Apple stopped selling iPods after 20 years. Apple has announced that it will stop selling the iPod Touch, the latest model left in its range of portable music players. In the news on Tuesday, the company wrote that the current iPod Touch will be available “until stocks run out.“
Although Apple no longer produces music players, it claims that “the spirit of the iPod lives on” in all of its music players, such as the iPhone, iPad, and HomePod Mini.
Apple Stopped Selling iPods
The farewell to the iPod Touch marks the end of an important period. Apple introduced the first iPod over 20 years ago. The original FireWire model was just a portable music player, and in 2017, when Apple stopped making the iPod Nano and Shuffle, Apple was making models designed exclusively for listening to audio. Some iPod aficionados have adopted it as a new classic music player, but it has also found followers among those who wanted an iPhone-like experience but didn’t really need a phone.
Although the iPod Touch has its fans, it has been in the background for some time. The seventh-generation iPod Touch, which Apple discontinued on Tuesday, was unveiled in a 2019 press release. The sixth-generation iPod Touch was introduced in 2015. It was clear from the time between releases and previous hardware that Apple doesn’t plan on spending a lot of time and money on the iPod.
It’s hard to blame the company for all of this. Most people aren’t particularly interested in wearing another device that would do something their smartphone is capable of perfectly. Tony Fadell, one of the developers of the original iPod, mentioned in an interview with The Verge that the iPod team was aware that the iPhone could eventually outperform music players.
“It has become very clear to us that cell phones and functional phones pose a real threat. They started adding music and MP3 playback to cell phones that they started selling at that time, “he said.
According to Fadell, Apple has not encountered any problems with this. “At Apple, everything they felt – at least under Steve – had to be sold because it was of existential importance. You failed to make the iPhone a success because you cannibalized the iPod business. “
Even if the iPod will soon disappear from the shelves, it is difficult to completely abandon something so cult. Enthusiastic projects for iPod modifiers or online experiences are likely to continue to emerge aimed at arousing nostalgia for the era of dedicated music players.
Apple did not invent the market for these devices but launched them as favorites, and now that legacy has been preserved by companies like Sony and Fiio to preserve it for music lovers.
So yes, Apple stopped selling iPods.
