Today's Cache | An iconic Apple device faces sunset

ViNnUS May 11, 2022

Today's Cache

11 MAY 2022


Dissecting the big themes at the intersection of technology, business and policy. Written by John Xavier, Tech News Lead at The Hindu.

Open in browser

More newsletters

Goodbye, iPod!

Cache

If you refresh your memory, you may remember that before the smartphone, there was the portable mp3 player. It played a simple task: play compressed music files. Some of these players were also capable of storing other files.

The mp3 player market changed after Apple introduced its music player in 2001. The iPod was Apple's path to handheld devices, its flagship iPhone vertical. The Cupertino-based firm was only selling desktops until this point.

The first version of the iPod had only 5 GB storage space and 10 hours of battery life. Using Apple's iTunes interface, users could keep about 1,000 songs in the device. In 6 years, Apple put its music player through a series of changes, which culminated in the iPod Classic. The music player had 160 GB storage capacity, 40 plus hours of battery life, and could play video format songs.

The innovations Apple made in its mp3 player came in handy for the company's smartphone project. The first iPhone it launched in 2007 looked like a bigger iPod with a camera, and that let users make and receive phone calls.

Apple went to on to make more changes to its iPod, but the smartphone eclipsed the humble music player. That led the company to begin phasing out models in 2014.

The company stopped making the iPod classic, a version with a click wheel and small screen. Three years later, the iPhone maker stopped making its smallest music players, the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle. The popular iPod Touch held on for a few more years.

But the music player business wasn't making sense for Apple as consumers have found other alternatives to listen to songs. And so, Apple is shuttering its ground-breaking device after a little of two decades.

The Cupertino-based company announced that it would discontinue the iPod Touch, the last remaining iPod. The touch-screen model will remain on sale until supplies run out, and then the iconic product will be gone forever.

Cache is a column on the happenings in the world of tech and corporations. To receive it in your inbox, click here to subscribe.