Apple has announced it is retiring the legendary iPod with the last of the iconic music players now only available “while supplies last”
There’ll be no more products released under the iPod branding and only the current 7th-generation iPod touch (2019) remains on sale among Apple’s current product line-up. You can grab one now for £199 (32GB), £299 (128GB), and £399 (256GB) respectively.
It ends more than 20 years of history, since the first-generation iPod was released in the United States. The branding spanned a massive array of products; from the click-wheel classic, the handy little shuffle and the latter-day multicoloured nano models, as well as the docks, speakers and other accessories. Remember the iPod Sock?
Once the signature product, which catapulted Apple from niche computer company to global consumer technology phenomenon, the iPod eventually morphed into the iPhone and took Steve Jobs’ company to the stratosphere, often as world’s most valuable company.
Apple says the spirit of the iPod lives on today through legacy products like the HomePod mini, as well as the Apple Watch, which is a massive expansion of the iPod nano devices that hooked up to armbands and wrist straps.
“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,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. 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. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.”
Apple says that those missing the iPod touch in future, could just grab a last-gen iPhone SE, which isn’t that much more expensive and is ideal for a dedicated music-streaming device.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
