Is Apple’s iPod classic Soon to be Discontinued?

For the avid music listener, Apple offers a good range of portable players. For those who need something super-small, there’s the shuffle, and for those who want the same but a little more feature-rich, there’s the nano. Then of course there’s the touch, which avails iPhone-like functionality, sans the phone. For the rest of us, there’s the iPod classic, a bulkier player that’s bulky for a reason.

The classic is called “classic” because it’s reminiscent of the original iPod, the tall, thick offering with a special wheel that doesn’t actually turn, but magically works as if it does turn. None of that really matters to me, but what does is the fact that the classic features more storage space than most other players on the market; currently 160GB.

The only other player on the market that I know of that looks nearly as nice is Microsoft’s Zune, but that has its own list of caveats that makes it not for me. Unfortunately, for those who love the ample space and the iPod classic in particular, it looks like there’s a chance it might be nearing the end of its life. Or, we could just be jumping to conclusions.

According to AppleBitch (yes, really), stocks of iPod classics are dwindling all over, including at e-tailers like Amazon, Best Buy and even Apple itself. Apple reseller J & R are literally out of stock on them. And after last year’s Apple music event, which saw no update to the classic, it might well be the end of the beefy offering.

We’ve had a tip that the shipping times for the iPod Classic have slipped in the past week and that the device is backordered or out of stock in several retailers, suggesting that a new version of the popular media player may be on its way. The Apple Store shows that the silver iPod Classic now ships in 1-3 days, down from 24 hours last week. In addition, Best Buy has updated their website to say that the device is backordered for 1-2 weeks (last week it was shipped in 1 day) and Target also has it backordered for 2-4 weeks. Currently the shortage only seems to be affecting the silver colored model, the dark colored version appears relatively unaffected.