iPod Is Officially Dead, Apple Discontinues Last Remaining Model

By Daniel S. Levine

The iPod is dead, long live the iPod. On Tuesday, Apple announced plans to stop producing the last iPod still in production, the iPod Touch. Apple began producing the first iPod in October 2001 and is the longest-lasting brand in Apple's history. The iPod has been obsolete for years, ever since smartphones with the ability to play music became ubiquitous.

"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," Apple Worldwide Marketing Senior Vice President Greg Joswiak said in a statement. "Today, the spirit of iPod lives on."

Apple integrated music players in the iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod mini, Mac, iPad, and Apple TV products. Apple also has its own music streaming service, Apple Music, which "delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio – there's no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music," Joswiak said.

'You changed the game'

The original iPod was introduced in October 2001 and only played MP3 audio files. It had a 10-hour battery live and could play up to 1,000 songs. The design changed little over the years until the iPod Touch was introduced in September 2007. The iPod Touch essentially did everything the iPhone did except make phone calls.

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'Thank you for making music and consumer electronics fun!'

The last new iPod, the seventh-generation iPod Touch, was introduced in May 2019. The iPod Touch is still available at Apple.com while supplies last. The 32GB version is $199, while the 128GB is $299. The 256GB model is $399. It has many of the same features as an iPhone, including sending iMessages, making FaceTime calls, and connecting to the Internet.

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'The end of an era'

Scroll on to see how people on social media took the news of the iPod's demise.

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'It'll never be forgotten'

"This is sad! R.I.P. to the iPod. The iPod was the first iOS device I ever had. It'll never be forgotten," one person wrote.

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'It still works perfectly'

Many iPod fans noted how their iPods still work, long after newer products die. "I still have my original iPod Nano. I use it in my car. It's full of music since the early 2000s. It still works perfectly, and has outlasted every tech purchase since," one person wrote.

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'What a run'

"The iPod news called for a nostalgic journey to the decade of white earbuds & dancing silhouettes," New York Times journalist Tripp Mickle wrote. "iPod changed Apple. Or as someone else put it: With the iPod, Apple 'showed the world they had an atomic bomb, and 5 yrs later they had a nuclear arsenal.'"

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