Jobs: "you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year"
By Marc Perton 
posted May 26th 2006 3:31PM
posted May 26th 2006 3:31PM
[Via iLounge]
posted May 26th 2006 3:31PM
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Fully agreed. My first generation iPod Mini, barely a year old at the time, ended up with 50% of its original battery capacity/times (it barely offers me more than 3.5 hours). Very dissapointing. Especially because replacing the battery is a pain in the rear.
This is such a non-story.
Here, look:
"If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new Dell at least once a year."
"If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new Ford at least once a year."
"If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new Palm at least once a year."
"If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new [insert your consumer product of choice] at least once a year."
This isn't some sort of directive, its a FACT. I'd expect the techno rabid folks who read this blog to
see that.
*gasp* apple updates their products. FOR SHAME, apple, FOR SHAME. /sarcasm.
If the ipod had not been updated in 2 years, Endgadget would be grousing on the fact that it HADNT been updated.
Must suck being poor. I like having the "latest and greatest" and I for one don't think Apple updates products frequently enough. Hell, I'd buy a new one each month if they introduce new models at that pace.
Pray Jobs doesn't command you to buy a new one EVERY DAY!
This "article" has an INNACTURATE TITLE. The quote is OUT OF CONTEXT.
MOD POSTER DOWN.
"music players just seem like they have battery issues because people use the hell out of them."
I've been using the hell out of my iRiver IHP-140 for over two years, on an almost daily basis, and I haven't noticed any loss of battery charge capacity. It still plays for several hours on a single charge, no problem.
Yet another reason I love my little Zen Micro :)
That is why I would not buy an ipod! We have enough computer crap filling landfills. Buy something that can be upgraded not thown away. Get a clue!!!!
Computers, Printers, Cars, Cameras, Software, TVs...
If you want the greatest you buy one every year. It would be bad if Apple updated its products only every 3 years or so, they would be behind everybody else most of the time.
Engadget used to be known as a pro-Apple site and got knocked by the anti-Apple zealots for that. Nowadays it seems to move back and forth from one extreme to another in the hopes that such extreme stances might be confused with being “balanced.” Each switch causes one extreme or the other to come out of the woodwork to bash them.
Wait a week and Marc will be making a snide comment about “Sim Wong Who??” and Creative w.r.t. Apple.
Besides, look at the comment traffic on this post vs. their non-Apple postings. One thing you can say is Marc knows what drives traffic to his site. C'mon, let’s admit that if Marc said, “Steve Jobs states the obvious” would you have read this article or taken the time to flame him?
Here's a concept. If you don't think this is news, don't read it and find what you are looking for elsewhere. This , in fact, is tech news. Apple and the iPod have an extremely strong media presence. If Steve Jobs so much as gets a hernia, it'll be all over the media. Stop complaining and move on. Next.
#12 asked: What's supposed to happen to all those old iPods? What am I supposed to do with the old 20" iMac I just bought? Buy a new one next year?
Answer: Since you sounded like you have been living in a cave for so long I would like to suggest you for once get out and visit "ebay".
God damn!! looks like the apple fans are going to boycott engadget. Ryan be careful, look what they almost did to france.
One more word about anything remotely against them and its world war 3 on your ass.
Hire bodyguards Ryan.
Copperhead, if you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new Zen Micro at least once a year.
#22 said:
"Normally when a quote is abbreviated, the abbreviation is noted with ". . ." The headline to this article is a bit misleading."
Are you suggesting that bloggers actually know something about grammar and journalism? Har!
what fcking nerve nad i was going to buty an ibook today. well him and his greedy company juss lost a great sell.
Whats an Apple?
OMG! Steve Jobs is an absolute prick.
I had to buy two iPod nanos the first *week* thanks to their cr@ppy lanyard design. The darn thing dropped off in the grocery store.
http://nanolanyardsucks.com
Eww, Charlie -- # 28, And I thought I was crude.
Guys, we don't have to buy ANYTHING from Apple, just because that @#$%-Off says we do. Screw Jobs! I have 1 iPod and 1 iRiver, if the iPod breaks, than I'll buy and new one - NOT A MOMENT BEFORE.
The More You Know...*cue NBC music*
#63
It's for that exact reason that most consumer products (ie. Dishwashers, Washing Machines, TVs, etc.) these days break soon after the warranty expires - to force you to buy a new one. Pray this doesn't happen to MP3 players!
I agree to the title being misleading.
I would upgrade every year if i could afford it, and donate the old equiptment to a local school or charity :)
To the Dark Side, Steve has gone.
Wow!
What an insanely great business model!
Jobs is 100% right. Now can one of you yearly upgraders hand me down a year old (or even two year old) iPod? It will save you having to find cupboard space to store it for a few years before you chuck it out :)
"buy a new ipod every year" man what a schmuck
Way to editorialize. Have you ever owned an ipod? Let alone the same one for over a year? Please keep your aspersive and calumniating remarks to yourself.
I wonder how often Steve Jobs gets a new iPod.
That certainly seems to be the mindset keeping MP3 player makers from incorporating expandable flash card slots. Instead of just buying a larger (and cheaper) flash card, you gotta upgrade to a larger drive to hold your ever-expanding collection!
