iPod

For more than 20 years, Apple's iPod seems to have lived in the hearts of the people and not just pockets. The portable music player, which is still being ...

Of course, back in 2001, when the first iPod launched, it was all about freedom. Just as the Sony Walkman had freed us before so we could take our music with us ...

While the iPod touch does most of the things an iPhone can, it’s hard to get away from the idea that came with its launch, that it is all about music. It’s fair to say that having an iPod equivalent in every iPhone from the first up until the iPhone 13 Pro Max, made a separate device in your pocket less important. The Apple iPod wasn’t the first digital player but it was the best-looking, the coolest and by far the easiest to use. But the big change came when Spotify arrived and meant you could stream music. No longer did we have to listen to the 10 songs on a retail cassette or CD, or twice that on a home-crafted mix tape. Just take a look at the image at the top of this post: the pleasantly tactile clickwheel, the shiny finish, even the onscreen font all have a gorgeous, classic look.

“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 ...

So, the iPod and its accompanying music store was a pretty big deal in its day, then. And while it was really streaming that took the record industry back into growth, the iTunes boom in the late 2000s definitely mitigated to an extent the impact of the collapse in CD sales. Still, with remaining stocks of the iPod Touch still on sale, that means that iPod hardware has managed to reach the grand old age of 21.

Not many came close, reminiscent of what we are seeing with wireless earbuds now – everyone is trying to make them, but there are very few that sit at the top ...

Adding Apple Music was simply delaying the inevitable, and Apple seemed to have an inkling of the roadmap. Apple’s pitch is now simple enough – the “spirit of the iPod lives on” in the iPhone, iPad, HomePod, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV. Usually, it was a combination of a phone and a music player. The latest iPod Touch, which is ushering in the end of an era, was last updated in 2019. The iPod Touch (as do the other iPods), we would believe, walk away leaving us feeling a generous dose of nostalgia. In the same year, the iPhone 11 was released. The iPods, back in 2001 (it was in October when the first iPod was announced), weren’t exactly the first music players. It was a matter of pride (and envy for many) to be seen with an iPod. It told your friends or anyone looking at you, that you know your music. It was a style statement to be carrying an iPod around. The Apple iPod Touch is making a long, slow walk into the sunset. But it was Apple that added digital to the portable music player. It not only means the iPod Touch itself is retiring, but that’s also drawing the curtain on the era of the iPod music players themselves.

The iPod is dead. Apple has announced that the iPod Touch – the last surviving part of the product line-up – is being discontinued.

It is one of the many unexpected consequences of a device that helped change both Apple and the music industry in ways that even its creators can’t truly have foreseen. In the years that followed, however, the iPod continued to keep a devoted following, even as Apple indicated that it saw the future as streaming rather than saving music. In the end it was new categories, not new competitors, that signalled the end of the MP3 player; the Creative Zen, the Microsoft Zune and more attempted to break into the market but never did. In truth, exactly the way that the spirit of the iPod moved onto other Apple products that eventually allowed it to die. Initially, sales continued to grow even after the iPhone was announced: in 2008 and 2009, Apple sold more iPods than ever, helped by the introduction of the iPod Touch and new Classic and Nano models. Some may hope that Apple has killed off the iPod to open up a new space in the Apple line-up, which is generally more sparse and choosy than the offerings of other technology companies.

It held my favourite mainstream tracks – and the obscure ones. But it couldn't hold off the march of time, and Spotify, says freelance writer Dorian ...

Yet the iPod, as opposed to the broader concept of the digital music player, relies on one company, so it is as dead as something can be, devoured by the very revolution it launched. What the author Stephen Witt calls “the most ubiquitous gadget in the history of stuff” did more for Apple – paving the way for the iPhone and iPad – than it did for the music industry. Still, I’m well aware that I’m not the typical music consumer, and it would be hard to argue that the world’s most valuable company should continue to cater for collectors who simply must own the Chemical Brothers remix of Spiritualized or MIA’s debut mixtape. Yet the iPod still has advantages over streaming, and not just the fact that it won’t pay a podcaster millions of dollars to talk nonsense about vaccines. It is stolidly oblivious to the internet and its galaxy of distractions. I never owned a Touch, so its demise doesn’t move me any more than that of the Nano and Shuffle five years ago.

Apple grew into the behemoth it is today thanks to the iPhone. But much of the momentum and ideas it had that helped it create the smartphone came from its ...

