The death of cute Apple-stamped iPods seems inevitable in a world of iPhones. But would Steve Jobs have cared? Some folks think bumping off its portable media player was Apple’s plan all along.
Brian Pekron, a U. Illinois junior in Engineering, had his iPod stolen a couple years ago. He was quite distraught about it until he purchased an iPhone.
“My iPhone’s pretty sweet,” said Pekron, while sitting on a bus and scrolling through his ear-bud connected iPhone. “I would never buy an iPod now because my iPhone’s a phone and music player.”
Pekron isn’t alone in his preference for the all-in-one device. Just days before Jobs took his final breath, Apple’s fourth quarter earnings for its fiscal year showed a 27 percent decline in iPod sales from the year before. Sales from the iPhone, on the other hand, jumped 21 percent over the same period.
“I don’t think Apple’s really hurting for iPod sales,” said Steve Lumetta, Illinois associate professor in Engineering. “They seem to know what they’re doing in terms of business.”
Lumetta, who teaches courses in electrical and computer engineering, is convinced Apple had the technology to construct a smartphone/music player combo before the iPhone was released. But because Apple didn’t have partnerships with phone companies during the heyday of the iPod, they strategically sat on it.
“Apple probably said: ‘We could work with the phone companies early on, but why don’t we instead make a ton of money off iPods and then threaten to buy the phone companies before we release the iPhone?’” Lumetta said. “It was definitely the right decision.”
The other thing Apple waited for before releasing the iPhone, according to Lumetta, was to make it really user-friendly and cool — a trademark of the company.
Lisa Bievenue, project coordinator for the Illinois Informatics Institute on campus, says the coolness and functionality factors for the iPod have passed.
“I wouldn’t buy an iPod right now because I have a smartphone,” said Bievenue, pointing to the Sony Ericsson sitting on her desk on which she listens to music and audio books. “Why would you want to carry two things with you that you could lose or break?”
Bievenue states the only logical iPod purchase would be a compact Nano or Shuffle, with which she’s seen people jogging. During a workout might be the only time people don’t want to get a call.
There is another thing that could save the iPod from its seemingly certain demise. The cost of data packages.
Jizhe Yang, Illinois junior in FAA, owns a BlackBerry (because she prefers physical keyboards) and doesn’t find it easy to scrape together the money to pay the bill each month.
“The smartphone plans are so expensive,” she said, “and they’re compulsory.”
Indeed, Verizon Wireless’ required data packages for smartphone plans start at $20 per month and AT&T’s start at $15. These amounts are on top of the basic phone plans. Employees at both stores said these prices are only recommended for very light users and not the average app-hungry college student.
In an attempt to reel in students without wads of cash to spend on an iPhone or data package, Apple just launched a new ad campaign for its cheaper iPod Touch (the gadget commonly referred to as “iTouch” because it barely resembles an iPod). Hipster youths are shown gleefully texting, Skyping and listening to their favorite tunes. The idea? Who needs a telephone when you have Wi-Fi everywhere?
“My son went to Italy recently and was Skyping us all the time from the device,” said Lumetta, describing how he bought his high-schooler an iPod Touch earlier this year. “Internet content means everything to young people.”