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iPod Classic's Future in Doubt Due to Shrinking Market for 1.8" Hard Drives?

Wednesday July 15, 2009 1:35 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
iPodNN reports that Samsung and Toshiba, the only remaining manufacturers of 1.8-inch hard drives, are having difficulties finding substantial markets for their drives. The issues are casting doubt on the future of Apple's iPod classic, which utilizes 120-GB versions of the drives.

A new 250GB Samsung drive has failed to find significant sales, despite being deliberately marketed at builders of media players and netbooks.

The drive would not be as important if a 240GB Toshiba unit, released 10 months ago, was not also in a similar situation. Samsung and Toshiba are the only remaining makers of 1.8-inch hard drives, and if neither company is able to find establish a client base, it may imply by extension that Classics will no longer see any hard drive upgrades.

Apple last updated the iPod classic in September 2008, quietly consolidating the previous 80-GB and 160-GB models into a single 120-GB model. Apple's iPod touch currently tops out at 32 GB of storage, and while many expect that Apple will bump its capacity to 64 GB later this year, users focused on large capacities for on-the-go media storage may be disappointed if Apple is forced to discontinue the iPod classic.
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Pugpuppydude
34 months ago
Spinning hardrives are old technology.
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no.1 Apple Fan
34 months ago
Please don't discontinue the Classic, Apple! First of all, It is the one iPod that represents the original iPods and second, it is great for those of us who have a huge music collection.
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toxictrix
34 months ago

Spinning hardrives are old technology.


Yes, but what do you expect us to do when we have huge music libraries? I want to carry all my music with me on an ipod. Until flash gets up to around 120 gigs I like my old spinning hard drive ipod.
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appleguy123
34 months ago
What about the macbook air harddrives?
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slu
34 months ago
Capacity topping out at 64GB would be a travesty and a step backward.

IMO, this would be a huge mistake.
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3247
34 months ago
My guess is that Apple will discontinue the iPod classic when the iPod touch reaches more than 100 GB. This might already happen this year.
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Eidorian
34 months ago
Definitely going to need higher density flash memory if you're going to replace the 1.8" drive.
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ravenvii
34 months ago
My guess is that Apple will continue the iPod Classic for one more year. By next September the iPod touch should have 64 GB + 128 GB configurations. Apple will nix the Classic then.

Hell, or maybe they will keep the Classic, but stick a SDD drive in there instead.
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Demosthenes X
34 months ago
Netbooks are huge sellers, so I'm surprised that 1.8" format drives aren't doing so well. One would expect all of the netbooker makers would be clamouring to offer a 250GB netbook...

Do 1.8" drives still top out at 4200RPM? Maybe that's the problem - perhaps instead of concentrating on higher capacity, the manufacturers should concentrate on higher performance. If 1.8" drives could reliably run at 5400RPM (or even 7200RPM!), just imagine the impact on notebook computers. :)
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nick9191
34 months ago
How much does the 1.8" SSD in the MacBook Air cost? I mean the jump from the $1499 model to the $1799 model gets you the 128gb SSD and a faster processor. Surely Apple could chuck together an iPod Classic or a thicker iPod Touch with this SSD for under $400.
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