After 21 years, Apple will discontinue the iPod
Image credit: Gadget Gram
Apple has announced that the iPod Touch, a music player widely credited with revolutionising how people listen to music, will be phased out.
In 2001, the first iPod was released with a 1,000-track capacity. Over 90 million songs are now available on Apple’s streaming service.
The iPod Touch was designed by the same team that went on to create the iPhone, which quickly outsold the iPod.
The last time the iPod was updated was in 2019. Various iPod models, such as the Nano and Shuffle, have been created over the years, but the iPod Touch was the last to be discontinued in 2007.
It will be available for purchase “while supplies last,” according to Apple.
The device “redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” according to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing.
Users of the iPod have taken to social media to convey their emotions and memories about the music player.
In 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, clad in his typical jeans and black turtleneck, launched the first edition of the iPod too much fanfare and anticipation. There were rumours that the company was planning to reveal a new music player after the invitation for the launch event noted, “Hint: It’s not a Mac.”
Jobs declared during his hour-long talk.
Many celebrities have donated their fame to the iPod throughout the years, including John Mayer, U2, and Oprah Winfrey. After BMW produced the first automotive entertainment system with an integrated iPod system, most automakers followed suit.
Experts think, however, that the iPhone will eventually supplant the iPod.
“When Apple debuted the iPhone, it knew it would eventually be the end of the iPod,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, a technology advisory firm.
The decline of iPod sales, according to Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies, is tied to the rise of iPhone sales, much like the change from digital to streaming sales.
“Apple’s lack of concern for cannibalism of its commodities is arguably best demonstrated by the iPod’s death,” she said.