iPod is now playing its swan song for Apple.
After nearly 21 years, Apple announced that it was ending production of the iPod Touch on Tuesday. The model was the last iPod in production for the company, which began producing MP3 players in 2001.
The company said the last iPod model will continue to be sold “while supplies last.”
According to Apple Vice President Greg Joswiak, the iPod “redefined” music search, and its music-listening feature is now “live” on other Apple products like the iPhone.
According to Apple sales figures tracked by statistics site Statista, the company sold more than 54 million iPods in 2008, its peak sales year for the product. Its sales in 2006 accounted for about 40% of Apple’s revenue.
In 2001, the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs introduced the first $400 iPod, as it was called the iPod Classic, which featured a click-based wheel for selecting from 5GB of MP3 files.
“How many times have you walked down the street with a CD player and said, ‘Oh my god, I didn’t bring the CD I wanted,'” Jobs said in the announcement.
“…the great thing about the iPod is that your entire library fits in your pocket,” he said.
The company ceased production of the iPod Classic in 2014.
Apple cycled through other iPod models throughout the years, including an iPod nano with a video camera, clip-on iPod Shuffle, and iPod touch.
The seventh generation iPod touch introduced in 2019 proved to be the end of the road for the product. The model’s maximum storage capacity was over 50 times the volume of the original iPod. Its 32GB model sells for $199, which is half the price of a 2001 iPod.
Tuesday’s announcement left many iPhone fans remembering their older devices.
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