Apple iPod Discontinued After 20 Years

Last Updated on May 11, 2022 by Asif Iqbal Shaik

Apple has announced the discontinuation of the iPod Touch, the company’s final device in its portable music player portfolio. The announcement was made via a company blog post, in which the brand stated that the current iPod Touch will only be available “while supplies last”.

iPods have become legendary items, something that many in the early 2000s adored. It was one of the products that, together with the Sony Walkman, catapulted the portable music player market to new heights. Apple said that “the spirit of iPod lives on” in all of its music-playing devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and HomePod Mini, after bidding farewell to the 20-year product lineup.

The iPad Nano and Shuffle were discontinued in 2017 and were replaced by the iPod Touch, which immediately gained popularity among customers who desired an iPhone-like experience but did not require a phone. The iPod Touch was last updated in 2019, and it ran on Apple’s A10 chip and featured minor improvements over the previous edition. Though there were rumours of a new model on the way, such a product was never released.

Tony Fadell, one of the original iPod’s creators, noted in an interview with The Verge, “The iPod team anticipated that the iPhone would eventually supplant music players. It became evident to us that mobile phones, particularly feature phones, posed a serious danger. They were beginning to include music, specifically MP3 playback, into the cell phones that they were distributing at the time.”

This isn’t the end of the iPod saga. Despite being discontinued years ago, the iPod Nano and Shuffle continue to have a strong fan following and modders who prefer to bring out mods allowing enthusiasts to use the obsolete hardware. On the other hand, companies such as Sony and Fiio have launched products that closely resemble the functionality and design of the iPod series.