Apple to Discontinue the iPod after 21 Years
Apple said on Tuesday that it would no longer be producing iPods, the popular MP3 devices that revolutionised music consumption and launched the iPhone.
With his famed showmanship flare, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs launched the devices about 21 years ago, and the compact, easy-to-use players helped the business revolutionise how music was sold.
It came with “a mind-blowing 1,000 songs,” according to the business, and coupled with Apple’s iTunes store, it formed a new music distribution strategy. In a blog post, Apple stated that the current generation of iPods will only be sold while supplies last.
“Bringing music to hundreds of millions of people in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry,” said Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak.
Apple Music, meanwhile, offers streaming access to more than 90 million songs, according to the Silicon Valley giant. Despite analyst concerns that the iPhone’s arrival in 2007 would kill demand, the iPod survived because cellphones offered much more than digital music.