Two years ago, it was expected that with the large volume of gadgets and devices it is launching every year, Apple is bound to streamline production soon and may take some items off the circulation.
It appears that the time has come. The launching of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, including the prospective release of Apple Watch next year, has compelled the tech giant to retire the iPod earlier than many had hope for.
It will be recalled the very first iPod music player debuted 13 years ago, in October 2001. It remained one of Apple’s core product categories over the years, despite declining sales and a world of listeners increasingly more reliant on streaming subscription services. Now that Apple moves into larger-screen smartphones and wearable wrist devices a standalone MP3 player has become too antiquated to keep alive.
When Apple’s online store came back online in the afternoon of 9 September 2014, the iPod classic — the company’s last touchscreen-less music player that first debuted in 2007 — was gone. It was removed from the shelf as quietly as possible so as not to take the attention from its more famous cousins and siblings.
It’s no surprise that Apple bid farewell to its sixth-generation iPod. The device eventually held as much as 160 GB of music and accounted for a healthy chunk of the 54.83 million iPod units shipped at the division’s sales peak in 2009. Yet those numbers began steadily sliding downward as Apple’s iPhone and competing Android smartphone sales began to eat into the MP3 market, while new device form factors like the iPad tablet carved out a new product niche.
Through all that the iPod classic persevered. Thanks to a diminishing price tag — US$ 249 for the 160 GB by September 2009 — and position among music enthusiasts as the best all-purpose gadget for those that want a no-frills MP3 player, the iPod classic held a nostalgic place in Apple fans’ hearts, especially its beloved click-wheel.
The iPod Touch, which debuted in 2007, nine months after the first iPhone, claimed the title of most popular iPod in recent years. That device, which resembles Apple’s smartphone line minus the cellular connection, hasn’t undergone a major overhaul since the fall of 2012, the same time Apple introduced the iPhone 5. It lacks many features found in the newer iPhones, including a TouchID fingerprint sensor and an updated processor that supports more intensive apps and gaming.
Last June 2013, Apple cut the price on the iPod Touch line and gave it a new rear-facing camera plus new color selections. After three quarters in 2014, the iPod division has yet to break more than 12 million units sold, less than half of 2013’s sales figures.
It seems that even nostalgia cannot keep the once-flagship Apple product from a world of larger screens and diminishing storage needs.
It appears that the time has come. The launching of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, including the prospective release of Apple Watch next year, has compelled the tech giant to retire the iPod earlier than many had hope for.
It will be recalled the very first iPod music player debuted 13 years ago, in October 2001. It remained one of Apple’s core product categories over the years, despite declining sales and a world of listeners increasingly more reliant on streaming subscription services. Now that Apple moves into larger-screen smartphones and wearable wrist devices a standalone MP3 player has become too antiquated to keep alive.
When Apple’s online store came back online in the afternoon of 9 September 2014, the iPod classic — the company’s last touchscreen-less music player that first debuted in 2007 — was gone. It was removed from the shelf as quietly as possible so as not to take the attention from its more famous cousins and siblings.
It’s no surprise that Apple bid farewell to its sixth-generation iPod. The device eventually held as much as 160 GB of music and accounted for a healthy chunk of the 54.83 million iPod units shipped at the division’s sales peak in 2009. Yet those numbers began steadily sliding downward as Apple’s iPhone and competing Android smartphone sales began to eat into the MP3 market, while new device form factors like the iPad tablet carved out a new product niche.
Through all that the iPod classic persevered. Thanks to a diminishing price tag — US$ 249 for the 160 GB by September 2009 — and position among music enthusiasts as the best all-purpose gadget for those that want a no-frills MP3 player, the iPod classic held a nostalgic place in Apple fans’ hearts, especially its beloved click-wheel.
The iPod Touch, which debuted in 2007, nine months after the first iPhone, claimed the title of most popular iPod in recent years. That device, which resembles Apple’s smartphone line minus the cellular connection, hasn’t undergone a major overhaul since the fall of 2012, the same time Apple introduced the iPhone 5. It lacks many features found in the newer iPhones, including a TouchID fingerprint sensor and an updated processor that supports more intensive apps and gaming.
Last June 2013, Apple cut the price on the iPod Touch line and gave it a new rear-facing camera plus new color selections. After three quarters in 2014, the iPod division has yet to break more than 12 million units sold, less than half of 2013’s sales figures.
It seems that even nostalgia cannot keep the once-flagship Apple product from a world of larger screens and diminishing storage needs.
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