Apple has recently announced that the brand will discontinue its music player, the iPod Touch. With that, an end will come to a device that was launched 21 years ago, was credited with revolutionizing the way music was listened to, and had millions of lovers.
The iPod was
first launched in 2001 and, at that time, had the ability to store 1,000 songs.
Now, the Apple streaming service has over 90 million songs and has made the
iPod obsolete. Interestingly, the iPod Touch was designed by the same team that
invented the iPhone. The latter quickly overshadowed the former.
The last time
Apple updated the iPod was in 2019. Apple has launched many iPod models over
the years, like Nano, Mini, and Shuffle, and they all have been already
discontinued. iPod Touch, which was released in 2007, will be the last model to
be discontinued. The company said that the product would be available until
stocks last.
The History
The first iPod
was released in 2001, and it was the first-ever MP3 player capable of playing
1,000 songs at that time. It gained popularity quickly, and by 2011, Apple held
a 70% global market share in MP3 players. To date, over 400 million iPods have
been sold.
The key reason
for the discontinuation of iPods is simple. Mobiles and online music streaming
have replaced them.
The Statement
While sharing
the decision to discontinue, the senior vice-president of worldwide marketing
at Apple, Greg Joswiak, said the "spirit of iPod lives on." He stated,
"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."
The
Anticipation
When the iPod
was launched, there was a lot of anticipation. The product was revealed by
Apple boss Steve Jobs
in typical Apple style in 2001 while wearing his trademark jeans and black
turtleneck. At that time. Jobs had said, "Music's a part of everyone's
life. Music's been around forever. It will always be around."
The headline for
the night was also simple- "1,000 songs in your pocket."
The Support
With time, many
celebs have added their star power behind the iPod. U2, John Mater, and Oprah
Winfrey are some of the names you might recognize. Even BMW introduced the
first car entertainment system with a built-in iPod system. Many other car
manufacturers followed that trend shortly.
The
Inevitable
Tech experts
always believed that the replacement of the iPod with the iPhone was
inevitable. The chief analyst at technology advisory firm CCS Insight, Ben Wood,
stated: "When Apple created the iPhone it knew that it would ultimately
mean the beginning of the end of the iPod."
Carolina
Milanesi from Creative Strategies also stated that the decline in iPod sales
was connected to the rise of iPhone sales. She said, "The demise of the
iPod is probably the best example of Apple not being concerned about
cannibalizing its own products."
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61401626
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/10/the-spirit-lives-on-apple-to-discontinue-the-ipod-after-21-years
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/620324/BUSINESS/Apple-to-discontinue-the-iPod-after-21-years