The tech giant said it would continue selling iPod Touch devices in its own stores and through verified resellers “while supplies last,” but would not produce more or unveil new versions.
The iPod gradually became obsolete as Apple added music streaming capabilities to its other devices and faced outside competitors, such as streaming platform Spotify and Amazon Music.
“Today, the spirit of iPod lives on,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV,” he added.
Apple’s blog post revealing the iPod’s imminent demise included pricing information about the iPhone, the Apple Watch and the iPad – an indication that those platforms have replaced the music player.
Famed Apple founder Steve Jobs touted the iPod as a transformational invention when he first debuted the device on stage at a company event in 2001. The original version could hold up to 1,000 songs.
“With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go,” Jobs said at the time, according to TechCrunch. “With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again.”
While the original iPod became known as the “classic” mode, Apple eventually unveiled several upgrades for the line, including the smaller Nano and Shuffle. The latest and final new version of the Touch was released in 2019.Once a top-seller, the iPod has been a negligible source of revenue for Apple in recent years. The tech giant hasn’t provided sales figures for the device since 2015, according to Reuters.
Unit sales were already on a downturn prior to that year – plunging 24% in Apple’s 2014 fiscal year compared to the previous year.The tech giant said Tuesday that its iPod Touch will only be available while supplies last. It also highlighted other ways people can listen to music across its various products.
“Today, the spirit of the iPod lives on," said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s world-wide marketing senior vice president.
Released in 2001, the first iPod helped Apple co-founder Steve Jobs remake the company, extending its reach from computers into other personal devices and vastly expanding Apple’s reach in the music industry.The iPod helped usher in a new era for music in which songs could be downloaded for 99 cents—separated from albums by artists—and loaded onto a device about the size of a deck of cards. The iPod helped make music more portable and was a smash hit, helping to pave the way for the company to unveil the iPhone, which put even more key functions onto one device.Now, as smartphones have grown even more sophisticated and music is largely streamed rather than accessed through paid downloads, iPod sales have diminished. Apple hasn’t separated iPod sales for years, but unit sales fell by about 24% in fiscal 2014 compared with the previous fiscal year.IPhones are now equipped with music streaming, advanced cameras, maps with GPS navigation and many more functions, all factors that contributed to the iPod’s obsolescence.
“There was no way that we were gonna be able to do the iPhone the way the iPhone was done, if it wasn’t for the iPod and how it set up the company for it," Mr. Fadell said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.