KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
It's been around 10 years in the making, but sources close to Apple have told KitGuru that they now believe the technology giant is ready to call an end to the development of the iPod Nano. We take a look back at this influential product's life and times.
When it came to 25th December 2005, the gift that most people wanted to see tucked into their stocking wasn't Charlize Theron – it was Apple's neat little iPod Nano.
Having replaced the traditional mini hard drive with some of the new fangled Flash memory, you might think that the options of 1, 2 and 4GB were miserly, but you have to remember that this little device had a tiny 176×132 resolution screen and was meant for storing photos and music. Given that 2GB can give you up to 500 songs, it's not that bad.
How popular was the Nano ?
How does one million units inside 17 days sound? Sounds like enough to propel Apple to a $1 Billion profit that year.
By the time the 6th generation iPod Nano launched a year ago, the world had moved on a great deal – largely because of Apple's own R&D efforts combined with ever cheaper 24 month contracts on expensive phones.
We believe that the 6th generation iPod Nano will be the last one ever launched. The drop off in feature-set from the 5th to the 6th generation was seen by many as a significant downgrade. Also, who wants to carry two products? If you have an iPhone or iPad, why would you need an iPod Nano that doesn't offer full video capture/playback etc ?
KitGuru says: If the rumours are true and Apple has released the last of these media devices, then it will be the end of a nano-era. Seeing this product develop from a scrawny – but desirable – little contraption, into something with a multi-touch screen, 16GB of storage and a good quality screen to boot, somewhat mirrored the rest of the market's move toward sophistication. But the customer has moved on. KitGuru reckons the only sobbing will be at the Chinese warehouses, overstocked with protective covers for a device that no longer needs projection.
Comments below or in the KitGuru forum.
Title is mis-leading. Sounds like Jobs wants to announce the death of Nano and the birth of Mainstream Micro Tech. Or whatever is smaller than Nano.
You might be right however. Either the Nano or the Shuffle will get discontinued, they can’t really live side-by-side like that. I’m personally thinking they’ll dump the Shuffle however, not the nano. Screen-less as it is and everything…..
They will however keep at least 1 non-iTouch MP3 Player. They know people like those light-weight MP3s just for songs. Sure, people like the iPhone and the iPod Touch, but some people don’t watch Videos, play Games or whatever outside of their Computer, so an iTouch for them is pointless.
I started freaking out when I saw this posted on Twitter, because instead of jumping to the iPod line of products, I thought – for some off reason – that it meant the OTHER nanotechnology. Crisis averted.
I’d be disappointed. My 4th gen nano is the only apple product that I own, and I have no interest in an iphone. Who wants to take their iphone jogging? Drop the shuffle, not the nano.
Man, thought it was th Shuffle for a second – could not live without the Shuttle. The Nano can blow a goat for all I care.