"End of an era: Apple discontinues its last iPod model"/ "After 20 years, Apple is saying goodbye to the iPod"

May 10, 2022 "End of an era: Apple discontinues its last iPod model": Today I found this article by Mark Gurman on the BNN Bloomberg:

Apple Inc.’s iPod, a groundbreaking device that upended the music and electronics industries more than two decades ago, is no more. 

The company announced Tuesday that it would discontinue the iPod Touch, the last remnant of a product line that first went on sale in October 2001. The touch-screen model, which launched in 2007, will remain on sale until supplies run out.

Apple released dozens of versions of the iPod over the years, but the product was gradually eclipsed by its other devices, especially the iPhone. That led the company to begin phasing out models in 2014. At the time, the company stopped making the iPod classic, a version with a click wheel and small screen that was most similar to the original version. In 2017, Apple stopped making its smallest music players, the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle.

The iPod Touch -- popular as a cheaper alternative to the iPhone -- held on a few more years. The device was last updated in 2019 and cost US$199. Compare that with the cheapest iPhone in Apple’s portfolio: the SE, which costs US$429. 

But with so many other ways to get music, Apple no longer sees the product as necessary.

“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,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. 

Introduced by Steve Jobs, the iPod was credited with helping to turn Apple from a nearly bankrupt company to an eventual US$3 trillion behemoth. The iPod set the stage for the development of the iPhone, iPad and AirPods -- products that now make up most of Apple’s revenue. 

End of an era: Apple discontinues its last iPod model - BNN Bloomberg

May 11, 2022 "After 20 years, Apple is saying goodbye to the iPod": Today I found this article on CBC news:

Apple is discontinuing the iPod, more than 20 years after the device became the face of portable music and kickstarted its meteoric evolution into the world's biggest company.

The iPod Touch, the only version of the portable music player still being sold, will be available till supplies last, Apple said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Since its launch in 2001, the iPod took on a storm of competing music players before being eclipsed by smartphones, online music streaming and within the Apple pantheon, by the rise of the iPhone.

The iPod has undergone several iterations since its inception featuring a scroll wheel, the capacity to store 1,000 songs and a 10-hour battery life. The version that has been carried till now — the iPod Touch — was launched in 2007, the same year as the iPhone.

Apple stopped reporting iPod sales in 2015.

After 20 years, Apple is saying goodbye to the iPod | CBC News