iPod Classic on its way out?

On Wednesday 9th September 2009 San Francisco will be host to the Annual Apple iPod Event. Every year Apple showcases what improvements and features they have added to their iconic iPod products. I was wondering what would be new this year and started to look up some details. There were quite a few pundits who have made some predictions but the one I found interesting was by Marco Arment.

Marco predicts that the iPhone will eventually take its toll on the iPod and the first to face the axe will be iPod Classic. Some other expected moves are

• iPod Shuffle wont be mentioned at the convention and its price will be reduced by over 30%
• iPod Nano might get a camera (video) at the same price. The price might even decrease.
• iPod classic is a bridge between ‘iPod nano’ and ‘iPod touch’ and really is useful only to people who insist on carrying their entire music library with them on the iPod. This makes its a niche product which might be discontinued with.

Why iPod Classic might go?

The key thing against the iPod Classic is that many superior features might be included with iPod Touch which might end up having RAM and CPU from the iPhone OS. This will dramatically increase the number of subscribers to Apple’s App Store which will help its revenues and finally it might end up attracting some developers.

Come Thursday we will know if Marco Arment’s predictions are really going to come true. The reasons for his predictions seem quite logical but one never knows. I surely will be looking up news on Apple’s iPod Convention.

One thing is certain, with Microsoft willing to aggressively market ‘Zune‘ in the coming months Apple will come up with some surprises surely.

Links: Apple iPod | Microsoft Zune | Marco Arment