Apple Discontinues iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle
Apple today removed the iPod nano and iPod shuffle from its website and online store around the world, and it has since confirmed the iconic portable media players have been discontinued.
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Apple last updated the iPod touch in July 2015 with an A8 chip and an 8-megapixel rear camera.
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iPod sales peaked at 54.8 million in 2008, compared to 14.3 million in 2014.
It’s been a great run, and this product revolutionized the way we listen to music, but the days of the carry-10,000-songs-in-your-pocket device are over, more or less. Now, it’s all in the cloud, and, while you can get a 256 GB iPhone, most people don’t use that for music.
At the same time, Apple has [dropped] the price on the iPod touch. Previously at $199 for 16 GB, and $399 for 128 GB, it now costs $199 for 32 GB and $299 for 128 GB. Intermediate models, at 16 and 64 GB, have been dropped.
Update (2017-07-28): Nick Heer:
By the way, how amazing is it that the iPod Shuffle lasted twelve and a half years as basically the same device? There’s little indication of how many of them were actually sold over the past few years — I’d wager very few — but its longevity is a testament to the power of its simplicity. What a run.
The end of an era. It took exactly one decade for the iPhone to completely cannibalize Apple’s entire iPod business.
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The hardware form factor isn’t what did these in — it’s the antiquated notion of having to sync audio files to them via a cable connected to a Mac or PC. If the content on your audio player isn’t coming to it over the air, mostly likely streaming, it isn’t relevant.
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Even though the phone is a worse form factor purely as an audio player because it’s so big, comparatively, it’s better overall because it has a network connection almost everywhere.
The iPod Nano acted as the halo product that everyone claimed it to be. From the moment I connected the iPod Nano to my PC and configured it in iTunes, I was hooked. I had never interacted with a device that was so easy to use and fun to manage. Nothing felt like a chore. Once I had my sync settings just right, I could connect the iPod once a day and all of my new music and podcasts would automatically transfer. It was like magic.
My profs were on cloud 9 seeing a major company unafraid of disrupting [itself] instead of playing it safe. Seeing Apple held up as a paragon of business practices felt like a major sea change to me.
Update (2017-07-31): See also: Hacker News.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
I wonder why he is shooting raw then? The point of having the raw files is so he can go back and make changes again, and if he deletes them, he'llll only have the JPEGs to work on later. Might as well not shoot raw at all.
I still use my 2003 iPod 3G. Music syncs and plays properly on it, which is more than can be said for my experiences with iOS devices over the years.