This is COMPLETELY out of context. The title is misleading he was referring to if you wanted to stay up to date with the latest and greatest.
It's not like the iPod is updated more often than any other gadget. You still get what you paid for...
Well, at least he was the one to say it. Why do you think Dell and Sony release new computers...Doy
whats all that complaining? don't buy the f***** apple products if they are SO terrible, besides that nobody forces you to upgrade your iPod, it's not as if they would stop playing after a year (except for the battery/shell thing *g*). you want the latest and greatest? then you have to live with the short product cycles, after all they have to come up with something new to keep the folks buying their stuff... :-P
oh nothing against apple bashing by the way, but at least make it a bit smarter. posting apple stuff with a negative undertone, knowing that at least some people will go ballastic on it is just plain boring. I know you can do better at engadget ;)
I have to agree with Shade, It seems like you need to buy a new everything on a routine basis.
Oh, the anti-Apple stance is easy to explain: It's the Dvorak Effect. They write crap and we go nuts hitting the page to respond, in turn selling lots of page views.
Marc — if you want to be taken seriously, don't write like a newbie whiner.
Oh come on... what have they ever done to the iPod to make you want to buy a new one each year?? Aren't they the same POS that came out originally?? Minimal features and cool case? Right??
I have a second generation 20GB iPod (i.e. the really old one). It is like Steve Jobs said: "IF you want the latest and greatest...". I don't need the LATEST and GREATEST - I'm perfectly happy with my 20GB model.
If I cared about watching video - then I'd get a video iPod. If I were using it for running, I'd get a Shuffle or a Nano which don't have hard drives. If the amount of storage were insufficient, I'd buy a 60GB model. For my needs, my current, very old iPod is great. When the battery gets long in the tooth, I just replace it with the cheap replacement kits from Newer Technology.
Makes the GP2X seem like an EVEN MORE desirable item - latest and greatest are only latest and greatest to the company that sells it to you. What matters primarily is what you can do with it, and if it were entirely up to Apple, we'd all be listening to nothing but Apple store purchases.
That may be an obvious statement, but it begs the question: how can we trust corporations to be innovative with their products when sales are at the forefront of their minds? Surely to them, innovation only comes when buying habits change.
As a recently converted Mac-to-Linux user (I've been a Mac user for nearly 15 years - innovation attracted me to their products to start with), I can definitely warn of the dangers of being locked into the 'Apple' frame of mind.
Please, what's wrong with what he said? You want the latest, you buy the latest.
Full quote:
"If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year." DUH
If I want the latest Cell Phones from (insert company here), a new one comes out every few months.
The latest car from (insert company here), every year.
I dont know why we're even discussing this. its not a phone/tv/handheld tablet yet so just dont buy one until it has or does what you want. steve jobs is, afterall, a businessman and the question was asked by a redundantly uninspired member of "the media". it was a soundbyte, thats all. he could have told them 6 things aswell as that but thats what they focused on to get us to focus on it. I dont own an ipod but I do buy apple and I just spend my money wisely. simple as that.
One thing Apple will get from me each year is my middle finger.
Talk about a misleading headline. "If you want a new iPod, you have to buy a new iPod" isn't a particularly contentious statement.
Engadget can slam Apple regularly, but Apple is one of the few undeniable leaders of the personal tech revolution.
They are ruling the market with DAP's and that isn't through merketing trickery. The innovations keep coming, and Job's statement points to new "must have" models coming soon. A testament to a pipeline of cool products. IF you want the latest and greatest.
Yeah, battery issues, BFD, they took care of their customers, and if I threw (for example) my treo in my pocket with my keys and no protection, would I even think of blaming Palm for a poor design? This is gettin' stupid. "nano isn't indestructible? sue! they said I culd put it in my jeans, dude."
Engadget is riding on Apple's coat-tails but posts like this do reveal a slant, or at least a cheap method of stirring up us engadgetoids.... sigh... I love the attitude when it doesn't seem too contrived like this.
(and I am a PC user who does not own an iPod- yet)
So go buy an iRiver you punks, you're only choosing M$ over Apple.
Anyway, that picture IS kind of scary I must say!
Also great work Engadget!
This was a great way to test the intelligence of your readers, who type first and think later. Many other sites uses the same Apple bait, works every time especially when a statement was misquoted so purposefully.
Your dry sarcasm got me laughing hard. :P
sure are a lot of apple whores out today. The man just face f**ked you all and you defending that sleezeball. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (laughing my ass of). If that was anyone else it would be brimestone and fire.
*OR* get an iPod that runs Rockbox and you'll always have something better than the latest and greatest. Plus it will do a what a legitimate music player should do: play music gaplessly, support open source codecs, allow user customization, have a legitimate EQ, etc etc etc.
It just goes to show that the iPod is not about music but is nothing more than empty consumerism...The people who have untold thousands of songs on the their iPods don't care about the music...in fact individual songs are probably not considered as of much value at all...it is the bragging rights...to bask in the envy of the empty headed .
Please, Steve. I'm going to be a switcher (PC to Mac). Don't be evil :(
You take that way out of context. He said "That is the price of being current with any technology." And its true. The newest iPod is just like the newest clothes. You don't have to stay current, but if you do, pay up.
This is not news. It's troll baiting.