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Price of the Apple iPod

Added 01-10-2009

The iPod is a portable media player developed by Apple Computers. The first model was launched in 2001, now known as the 'Classic'. In total five different iPod's have been released: Classic, Mini, Shuffle, Nano, and Touch.

The mini was discontinued as Apple decided to concentrate on flash memory mp3 players, rather than those using a hard-disk. Each iPod model has been updated; some just once or twice, others over five times.

Each model update is called a 'generation'. For example, the 'Classic' model has been updated at least six times; therefore, there is a 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and 6G version of the Classic iPod.

The price of the iPod is largely dependent upon the price of global hardware components such as flash memory. Apple have recently been buying a large proportion of the global flash memory production.

The price of many of it's flash based players, like the Shuffle has come down in recent years. Whereas the Classic - which uses a harddisk - has not seen such a large depreciation. However, due to the rising economic problems in 2008, component and raw material price are rising; therefore, so may the iPod price.

The global economic slowdown also appears to have effected the global sales of iPod's, which look to have reached saturation point. Over one million units were sold in 2007, but that is unlikely to be matched in 2008.