Adam Kos The product line of iPods cannot be denied for their contribution not only to music lovers, but also to Apple itself. Thanks to him, he is where he is now. But his fame was simply killed by the iPhone. That is why it is surprising that we are saying goodbye to the last representative of this family only now.
The first iPod touch was launched on September 5, 2007, when of course it was based on the design of the first iPhone. It was supposed to be a new era for this player, which, if we didn't already have the iPhone here, would certainly be ahead of its time. But this way it was based on a more universal device and was actually always just the second in line. It can practically be said that the company's most popular and most successful product killed the most famous one up to that time.
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Steep growth, gradual fall
When you look at iPod sales reported by Statista, it's clear that the iPod was at its peak in 2008, then gradually declined. The last known numbers are from 2014, when Apple merged product segments and no longer reported individual sales numbers. The numbers really skyrocketed right from when the first iPod went on sale, but then the iPhone came along and everything changed.
The first generation of Apple's phone was still limited to only a few select markets, so the iPod didn't start falling until a year later when the iPhone 3G arrived. With him, many understood why spend money on a phone and a music player when I can have everything in one? After all, even Steve Jobs himself introduced the iPhone with the words: "It's a phone, it's a web browser, it's an iPod."
iPod touch
Although after that Apple introduced new generations of iPod shuffle or nano, interest in these devices continued to decline. Although not as steep as it was with his growth, but relatively constant. Apple introduced its last iPod, i.e. iPod touch, in 2019, when it actually just upgraded the chip to the A10 Fusion, which was included in the iPhone 7, added new colors, nothing more. In terms of design, the device was still based on the iPhone 5.
Nowadays, such a device no longer makes sense. We have iPhones here, we have iPads here, we have Apple Watch here. It is the last mentioned Apple product that can best represent ultra-portable music players, even though it is of course closely tied to the iPhone. So it wasn't a question of if Apple would cut the iPod completely, but rather when it would eventually happen. And probably no one will miss it.
