Buried in the “how wonderful are we” Apple results was the news that iPod Classic sales are falling.

During the third quarter, Apple sold 10.2 million iPods, compared with 11 million a year ago. Apparently the sages at Apple saw this coming and tried to push a new product, the iPod Touch and of course the iPhone onto its legions of fanboys.

The iPod Touch offers a lot more functionality and, most importantly, it can run iPhone apps, which people find appealing, and they generate revenue for Apple. Normally in autumn Apple releases a new iPod, but it is starting to look like it will give the iPod classic a miss this year. Orders for new Samsung hard drives that would go into an updated Classic appear to be non-existent.

Some people who watch Apple think that the Classic may stick around for a little while, but it probably won't be upgraded. True, the iPod classic has better storage capacity and would be pretty good value from the standpoint of a storage player. Currently it can store 120GB in comparison to the iPod Touch and it is much cheaper.

It is a bit sad really. The iPod was what saved Apple's bacon and got the outfit out of its rut trying to peddle computers no one wanted. Now the iPod halo effect has given Apple a new lease of life and its gizmos such as the iPod and iPhone have helped peddle its expensive PCs.