After 20 years, Apple retires the iPod

Apple has announced the discontinuation of the iPod Touch, the only remaining device in its portable music player portfolio. The company stated in a news post on Tuesday that it will sell the existing Touch “while supplies last.”

While Apple has discontinued dedicated music players, the firm claims that “the spirit of the iPod lives on” in all of its music-playing devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and HomePod Mini.

The demise of the iPod Touch signifies the end of an era. According to Apple, the first iPod was released “almost 20 years ago.” The first FireWire-equipped model was only a portable music player, and Apple made variants that were almost entirely for listening to audio until 2017 when the iPod Nano and Shuffle were retired. While some iPod devotees embraced the iPod Touch as the new classic music player, it also acquired a following among others who desired an iPhone-like experience but did not require a phone.

 

 

While the iPod Touch has its devotees, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. The seventh-generation iPod Touch, which Apple discontinued on Tuesday, was announced in a press release in 2019. Despite the fact that the iPhone 11 would be introduced later that year, the 2019 touch used the same A10 processor as the iPhone 7. The sixth-generation iPod Touch was released in 2015. Despite the fact that people like me cried out for a simple music player designed for the age of streaming, the delay between releases and aging hardware made it plain that Apple wasn’t interested in spending much effort on the iPod.

While the iPod may soon be phased out of stores, it’s difficult to say goodbye to something so iconic. We’ll probably see more iPod modification projects from hobbyists, as well as web experiences aimed to inspire nostalgia for the era of dedicated music players. Apple didn’t develop the market for them, but it certainly catapult them to fame – now, the baton has been given to firms like Sony and Fiio to keep the legacy alive for die-hard music fans.