Sadly, Woz is right! With the iPhone already getting all the buzz, the iPod is already losing its attention. Plus, I'm glad that he made the comment that companies ultimately should not tie anything down to their brand name, including Apple. In fact, if Steve was taking advice from Wozniak right now he would open up the Apple product line a lot more than it is right now.

I don't agree...
The Walkman didn't die! Sony's MP3 players still sport the "Walkman" name!
If Apple keeps up with the evolution of entertainment technology, the iPod as we see it today will surely die, but the iPod name will live on in the next generation of products!
The "brand" will live on but the products will change...

Seriously what has Woz done lately? Come up with your own cool stuff rather than running down the iPod. Perhaps when/if that runs its course Apple will have something else cool that you didn't come up with and Microsoft can rip off badly. Then you can harp on that to?

no brainer, iPhone will take the place of iPod

iPod will still rule in the cheaper markets where cannot afford iPhone

watch like the one u have at your arm. maybe an apple clock.

I think Apple's next superstar is the iPhone. Woz had a somewhat of a good point, but he failed to give credit where credit is due in regards to the iPhone's success.

-Neel

Woz is getting real dumb imho.

I do not agree with Woz. The product will evolve with people's needs in the same way other products such as TV,Fridges, washing machines, etc.

Yes, more products will emulate what the iPod does; however, Apple stays in the lead thanks to its innovation.

I think Woz hit the wall with his Segway a couple times too many. BTW, what's he done lately? Yeah, I don't know either.

This guy Woz is brilliant. Everyone is just going to stop listening to music on portable devices.

I think he mentioned our sun was also getting ready to fizzle out in a few billion years.

By the way, what company does Woz run that is currently successful?

I predict Woz will some day die... unless he is a cyborg...

I think WOZ's days are numbered. Seen a picture of him lately? He looks like sh!t.

Someone above mentioned the Sony Walkman. Modern Walkmans (Walkmen? Walkpersons?) are phones.

The current endpoint for this tech is one device you carry around which is a music player and a phone and does internet and anything else you require an electronic device for.

Possibly in the future, this will be a watch, or an implanted chip or a sheet of smart paper or an earring or it's built into your glasses or your head, or who knows what, but the idea will be that you have a single device which does everything you need on the move. I think this is Woz's vision.

Pictured: Steve Wozniak, the last time he was relevant to the world of technology.

Ohhh, look at all the sweet agressive fanboys defending their company. At which point do you recognize that people had become slaves of their narrow mind? Oh yes, right, it is when they start shouting at someone with an opinion just because of a stupid brand. Get over it, it`s just a statement. Noone wants to free your little, slaved Borg minds from the big Apple-collective. Yes everyone will be assimilated. Oh yes, once there were good times for Apple, when they had intelligent fans. Woz is a good man. He just told what is fact, no big secret really. The iPod will go, another product from Apple will come. He didn´t say portable music devices will die. And because of that you behave like little Apple-Nazis bashing everyone with an opinion? Think about that little boys.

Formats don't die because of a timeline, they don't just expire because enough time has passed or it's become too ubiquitous, they expire because something comes along to replace them that's usually better and more efficient. As far as portable music is concerned, Cassette replaced Eight Track and CD replaced Cassette and now iPod has replaced CD (we're talking portable music here).

And for those saying that the iPhone has replaced the iPod... The iPhone IS an iPod too. It's got the iPod built into it, so it doesn't make sense to say that it's replacing it. I don't know how much more efficient portable music can get than digital files and the iPod, but I'm sure if something replaces the iPod, Apple will create it.

vaairryy interestink! But sschtoopid nein? Sieg Heil der wunderkind Job's. Means belonging to Gott. Die other Schteve was once Niak. Now he isst WasntNiak. A genius mit ein soldering iron, yah. But big problem mit der fuss in der munt. hehe. Eine kleine fanboy.

I'm sorry but he obviously hasn't been in an apple store lately then. The newest iPods are selling like hot cakes. More so than the previous generation did. People are loving the new Nano's and Touches. I work at an Apple Retail Store and he is way way off base by saying this. The iPods are just as popular as they ever were. Also the iPhone will not replace the iPod because some people absolutely hate the fact that they have to sign a contract with a cell phone company to get a music player, when they already have a perfectly good cell phone that does everything they want. Yes technology people want the iPhone over the iPod but so many people think the iPhone is over the top and they don't need all those features, so they buy an iPod instead.

He didn't say listening to music would go away or that Apple wouldn't be delivering content. He simply said over time the iPod will be replaced by something else. It may be from Apple or it may be from some other company but eventually it will not be the dominate method of music delivery.

I'm generally interested in what Woz has to say because he's smart, he's been around a while, and he has very little at stake in the subject matter, so you're not likely to get pro-Apple or anti-Apple spin as you will from everyone else. This, however, is pretty much a non-story made to sound like a story to drive traffic to your blog. Woz is just talking common sense stuff about long term product life cycles-- there's no industry shake up here. And the iWatch stuff? Misleading. If you want to talk about fantasy products, frame it as such.

On the other hand, I do think this is interesting from a marketing perspective, and this is where I would disagree from Woz-- iPhone as a product name is more likely to die than iPod. As others have said above, it is about the mobile device that does everything, and iPod is just such a better name for that. It would've been difficult to introduce the iPhone without calling it a phone, but once it dominates its category I suspect we'll see a transition back to the iPod name.

In case he wasn't kidding, could the iWatch be the new vision goggles sort of thing Apple has filed a patent for a while ago?

It makes sense to think this way, i'm sure people thought that walkmans and CD players would be around forever. but the reason the ipod will stay around is there is no real tech upgrade from hard drives or flash memory, and there won't be for a while. When they come up with something then we will see a big update to the ipod line. The iphone/ipod touch is really a new platform so the ipod will still have a place.

The next place for apple to go is really to revolutionize the Apple TV almost like Tivo did with the DVR

Sorry but Woz is flat wrong on this one. The days of huge growth for the iPod may be winding down but, because Jobs has been so stingy with major enhancements, there's still lots of life in the line. Most of that is in the nano and especially the Touch. I do feel that unless Apple opens the spigot on new features SOON then either someone else will step in or it'll just wither away.