It was once considered bulky and too primitive to compete with slim touch screen music players and smartphones that could play videos at the same time.

But just three months after Apple discontinued the iPod classic in favour of more advanced models, demand for the music player with the traditional click wheel has risen, causing prices to soar.

The latest versions of the classic with the maximum storage of 160GB - more than any other portable music player - are currently selling on eBay for more than £550 as music fans clamour to get hold of the latest models before they are all disappear.

Apple discontinued the iPod classic in October following a slow but steady drop in sales as people began to favour the iPod touch and using their phones and cloud devices to store music.

But the large capacity of the Classic, which allows people to store thousands of songs without having to sign up to a website and pay a subscription fee, has made it the must-have present this Christmas.

Music experts began advising experts to get hold of an iPod Classic as early as last year, before they were discontinued and demand, and prices began to increase.

And its value is likely to continue to rise after Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, said it was unlikely the model would be revisited because they lacked access to the components and a redesign would be too expensive, the Observer reported.

Early last year Will Dunn, editor of Stuff magazine, advised people to buy a version of the Classic, predicting prices would double.

He said: 'There's still a huge affection for the iPod Classic and it's not hard to see why - Spotify might offer 20 million songs, but 120GB of music is more than most people need, and your iTunes library doesn't carry data charges or a subscription fee.'

eBay has been selling versions of the iPod Classic 6th generation, with 160 GB storage for between £350 and £550. The latest, 7th generation version, is currently listed on the site with a £350 price tag.

The iPod Classic was first launched in 2002, with storage increasing to 160GB with the sixth and generations produced from 2007. It began to be replaced by slimmer more advanced models, such as the nano, first launched in 2005 and the iPod touch in 2007 as the popularity of the touch screen began.

The iPod Touch is now the only model being produced with the most capacity, but at 80GB this is still only half of the Classic version.

(dailymail.com)

ANN.Az