Apple on Wednesday announced that it is retiring the iPod Touch, marking the end of the iPod product line more than two decades after the pocket-sized portable music player made its debut . The primary reason behind the decision is the product losing its relevance in the age of modern devices.

Today, a user can stream Apple Music on iPad, iPhone, HomePod mini, MacBook, and even through AirPods paired with an Apple Watch. The arrival of these products have cannibalised the sales of iPods.

According to a company statement, customers can still purchase the iPod (for Rs 19,600) till the existing inventory is exhausted. It added that the legacy of iPods will be carried forward through its other products.

“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,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement.

How iPods

revolutionised music streaming

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had famously promised his daughter, Lisa-Brennan Jobs, that he would put "1,000 songs on her pocket", which led to the creation of the first iPod, or iPod Classic. With this, Apple disrupted the digital music player market with iPods as the device offered a large capacity with a user-friendly interface. The ability to listen to a large collection of music on the go was liberating at the time and this helped Apple become a market leader in no time.

In fact, the iPods music player and iTunes software introduced people to digital music purchases in 2003. Later, in 2007, Apple released iPod Touch — the iPhone-iPod hybrid device. Back then, the iPod Touch was called the iPhone without a phone.

“Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impact more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” said Greg Joswiak, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, Apple.

The iPods enjoyed a dream run for several years till the introduction of iPhones with large internal memory. Apple’s last iPod Touch was released in 2019. Before this, Apple discontinued selling those iPods — iPod Mini, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle — between 2014 and 2017.

Even as Apple is retiring the iPod Touch, the tech giant will always be indebted to the massive success of the original iPod device, which propelled consumers to invest in more Apple products.

First Published:May 11, 2022 7:34 AM IST