As iPhone sales took off like a rocket, fewer and fewer people bought iPods. In 2010, the iPad (which Apple dreamed up as a touchscreen device before it came up with the idea for the iPhone) was introduced. The Touch was also the last easily pocketable device that Apple sold with (say it with me now) a headphone jack. That type of success doesn’t come down to any one factor; it happens thanks to a decade-plus-long series of good decisions and solid marketing. The iPod’s importance at Apple continued to diminish over the next decade. At the time, those would’ve been second-gen Shuffles, first and second-gen iPod Touches, fourth-gen Nanos, and the iPod Classic. It had launched the iTunes Music Store in 2003 as a way to purchase digital music for your then-new third-gen iPod. And Apple started selling movies on iTunes in 2006 as it built out its infrastructure for the age of portable media consumption. Starting at $199 for a 32GB model, it was the cheapest iOS device you could buy new from Apple. That honor now falls to the entry-level iPad, which starts at $329 for a 64GB model. Jobs used that as a selling point when introducing it, saying that iPod owners would already know how to set up their phone and would likely have their data already in iTunes. And after you set the phone up, you’d see an app called iPod on it — its icon depicting a classic scrollwheel-adorned device. This week, Apple announced that it’s discontinuing the iPod Touch, its last product with the “iPod” name. By the time it launched in 2008, Apple already had half a decade of experience building and maintaining a digital storefront. But while the original iMac stabilized Apple as a company, Apple was still a niche player when it came to the overall consumer electronics market. In 2002, Apple sold around 400,000 iPods, according to Statista. By 2006, Apple was selling 39 million of them a year.

As people flood social media with images of their own trusted iPods as an ode to their love for the device, nostalgia has, rightfully, taken over.

The pricing was not at all appealing for those who could add a few extra rupees and get an iPhone instead, especially when the brand’s relatively cheaper phones like the iPhone SE were already available and could give people more in terms of value. However, at a launch price of Rs 24,000, it never stood a surviving chance in the competitive market. It was only a matter of time before companies making music players took the final call. The seventh, and the last, generation of iPod Touch came in 2019. The iPod Touch was launched in 2007, months after Jobs unveiled the first iPhone or, as he called it, "a widescreen iPod with touch controls". It had mostly the same hardware and software features as the original iPhone, minus the parts that made phone calls. Between 2007 and 2010, the iPod Touch was upgraded each year. With a 3.5-inch touch screen and WiFi support for Safari, Apple’s browser, and to play videos on YouTube, the 2007 iPod Touch was seen and sold as a complete device. Before smartphones took over, it was the iPod that people spent a lot of time musing over as it could play up to 10 hours of continuous music on one charge. The iPod is credited for turning the company’s fortunes before the iPhone did. The iPod was Apple’s special product. But there was more to the iconic iPod than just music. That is the number of days Apple’s digital music player, the humble iPod, remained a personal favourite of millions around the world.

The reason, Apple said in the statement, is that its other devices have melded music into their functionality. The iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and HomePod mini ...

The reason, Apple said in the statement, is that its other devices have melded music into their functionality. But sales of iPods have fallen since their peak in 2008 as consumers shifted to streaming music on smartphones and other devices, according to Insider. Six years later, Jobs introduced the iPhone, which he described as "like having your life in your pocket."

A long, long time ago before the iPod, MP3 players were badly designed devices with insufficient storage. The market was ripe for a change, and Steve Jobs, ...

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Apple said it will discontinue the iPod Touch, the last remnant of a product line that first hit stores in October 2001.

Introduced by Steve Jobs, the iPod was credited with helping to turn Apple from a nearly bankrupt company to an eventual $3 trillion behemoth. In 2017, Apple stopped making its smallest music players, the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle. 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.

At the height of its powers the pocket-sized music player known as the iPod shifted tens of millions of units each year, helping Apple to conquer the globe ...

After years of declining sales, the US tech giant announced on Tuesday it was stopping production after 21 years. With theatrical flair, he told an expectant audience the new product was an "iPod, a phone and an internet communicator". "It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry," Apple founder Steve Jobs said of the iPod in 2007. But its 5GB of storage outstripped the competition, its mechanical wheel was instantly iconic and it allowed a constant stream of music uncoupled from conventional albums. The device began life in 2001 with the promise of "putting 1,000 songs in your pocket". "Clearly this was one of the products that Apple launched that completely changed our lives," Francisco Jeronimo of analysis firm IDC told AFP.

The iPod helped remake the tech giant and usher in a new era for music; iPod Touch will be available while supplies last.

“There was nothing better than an iPod to me." The iPod helped make music more portable and was a smash hit, helping to pave the way for the company to unveil the iPhone, which put even more key functions onto one device. Now, as smartphones have grown even more sophisticated and music is largely streamed rather than accessed through paid downloads, iPod sales have diminished. Today, he streams his music on Apple Music. “The iPod brought us confidence. “If we didn’t do the iPod, the iPhone wouldn’t have come out," Tony Fadell, a former Apple senior vice president who is credited with inventing the iPod, said.

It's no surprise that Apple is finally dropping the iPod Touch from its lineup. The device last saw an update in 2019, and estimated sales compared to the ...

While the rise and fall of the iPod is a fascinating story, the technical progress that it represents is also quite amazing. But all things must come to an end, and with the continued meteoric rise of the iPhone and the change from playing stored music to cloud-based streaming, it was inevitable that the iPod line would eventually come to an end. It's no surprise that Apple is finally dropping the iPod Touch from its lineup.

On Apple's website, the 256GB iPod touch is sold out in every color. However, there are still options available for the 32GB and 128GB models. The 128GB is ...

Walmart is where you’ll find some of the best prices for an iPod touch. For 128GB, you can still buy a Blue and a Space Gray. Please note that the Space Gray options are a bit more expensive than the other colors at Best Buy. Additionally, all of the 256GB models are out of stock. However, there are still options available for the 32GB and 128GB models.