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Apple has announced that it will be shutting down the iPod Touch, the last model in its line of portable music players. With the shutdown of the iPod Touch, the era of the iPod, which was first introduced two decades ago, ended.
Currently, Apple is still selling the iPod Touch with prices starting at USD 199 and will be available until the stock runs out. This iPhone and iPod hybrid product is available in three variants, namely 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB, and in six color choices.
"Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users like the iPod has an impact not only on the music industry -- it defines how music is discovered, heard, and shared," said Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg. Joswiak in his statement, as quoted from Cnet, Wednesday (11/5/2022).
Apple first introduced the iPod in October 2001 as the first MP3 music player that could store 1,000 songs. At the time, launching the iPod was a big risk for Apple, which was still trying to bounce back after nearly going bankrupt two years earlier.
Unexpectedly the iPod actually helped turn Apple into the electronics giant it is today. These devices quickly dominated the MP3 player market, and the iPod even accounted for 40% of Apple's revenue in 2006. In 2011, Apple controlled 70% of the global MP3 player market and to date 400 million iPod units have been sold.
For 20 years, the iPod line has also continued to be reproduced. In addition to the classic iPod there is also the iPod Mini, iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle. Apple stopped selling the iPod classic in 2014, followed by the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle in 2017.
In 2007, Apple released the iPod Touch with a design similar to the first generation iPhone complete with a touch screen. The latest version of the iPod Touch was released in 2019 with features that almost match the iPhone because it can be used to take photos, send emails, and make video calls.
But the presence of the first generation iPod Touch was overshadowed by the iPhone. When first introduced the iPhone in June 2007, Steve Jobs said the iPhone is a combination of three products: iPod, telephone, and internet communicator.
Even the co-creator of the iPhone and iPod Tony Fadell said the iPod team realized the iPhone would outperform the MP3 player.
"It was clear to us that there was a real threat from cell phones, feature phones. They started adding music, MP3 players, to the phones they were selling at the time," Fadell said in an interview with The Verge.
