450 million units sold worldwide, Apple announces iPod retirement

On the morning of May 11, Apple officially announced the discontinuation of iPod touch. As the last member of the iPod music player series, the discontinuation of iPod touch means that "iPod" has exited the stage of history.

On the official news page, Apple wrote: "The music never stops. iPod touch stocks are limited and will be sold out while supplies last."

The iPod lasted 7,504 days from launch to discontinuation, a period during which it went from initial obscurity to mass consumer success to oblivion. It was the end of an era for what was once the world’s most popular product.

The iPod touch is the only remaining device in the iPod lineup and has not been updated in three years since May 2019. Apple marketing chief Greg Joswick said in a statement that "the spirit of the iPod lives on in other Apple products."

The Birth of the iPod

Originally designed, if only briefly, for Mac users, the iPod has somehow managed to become both a status symbol and ubiquitous at the same time.

On October 23, 2001, Steve Jobs told the assembled reporters: "We brought you here today with the promise of a breakthrough digital device that wasn't a Mac. And that's exactly what we're going to do."

Jobs continued: "We love music, and it's always good to do what you love. More importantly, music is a part of everyone's life. But what's interesting is that in this new digital music revolution, there is no market leader."

In the days before the iPod, there were only CD players and limited-capacity Flash players, both of which held about 15 songs. There was an MP3 CD format that held 150 songs, and hard drives that held 1,000 songs.

Jobs said: "We looked at all of this, studied all of this, and this is where we wanted to break through. iMac, iBook...iPod. The iPod is an MP3 player with CD-quality music. The cool thing about the iPod is that your entire music library can be in your pocket."

The name iPod was reportedly coined by freelance writer Vinnie Chieco, who was reminded of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the line "open the pod bay doors, Hal."

At the launch event, Jobs made it sound like the iPod was driven by a love of music, but it also came from a very practical opportunity. Apple's Jon Rubinstein showed Toshiba engineers a 5GB micro hard drive, and they actually used it as a proof of concept.

The developers certainly hadn’t thought of it as a customer-facing project, nor had they set up a dedicated project for it. But when it was presented to Rubinstein, he recognized its value.

With Jobs' quick approval, Rubinstein bought out Toshiba's entire inventory to build the iPod. It cost $10 million, or $15.63 million in today's money.

This laid the foundation for the internal structure of the iPod, and the famous wheel design came from Phil Schiller. But ultimately the rest of the hardware design was developed by Tony Fadell, who would later be known as the father of the iPod.

In a news story covering the iPod launch, the New York Times quoted an analyst as saying, "This is great for Mac users. But for the rest of the Windows world, it makes no difference."

Even so, Jobs told the paper that Apple might have trouble meeting initial holiday demand. And, naturally, he predicted, the iPod would inspire customers to buy Macintoshes.

Oddly, the iPod received more praise from PC Magazine, which wrote in a review titled "Not just candy" that "left it to Apple to create the world's coolest -- and dare we say best -- MP3 player."

"Its practicality and simplicity make it a standout product, even at the price," the article reads. "Our only complaint: While a Mac-friendly iPod is available now, the rumored PC version won't appear until spring, if at all."

The rise of the iPod

The first Windows version was released in July 2002.

That Windows version officially became the second-generation iPod, followed by the third generation in 2003. The fourth generation, called the iPod photo, came out in 2004, when HP briefly released a badged version.

But if specs keep improving and storage capacity keeps increasing, the iPod will always be more than the sum of its technology.

Just like you see AirPods everywhere today, in the early 2000s you saw everyone wearing the famous white earbuds. Whether they were using an iPod, or later, the iPod mini and iPod nano, those earbuds were the same.

It was impossible to imagine how successful the iPod would become -- and then at the height of its success, it was impossible to imagine it going away, it was impossible to imagine there would be a competitor.

Eventually, the iPod's biggest enemy became Apple itself. First, it completely discontinued the world's best-selling music player, the iPod mini, in favor of the iPod nano.

This is Apple being willing to sacrifice one hit product when it believes it has another.

Then in 2007, it really believed it had another hit product. Apple introduced the iPhone, or as Steve Jobs called it in his introduction, "a widescreen iPod with touch controls."

After the huge success of the iPod, it looked as if the iPhone might actually replace it as the best music player. When your iPhone can do everything your iPod can do, and more, it will surely be the end of the single-purpose music player.

However, this is not the end of the iPod.

Apple debuted the first iPod touch in September 2007, a few months after Apple first launched the iPhone. Looking at the history of the iPod, the device lasted another 15 years after the iPhone hit the market.

The first iPod touch looked a lot like Apple's original iPhone. It had a 3.5-inch display, multi-touch, and Wi-Fi. It was essentially an iPhone for people who didn't need calling capabilities.

Since then, Apple has continued to iterate on the iPod touch. In 2008, a version with a built-in speaker and a thinner design debuted. That model was also the first to use the App Store.

The iPod touch lacked a camera and microphone until the fourth-generation version was released in 2010. Meanwhile, the 2011 model finally brought iMessage, notifications, and iCloud. It wasn't until the fifth-generation model in 2012 that an LED flash was added.

Each change to the iPod touch has only provided incremental updates, given the company's focus on the iPhone, Apple Watch, and other devices. Yet the iPod touch remains a popular device with both consumers and business customers.

The decline of the iPod

While the iPod touch is the latest Apple Music player available, the last iPod nano and iPod shuffle models were actually available until mid-2017. It's easy to forget that in the age of the Apple Watch and iPhone, customers could still buy an iPod nano.

The seventh-generation iPod nano, first introduced in 2013, actually had a 2.5-inch touchscreen and had video playback and Bluetooth capabilities. It also had a Lightning connector instead of a 30-pin port.

The iPod nano had an unexpected extra life because some users strapped it to their wrists and so got an Apple Watch years before others.

AppleInsider writer Wesley Hilliard said he loves his iPod nano watch. "It's a computer on your wrist," he said. "It was unheard of at the time. I listen to music with wired headphones in my coat sleeve."

It's conceivable that it was users like him who motivated Jony Ive and others to develop the Apple Watch, which was to arrive in 2015. More likely, the Apple Watch was already in the works, but the popularity of the unplanned watch must have helped.

Maybe nobody actually used the iPod nano as a watch anymore after the Apple Watch came out, but it still kept selling. The humble, screenless iPod shuffle — released in 2010 — lasted seven years. The fourth-generation variant of the series had a simple design and little else besides click controls and a headphone jack.

While the iPod's popularity has declined as streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have gained ground, they've lasted longer than one might think. That's largely due to the longevity of the iPod touch -- and for reasons beyond the consumer market.

The end of an era

The last iPod Touch was already significantly behind the times, with an A8 chip, when the A10 was already available. Apple pitched it as a good entry-level device, or a machine for kids. It was more of a business machine than a machine, which is why it survived so long.

It's used by thousands of businesses, restaurants, and amusement parks. It's not so much a pricey iPhone as an iPod touch stuffed into a custom case with an extended battery and a card reader, or a special RFID reader, or whatever peripherals you have.

Loup Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in technology research, estimates that about 450 million iPods have been sold since their introduction in 2001. But last year, Apple sold only 3 million iPods, dwarfed by the 250 million iPhones sold. It's only natural that the iPod will be discontinued.

So while the iPod brand may be gone, it's not just the vague impact that Apple talked about in its press release this morning that will be felt. They will still be a part of everyday life for at least a few more years.