Could the iPod's popularity be waning, thanks in part to there simply being too many of them?
We all know trainers aren't that cool any more. Not since the Grandparents discovered that they were actually quite comfy. Indeed, it's all about the Converse now, or a nice pear of brogues, or dare we say it... sandals. So has the popularity of the iPod brought on the beginning of its demise?
This weekend The Observer made such a suggestion: "Apple's signature pocket device with white earphones may simply have become too common to be cool." The news comes amidst falling sales figures for the iPod, which in the results for the last published quarter, sold 8.1 million units, down from its Christmas peak of 14 million.
Part of the problem, it has been suggested, is competition from other players and online music services. Even social networking sites are being fingered as recent blows against the iPod's sales. Who needs to be locked into iTunes + iPod, eh? Oh, don't forget new mobile phones, too.
In the Apple rumour mill various bits of news are being thrown around, like the inevitable sale of movies for the iPod, along with which a widescreen, more capacious model may surface. Then of course there's the iPhone... We'll stop short of making a lengthy list of ways Apple and the iPod can fight back.
The way we see it, the iPod is an icon of the 21st century. iPod is to portable audio players what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners and Google is to web searching. Christmas is coming up again, sales figures will surely rise, though maybe not beyond last year's peak. We've seen one 'iPod killer' after another, all of which failed to even dent Apple's baby.
Nope, the iPod's not going to be killed off just yet. Apple's got far too much creativity to let that happen. Now where did I put my trainers...
