Apple discontinues iPod after 20 years
It’s the end of the MP3 player as we know it.
Years after ditching the beloved click-wheel, Apple said Tuesday it was discontinuing the iPod Touch, its last iPod model.
The company said the iPod will no longer be sold online and available in stores “while supplies last.”
It’s a quiet end to a product that changed the design of popular technologies, leading to the predominance of handheld devices like thin phones with big screens and tablets.
The iPod also had a big hand in further boosting Apple’s public perception as the “cool” technology company after its introduction from Steve Jobs.
The writing has been on the wall for the iPod for years, however, as more and more people subscribe to music streaming services, including the one Apple sells, and have less need for MP3 players.
The original model was discontinued in 2014 with both the Nano and Shuffle following in 2017. The Touch had not received an update since 2019.
“Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said in a statement.
“Today, the spirit of iPod lives on” in other Apple products, like the iPhone and Watch, Joswiak added.
