When was the last time you listened to your iPod? The iconic iPod line, which ushered in a revolution in the music industry two decades ago, is set to come to an end, with Apple announcing it will discontinue the iPod Touch.

On 10 May, Apple announced the iPod Touch, an iPhone-iPod hybrid device that was released in 2007, will be available only “while stocks last”.

More about Apple’s decision to end the iPod

‘Spirit of iPod lives on’

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

Joswiak added that the “spirit of iPod lives on” through the range of gadgets that Apple produces — iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod mini, Mac, iPad, and Apple TV, among others.

“And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music,” Joswiak underlined.

The iPod Touch is currently on sale on Apple’s official website, starting at USD 199 apiece. The device comes in three models — 32GB, 128GB and 256GB models — and six colours, including silver, pink, blue and gold.

The iPod Touch was released by the team which later invented the iPhone, the product which eventually sounded the death knell for the iPod.

A quick look at iPod’s history

The iPod was launched in 2001 and could store only 1,000 tracks. By contrast, Apple Music today has 90 million songs and over 30,000 playlists.

The first iPod was unveiled by Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs with much fanfare and was a revolutionary gadget of its time.

“Music’s a part of everyone’s life. Music’s been around forever. It will always be around,” Jobs had said at the time during his presentation.

Everyone, from celebrities to major car brands, started using or integrating the iPod. Over the years, the original iPod was followed by more advanced models such as iPod Mini, iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle. All of these, except iPod Touch, were discontinued by 2017.

Apple provided the last update for the iPod service in 2019.

(Main image: Christine Sandu/@lenscapewithme/Unsplash; Featured image: Andres Urena/@andresurena/Unsplash)

This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia India

The post Apple To Discontinue The iPod After 21 Years appeared first on Augustman Malaysia.