iPod: Feeling Threatened

The news looming around the iPod this week is that the famous mp3 player is on the radar for the next gadget to become extinct.

OK. I'm simply exercising a little bit of hyperbole, here.

But the iPod's alert has been raised to orange. The wireless companies are pushing to transform most handsets into music players and this poses a problem for the white (or pink, blue, lime or gray) knight of portable media players.

In an article issued by Reuters, Barron's newspaper stated that by 2006, new and improved handsets will "carry software, circuitry, and data storage for portable music." Basically, you will be able to not only download your music from a computer, but also over the air.

Barron's forecast stats for iPod sales could reach 45 million next year, however this fails to compete with handset sales of a projected 750 million. Yikes.

::clutches her first gen, 10 gig iPod::

I am positive that Apple is not only aware of this issue, but has already mapped out several ideas to overcome the impending threat of the handset. I'm no analyst, but the iPod seems to remain as an icon of stature. In fact, just the other day, I was purchasing an iPod Shuffle for my fiance's birthday, and three people behind me were impatiently waiting, as they all wanted to ask if they could have the last iPod Mini. I would have stayed to watch the tackling and arguing, but I was too distracted by my temptations to open the new Shuffle. After all, I am a self-proclaimed gadget junky -- so much that I gave my fiance his gift a whole week before his birthday just so I could play with it. I'm selfish, I know.

Now's the time for Apple to get on that Motorola collaboration and introduce the new iPod phone. My fiance couldn't have said it better, when I told him that I would have gotten him a Mini, he exclaimed that a Shuffle is fine for now - he'd rather wait for the iPod that has all the functions of a phone and organizer all in one. Oh yes, a camera too.