With this week’s update to the entire iPod lineup, many have been asking “Who are iPods even for these days?” Well, I worked the last 3 years managing an electronics department for Target, and have sold a lot of Apple devices over that time. Since Apple doesn’t break down demographics for who is buying each device, I thought I would share my experience.
Kind of exactly as you expect it to be.
So who are iPods for? They’re for people who don’t have a smartphone, and that’s about it.
Not quite true (if my experience is anything to go by)
I have two phones. A Nokia 6310i and an iPhone 5s. The latter is a company phone.
I also have an iPod Touch. I replaced a 1st gen touch that finally gave up the ghost last september.
The iPod is my on the go music and podcast player.
The battery will last well beyond flying from London to Auckland in cattle class where there is not always a USB port at the seat. My iPhone that was on flight mode didn’t last the trip.
Do I use it for playing Videos? No. But I don’t play them on the phone either.
Do I use it for playing games? Nothing beyond the occassional game of Spider Solitaire or Sudokgh reason.
So why do I have it and why did I get it?
Simply because it does what I want it to. Namely, play music and podcasts.
Why don’t I use my iPhone?
the iPhone is a company phone and is an 8Gb model. So when I change jobs, the phone goes away.
Then my music collection is more than 30Gb.
That good enough for you?
I think buying an iPod Touch for music and podcasts is a bit overkill. My $50 Sansa Clip+ would probably do a better job.
– It’s smaller and more portable
– Physical buttons for navigation, so you can operate it in your pocket.
– Battery lasts longer
– Does not require iTunes
– Supports auto-bookmarking for podcasts, and also folder organization
– Some of the Clip models also have expandable storage, so you can put a microSD card in there.
Edited 2015-07-19 19:15 UTC
and an iPod touch with 64G. And unless SanDisk largely improved the microSD card handling a player like the Clip+ is no alternative (*).
Agree, phyiscal buttons are nice to have. But since
I have both I must say, I do not miss them.
I have >30G of music and really appreciate I have it always with me.
(*) The view started to rescan the SD card every now and then with the result that titles appear many times. So the SD card was unusable.
Rockbox allows using big sd cards just fine, so it’s not a problem with Sandisk hardware.
Edited 2015-07-19 19:50 UTC
Rockbox works on the Sansa View? Or Clip+
I used Rockbox on my original iPod (with harddisk!) and very much liked it.
Not sure about Sansa View, but it works on Clip+. See here: http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaClip
I’m using it with Fuze+ myself.
Edited 2015-07-20 04:09 UTC
And doesn’t allow playing of some things we might actually want, such as Audible.com. And yeah yeah, drm blah blah blah. Not interested. I have content, I want to play it. With Rockbox I cannot, with everything else I can; and some audiobooks are produced only by Audible, so if you want them that’s where you get them.
I play audio files
It’s lame to use some weird codecs and containers in this day and age, so blame Audible for this idiocy. AAX? Never heard of it before (just looked it up on Wikipedia). Convert your audio books in any normal format and you’ll be good to go. That’s a common way of dealing with obsolete or obscure formats.
Edited 2015-07-21 15:30 UTC
This is why despite having a quad core Android phone with a 32Gb microSD card installed I still hang onto my 4GB Sandisk M260.
It 1.-Has a simple control layout that is easy to work by touch in my pocket, 2.- has a small simple screen that uses very little power, 3.- has a built in FM radio with good reception (useful when you live in Dixie Alley), and most importantly 4.- gets around 27 hours play time on a single AAA battery that can be swapped out in less than 2 minutes.
So while its nice to have a device that CAN do it all if required sometimes IMHO its better to have a device that does one thing and does it well.
I use my $50 mp3 player because it works better as a mp3 player than any phone I have ever owned. Each time my phone could play mp3s I would try it and hate it. Phones are inferior mp3 players in every way except when it is the only device you have on you. It drains battery, it is far bigger and heavier, it has worse controls on the device, it has less storage space, it is less waterproof. Not to mention all the nice little features like sleep timer and resume.
I love my sansa clip and I have found nothing than can compete with it. I also have a BB classic, Shield tablet and laptop. I am also 33. How narrow can this writer be?
I won’t touch Apple stuff, but I bought Sansa Fuze+ recently, since it can run Rockbox[1]. And hey, it can play Opus files (which Apple’s player can’t).
Unfortunately Sansa doesn’t even make them anymore. I guess demand for such portable players isn’t that high these days. And I disagree that they are for people who don’t have mobile handsets – wasting battery isn’t always a good option, so portable player is perfect for audio stuff.
[1]. http://www.rockbox.org/
Edited 2015-07-19 16:49 UTC
I charge my 2nd Gen iPod Touch every few days, and use it a few hours a day.
My Android phone gets used for lots of stuff besides music, and lasts a half day to a day and a half, depending on usage. Often times, when I’m out late (or spend the night at a friend’s), my phone is dead or nearly so. Having my iPod means I still get music on the trek home.
