The iPod has been discontinued after 21 years

Time to hold back the tears. The staple of many of our childhoods is no more. First released in 2001, the latest iteration of the device, the iPod touch, hasn’t been updated since 2009. Most of its features have become irrelevant due to the popularity and availability of other devices, and thus Apple have taken the decision to discontinue the seminal device

To date, more than 400 million iPods have been sold and in 2011, Apple held a 70% market share in MP3 players. The company stopped selling the Nano and Shuffle in 2017. As the iPod progressed, it began to resemble smartphones more and more, allowing users to take pictures, send emails and use FaceTime. 

Of course, streaming services have had a considerable part to play in the downfall of the beloved device. The first iPod was capable of storing 1,000 songs and now Apple Music allows users to stream from a selection of over 90 million songs. Hence, we no longer have to worry about what songs we want to download on our devices — sadly, the iPod never really stood a chance in today’s streaming era.  

In a statement announcing the discontinuation, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior Vice President, of worldwide marketing said: “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.”

The iPod may be dead, but our memories of cheesy noughties throwbacks blasting through those laughably minuscule devices won’t be. Forgotten playlists filled with Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne and Justin Timberlake will be a memorium of nostalgia for those who were there to experience it.