Has Apple just put its iPod on death row?
The tech giant this week sent gadget geeks’ tongues a-wagging after it removed the iconic 14-year media player from its main menu on its home page — and replaced it with Apple Music.
The buzz is that Apple will soon stop making iPods — which haven’t been updated in nearly three years and which long ago had been made obsolete by the iPhone.
Why carry a separate player just for music?
To be sure, Apple still sells iPods — in three forms: the $49 Shuffle, the $149 Nano and the iPod Touch, from $199 to $299 — but it doesn’t make it easy to find them. You have to click on Music from the home page and scroll to the bottom.
Apple have not commented on whether — or when — it will stop selling the gadget that started it all.
The end of the iPod era will likely not be missed by many. The iPod lineup — introduced on Oct. 23, 2001 — has become nearly an afterthought for Apple fans, and for the bottom line of the Cupertino, Calif., company.
Sales have declined in each quarter for the past several years. And CEO Tim Cook has decided not to break out sales going forward.
But the iPod is greater than the sums of its sales, many believe.
Back in 2001, then-CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the 5GB player, calling it a “Breakthrough digital device” that held a then-amazing 1,000 songs.
“This is a quantum leap,” Jobs said that day. “For most people, that is their entire music library. And it fits in your pocket.”
Today smallest iPod Touch holds 16GB.
By 2007, Apple had sold more than 100 million iPods. At one point during that year, nearly one-third of Apple sales were iPods. Today, total sales of the iconic media players have soared past 350 million units.
Apple could be grooming the Apple Watch as a kind of replacement for the iPod, according to AppleInsider.com, which first reported on the iPod name being removed from Apple’s menu lineup.
“Although [Apple Watch] costs at least $349 — $50 more than the most expensive 64-gigabyte iPod touch — it includes 8 gigabytes of onboard storage, capable of music playback when an iPhone is left at home,” AppleInsider wrote.
“Future versions of the Watch could increase that storage and come down in price, and offer greater connectivity, such as tapping into the Apple Music streaming service,” it added.
The tech giant this week sent gadget geeks’ tongues a-wagging after it removed the iconic 14-year media player from its main menu on its home page — and replaced it with Apple Music.
The buzz is that Apple will soon stop making iPods — which haven’t been updated in nearly three years and which long ago had been made obsolete by the iPhone.
Why carry a separate player just for music?
To be sure, Apple still sells iPods — in three forms: the $49 Shuffle, the $149 Nano and the iPod Touch, from $199 to $299 — but it doesn’t make it easy to find them. You have to click on Music from the home page and scroll to the bottom.
Apple have not commented on whether — or when — it will stop selling the gadget that started it all.
The end of the iPod era will likely not be missed by many. The iPod lineup — introduced on Oct. 23, 2001 — has become nearly an afterthought for Apple fans, and for the bottom line of the Cupertino, Calif., company.
Sales have declined in each quarter for the past several years. And CEO Tim Cook has decided not to break out sales going forward.
But the iPod is greater than the sums of its sales, many believe.
Back in 2001, then-CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the 5GB player, calling it a “Breakthrough digital device” that held a then-amazing 1,000 songs.
“This is a quantum leap,” Jobs said that day. “For most people, that is their entire music library. And it fits in your pocket.”
Today smallest iPod Touch holds 16GB.
By 2007, Apple had sold more than 100 million iPods. At one point during that year, nearly one-third of Apple sales were iPods. Today, total sales of the iconic media players have soared past 350 million units.
Apple could be grooming the Apple Watch as a kind of replacement for the iPod, according to AppleInsider.com, which first reported on the iPod name being removed from Apple’s menu lineup.
“Although [Apple Watch] costs at least $349 — $50 more than the most expensive 64-gigabyte iPod touch — it includes 8 gigabytes of onboard storage, capable of music playback when an iPhone is left at home,” AppleInsider wrote.
“Future versions of the Watch could increase that storage and come down in price, and offer greater connectivity, such as tapping into the Apple Music streaming service,” it added.
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