“Apple has killed off the iPod nano and the iPod shuffle, the last remaining music players in its lineup that were solely dedicated to playing music. It has gotten rid of their web pages and no longer sells them online; those feeling nostalgic have to hit up Best Buy or other retailers while supplies last,” Hayley Tsukayama writes for The Washington Post. “With them go the legacy of the iPod — a device that helped revitalize Apple — and the last vestiges of a gadget-driven tech era.”
“Devices dedicated to one thing are so every-decade-before-this-one,” Tsukayama writes. “So the writing has been on the wall for these iPods for a while. Apple hasn’t even released sales numbers for iPods since 2014, when it lumped them into its “Other Products” category after quarters of sliding interest. That same year, we bade farewell to the iPod Classic — the last design descendant of the original iPod that made mobility a key focus of the firm.”
“In terms of their impact on Apple, the nano and the shuffle weren’t nearly as groundbreaking — although the iPod nano sold very well in its day — nor as central to the Apple identity as the first iPods. They couldn’t tap the App Store, as their successor, the iPod touch, can. But they had their role to play in setting Apple’s reputation among consumers,” Tsukayama writes. “The iPod touch is now the standard bearer for the iPod name — an iPhone in every respect except for its lack of a cellular connection. In some ways, it’s poetic. The iPhone got a boost from the iPod’s name and the Apple reputation it helped build. Now it’s taken over its predecessor completely.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: R.I.P. iPod nano and iPod shuffle.
Best Buy still has new iPod nanos for sale for $149.99 here and new iPod shuffles ($49.99) here.
Get ’em while you can!
Interns, you know what to do.
SEE ALSO:
Apple discontinues iPod nano and iPod shuffle – July 27, 2017