The Apple iPod revolutionized the music industry.  It gives people all the music they want in their pockets, all encased in a tiny device small enough to fit snugly in their hand. But if Steve Wozniak is right, the days of the iPod could soon be over, as he predicts its death is imminent.

Steve Wozniak, otherwise known as Woz, or the second Steve, founded Apple alongside Steve Jobs in 1976. Woz has always been the quiet, geeky one, and while Steve Jobs continues to run the company behind the iPhone, Mac, and iPod, Wozniak retired from Apple in 1987. But that by no means lessens his views on the company, where it’s headed, and the general state of the technology market.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Wozniak seemed to go all out to annoy Apple’s press office. On the future demise of the iPod, he said:

The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one. Things like, that if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while.

It’s kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real cheap and they are not selling as much.

While radios and Walkmans have had their day in the sun before slowly fading away, I personally think the iPod still has some life left in it yet. They are indeed everywhere, and almost everyone I know has one.  But most of those people also want to upgrade to a newer model iPod, so sales aren’t going to drop any time soon. Unless, of course, this recession gets as bad as predicted.

However, what could signal the end for the iPod is the emergence of bigger and better smart phones. As the capacities and feature sets increase, people may find themselves using their phones as portable media players. But then Apple also has this market covered with the 3G iPhone.

Although Wozniak even speaks out about Apple’s latest and possibly greatest product, saying:

Consumers aren’t getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down. I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you’re allowed.

Lastly, but probably most worrying, is his assessment of the current technology market, and how the recession could have a devastating effect. He states:

It is time for the whole computer industry to maybe have a bit of a slowdown. For twenty years we have been in this replacement and upgrade market. It is very easy to postpone that when there are financial irregularities.

Wozniak is the geeky one of the two Steves, but he also seems to be the most honest. While Jobs will always follow the party line, the one he is dictating, Woz doesn’t seem to have any problem in telling it like it is. And if his predictions do come true then all of us with an interest in the technology market better tighten our belts.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 8:13 pm under Apple, Music, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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