Say Goodbye to iPod
On May 10, 2022 Apple announced that the iPod touch will only remain available “while supplies last.” It’s been an incredible run, but the end of the iPod has finally come.
First, it was the Classic, quietly discontinued by Apple on September 9, 2014. Then came the nano & iPod shuffle, both pulled from the Apple store without any notice three years later, on July 27, 2017. That left just one product, the iPod touch, to carry Apple’s iconic iPod name it first announced in 2001.
Apple introduced us to the iPod promising 1,000 songs in your pocket.
We all had to know this day was coming. The iPod touch, first announced in 2007, was last updated in May 2019 to feature an A10 processor and increased storage, but otherwise remained identical to its 2015 predecessor. It featured a dated processor and, with a 4-inch screen, was Apple's most diminutive iOS device. It was slow, lacked any biometric authentication, and had a paltry battery. The writing was on the wall for the iPod touch; it wasn't a question of whether Apple would kill the product, but when.
We finally got a date. In a May 10 newsroom release titled "The music lives on," Apple announced that the iPod touch would remain available "while supplies last." After supply ran out, the iPod touch would cease to exist. After two decades, the iPod is dead.
The iPod is Dead
I am not specifically distraught that the iPod touch is going away. While I love the product and have incredibly fond memories of it as my first multi-touch device (before the iPhone was available in Canada), what hit me about this announcement was that it represented the end of the iPod.
The iPod can arguably be credited for resurrecting Apple. It became the product whose halo effect brought people to the Mac. The product saw skyrocketing success, selling hundreds of millions of products throughout its lifetime. And just like people today tune in to see what the latest bells & whistles of the iPhone will be, people back in the heyday of the iPod tuned in to see what features the iPod Steve would announce. Few other products are as iconic and instantly recognizable to a generation as a white and polished stainless steel iPod.
The loss of the iPod name is significant to me for two reasons. First, it drew me into the halo of Apple products; it's part of the BasicAppleGuy origin story. The iPod (specifically, the 3rd generation) was the first Apple product I owned. It began my decades-long relationship of being enthralled by Apple products and the things they enabled me to create. If it hadn't been for the iPod, my path might have veered in a very different direction, perhaps leading me to become @DullZuneBro (god forbid!) or @BasicClippyChap.
After months of saving, I got my first iPod (the third-generation iPod) in 2004. And rocking the iPod in the included belt clip, I felt like Peter Parker struttin' the streets in Spiderman 3 (I probably looked just as cringy too).
But perhaps the more reason I reacted quite emotionally to the news of the iPod disappearing was the nostalgia it evoked. I have an intimate connection to what it felt like to share my earbuds with a high school crush, spend hours crafting the perfect playlist, or pass the time through years of hour-long bus rides to and from school each day. The device literally went everywhere I went; the carefully curated music it contained fuelled my workouts, expressed how I felt, and comforted me in countless situations. Although in a roundabout way, the iPod exposed me to the world of music, helping me benefit and appreciate the power and beauty artists and musicians create.
Now obviously, music doesn't die because the iPod did. In 2022 we have access to more music, at a higher quality, in more ways, and across more devices, than we could even imagine back in 2001. But for many, the iPod was the product that sparked their careers in tech or spawned their appreciation for Apple products. The loss of the name is particularly significant, causing many of us to pause and reflect on this incredible product line, the memories it gave us all, and the countless situations it enriched in our lives.
The iPod will never be forgotten.
