Any chance of new iPod Touches this year?

[Jembo]

Has there been any news on this front? I dont need a cell phone but would love a 128GB iPod Touch. Or a 64Gb Nano.

 

[mmntech]

Slim to nill.

If I were a betting man, I'd say Apple is going to phase out the iPod touch and replace it with the iPad Mini. The current model was released in 2012 and Apple is still advertising them as running iOS 7 on their website. There's probably not as much demand for them as there once was. Especially now that everyone and their brother has smartphones.

 

[Eug]

iPod touches are still popular with kids. I suspect they will update them with the A6 chip like in the iPhone 5, when they finally retire the original iPad mini. I suspect this will happen in 2015.

The iPad mini is not a very good replacement for everyone with the iPod touch, because it is simply too big.

 

[Zink]

iPod touches are tiny, they feel about half the physical size of a normal 5" smartphone. In reality they're about half the weight of an iPhone 6 plus sized device, nowhere close to an iPad mini.

 

[mmntech]

iPod touches are still popular with kids. I suspect they will update them with the A6 chip like in the iPhone 5, when they finally retire the original iPad mini. I suspect this will happen in 2015.

The iPad mini is not a very good replacement for everyone with the iPod touch, because it is simply too big.

Now, I'm not totally nuts by saying I think that Apple is going to phase out the Touch. The iPod line has seen a sharp decline in sales over the past year. Tablets were also a hot ticket item for kids and teens last Xmas. A trend which seems to be continuing into this holiday season. The Mini 1 & 2 are priced very strategically, to make them appealing to this market. Even if they are less portable. Smartphone adoption among younger users is increasing. A 5S can be bought on contract for less than a Touch. That makes them more appealing to today's helicopter parent.

Now I never said WHEN Apple would phase out the Touch, only that it wouldn't get upgraded anytime soon. I expect there will be at least one more update announced. Either at WWDC or at the next iOS event, which will likely be next fall. Upgrade cycles for the Touch are getting further and further apart though. That's generally a good indication that Apple is losing interest.

If it does get upgraded, it will use at minimum an A7 chip, but most likely an A8. Any new device from here on out is going to be 64-bit. Traditionally, the Touches where one generation behind the iPhone released the same model year.

 

[LightPattern]

I tried to start a conversation about this last month.

I still think it's a potentially valuable part of their portfolio for wider adoption of Apple Pay with another practical (unlike iPad) NFC device plus Apple Watch pairing for people without iPhones.

There won't be an update this year it looks like. I would guess there will be an update next year, perhaps March-June 2015. (Their last slight revision was June 2014)

 

[Jembo]

This thread got a little more feedback than I expected.
I agree with mmntech. Probably just one more iteration.

It kinda bugs me that no one markets small, compact audio players in Canada/the US anymore. I'd assume there's many people like me who don't want a phone but have a music player with them all the time.

If I were Sony North America I would market a small, simple 32/64 Gb music player for $150 right now. I would figure they'd sell quite a few.

As for iPod Touches, ,my 4th gen is still good for music, but games, not so good.

 

[LightPattern]

The current model was released in 2012 and Apple is still advertising them as running iOS 7 on their website. There's probably not as much demand for them as there once was. Especially now that everyone and their brother has smartphones.

That's funny! On the iPod's main page it talks about iOS 8, but if you click to purchase, it's all iOS 7.

...

If it does get upgraded, it will use at minimum an A7 chip, but most likely an A8. Any new device from here on out is going to be 64-bit. Traditionally, the Touches where one generation behind the iPhone released the same model year.

I hope that part is true. The iPod is another way to expand the usage of the iOS/Apple ecosystem, and they are pushing 64-bit app adoption.

 

[mmntech]

You'll see a full 64-bit transition by 2016 at the latest. It all boils down to how long Apple wants to support A6 devices. There's not a lot of advantage to it now, but there will be down the road. Some Android devices are already pushing against the 32-bit memory ceiling. In two years time, we'll be seeing mobile devices with more than 4GB of RAM. Of course Apple wants to get their app devs ready now to avoid issues down the road, like what happened to Windows Vista.


And yeah, this is pretty funny. I took this screenshot today from the store.

It does say iOS 8 on the main page, though I wouldn't recommend running iOS 8 on any A5 device.

 

[Eug]

A8 in 2015 may make sense if they release it in the fall near the iPhone 6s, which would have the A9.

A8 does have a nice smallish die size at 89 mm2, but that assumes excellent yields at 20 nm by then.