Remember the good old times when we could listen to music on the app-less iPod Nano and Shuffle? If your answer to that question is yes, then we have some sad news for you. Apple has officially, and rather silently, decided to kill the iPod Nano and Shuffle.
The company has discontinued the sales of these two models of music players, on Thursday. This marks the end of an era, and it leaves only the iPod Touch as the only remaining version of the company’s trend setting portable music players. This means that we’re left with no app-free music players by Apple.
“Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod touch now with double the capacity starting at just $199 and we are discontinuing the iPod shuffle and iPod nano,” Apple said in a statement.
This move is certainly not a surprising one, because ever since the release of the iPhone, most people prefer listening to music or streaming on their phones, rather than hardware specialized only for music. The iPod brand has come down to a $199 Touch version with 32GB of storage and a $299 model with 128GB. Even with the availability of iPod Nano and Shuffle, the wifi enabled iPod Touch has been the most popular Apple iPod. The reason behind this might be that Touch models give users the experience of Apple’s iOS without the phone. The iPod Touch had been last updated in 2015.
The iPod Nano and Shuffle were released in 2005, and music was loaded onto these devices using iTunes, as they were unable to access content without a computer. Apple stopped updating the Nano in 2012, and the Shuffle in 2010.
Even though they’re being killed, we still need to give these devices the credit that they deserve. The iPod saved Apple and transformed it from being just a computer company to eventually becoming one of the most powerful brands in tech.
Apple mainly focuses on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch more than they do on iPods. Even though the iPod Touch is still available, its only a matter of time until Apple decides to kill it too.
So, we bid farewell to the iPod Nano and Shuffle, which must have been many people’s first taste of portable music (fun fact, i have an iPod Nano, and it still works). This is definitely the end of a glorious era, but it wasn’t the first and it won’t be the last device to be overthrown by multi functional smartphones.