The Death Of The iPod

It was once the must have of gadgets, Apple's almighty creation. Although judging by the steady decline of sales, the end is near for the once great MP3 players, led by the mighty iPod.

iPod sales have been steadily declining since their peak at 22.7 million in December 2008, and analysts estimate another 7.2 percent drop over the quarter that just ended. Apple still commands 70 percent of the MP3 player market, but it's clear that other mobile devices, namely smartphones and tablets, can do the job of an MP3 player (while performing a myriad of other functions, too).

If you look at Apples current iPod range you will find that it is no longer marketed for music, instead we see these products marketed as cameras, gaming devices and even communication devices. iPods are becoming more like there counterpart, the immensely popular iPhone. However this is not a bad thing for Apple. Consumers are still buying Apple products, but less of them. Gone are the days where you needed a phone, a camera, a video camera, a games console, a computer, a music player, and countless other things to preform the functions the iPhone and the numerous other smart phones do so effortlessly. Playing MP3s is just taken for granted.

But although iPod sales are shrinking, it's hardly an issue for Apple. The iPhone 4 sold 18.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011 alone. And according to a study from Resolve Market Research, between 80 and 90% of the tablet sold are either iPads or iPad Minis.

"We believe iOS devices would have been up over 20 percent (since last quarter) if iPhone 5s had shipped in June," analyst Gene Munster said today. In late June, Google tweeted that there are over half a million Android device activations happening daily, and yesterday, that number jumped up to 550,000 per day. Some of those extra purchases could have been iPhones, had an iPhone 6 been available.

Regardless, Apple still has a solid spot as one of the top of the three major smartphone manufacturers. And as more and more people lay their MP3 players to rest, they'll be turning to smartphones to plug in for their mobile music fix.