. Isn't it really the exact opposite? If you have the last-generation iPod or iPhone there's really no good reason to go upgrade. It extends the life of your current device indirectly. With the 3GS being free with contract you can bet it will be very popular which means developers will have to take some extra time to make sure their apps worth with a 2+ year old device. (which also means they will have to work well with older iPod Touches) Apple is upgrading all the iOS devices to iOS5 except for the original iPhone 2G, 3G and the first generation iPod Touch. So probably about 200 million or more users are getting some significant software updates in a week or so.