I have a Nano and I like it a lot. I could play my collection on my phone but I don’t. My Nano (6th gen) is for music and it does it well. I did have a much earlier Nano that I gave to my brother. Those are the only Apple products I’ve bought.
It’s odd to always be reading how a smart phone is a necessity these days. I’m 51, kind of old, and I have no fear of technology. I’ve spent most of my working and playing life with computers, making my living that way.
I just don’t need a smart phone. I need an MP3 player. I need more storage than I currently have with my iPod and they don’t make the big ones any more.
My wife has an iPod Touch. Uses it as a GPS, 98% of the time. She has an Android phone, uses it as a phone, 100%.
Why don’t you get one of the players with a MicroSD slot? For example the Kubick Evo 8GB player supports up to 64GB MicroSD and is only $30, the Ruizo 4GB also supports 64GB and is only $20. If you look around and grab one with rockbox support IIRC they can support as big a MicroSD card as you can get (which ATM I do believe is 256GB) so you should have no trouble with storage,HTH.
I have only been too lazy to do the research. I’m probably going to have to check them out soon. I would like at least 150G and the ability to work with iTunes. Thanks for he suggestions.
Avoiding iTunes would be one of my primary shopping criteria.
It’s too bad that the Samsung Galaxy Player was discontinued. For people (like me) wanting a smartphone experience and access to mobile “apps” but without a monthly bill, it had more features (way more features) and lower prices than the iPod Touch.
The good news though, despite the hysteria over Android updates (or lack thereof) for Galaxy devices (it’s ‘stuck’ on Gingerbread), my unit continues to function like new and still perform every task as designed.
You can use a app-phone if you like with a dummy sim, and have no bills and still have access to all app-phone services like voip and streaming as long as you have access to a wifi spot.
Another advantage is that in most countries (if not all that has cellular coverage) you can still use the dummy sim to call emergency services which is a nice feature that pure mp3 players lack.
Most Android phones don”t even need a dummy sim. They’ll run just fine with no sim at all.
There’s another use for the iPod Touch that’s underestimated and it’s its use as a developer device. If you don’t need cellular connectivity and the related functionality (e.g. SMS) then the iPod Touch is a much better developer device than an iPhone. It costs a fraction and offers basically the same functionality; it’s also a good proxy performance-wise often sharing more or less the same hardware with current iPhones.
I’ve got an Android phone but develop websites that preferably should work well on Safari too. So I always have a resent model iPod Touch laying around for test purposes. I do, however, find them a much better value purchase in general over an iPhone. It’s pretty much the same except the annoying parts that make people contact you everywhere you go.
I wouldn’t buy an iPod (the shuffle is utterly laughable), but there are still some significant advantages to using a simple little MP3 player rather than a Smartphone.
My Clip+ is much smaller and lighter than something like an iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6. I don’t even notice it clipped to my clothes when I go for a jog.
Its simple, old-fashioned buttons mean that it can be controlled without even taking it out of my pocket. I find poking at a smartphone screen to control music playback a UI downgrade from dedicated tactile controls.
The Clip+ is also a much more expendable device: about £35 ($55) for 40Gb of storage (8gb internal + 32Gb MicroSD). If I drop it, sit on it, or it gets stolen it isn’t such a big deal. Nor is it potentially a real problem if I drain its batteries listening during a long journey.
The Clip+ is 5 or 6 years old now, but it does the job and has great sound quality. Install Rockbox firmware and it gets a customisable interface, features to organise that 40Gb of music, and support for pretty much any audio format you can throw at it.
A niche product, definitely, but not obsolete yet, and not just useful for the handful of people who don’t own a Smartphone.
Yeah, Rockbox is wonderful. I especially like its ability to play Opus files in which I store all my music for portable players.
But I wish I had the 5g version. Lets be honest, a touch screen wasn’t an improvement.
We use the Touch in our art gallery. Number the art work and have the descriptions a matching number and description.
Easy to use and easy to locate the description you want to hear.
Edited 2015-07-20 01:15 UTC
the only examples I personally know of where people are buying iPods is where they are using them as cheap iPhone test devices (to test webapps and similar). Many who want a genuine MP3 player tend to go for less “smartphone” features. Store and play music, last a long time. Thats IT in terms of feature requirements.
I have two iPod Touches and they are pretty nice for podcasts and the occasional weather forecast. The only two downsides is the battery life is not so good anymore and that controlling the podcast involves taking it out of the pocket and looking at the screen.
Not a word about the ipod classic?
I’m still using mine, with bigger hard drive, and alternative firmware…..
I have an iPod Touch, I guess it’s 2nd gen one, not really sure.
I use it when traveling. It plays movies, reads books, and plays music just fine.
That lets me use it on airplanes and such, and not worry about draining down my phone.
Normally, I have ubiquitous power at home and the office. On the road, not so much, so it’s easier to just use the Touch for it’s base entrainment purposes and the phone for communications.