After 20 Years Of Release, Apple Discontinues IPod Production

Apple stops production of iPods for good. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - Apple has made a big decision by stopping production of the last iPod model it still sells. The move marks the end of the iconic product line's 20 years on the market, which helped usher in a new era for the music industry and tech giant.

Even so, Apple said customers can continue to purchase iPod Touch devices while supplies last, and now customers can listen to their favorite songs from a variety of other Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

"Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to our hundreds of millions of users like the iPod is impacting more than just the music industry, it's also redefining how music is discovered, listened to, and shared," said Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak.

In October 2001, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs debuted the original iPod and it was the first MP3 player that could hold 1,000 songs and have a battery life of 10 hours.

"With the iPod, Apple has found a new category of digital music player that allows you to put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go. With the iPod, listening to music will never be the same again," Jobs said at the time.

By mid-2007, more than 100 million iPod devices had been sold. Apple itself has released five versions of the iPod, namely Classic, Touch, Shuffle, Mini and Nano.

But in the same year, Apple launched the iPhone, which in many ways is the heir to the iPod Touch. Smartphones, and the other Apple devices that followed, finally made the iPod feel like a left behind, long before it was officially discontinued.

As information quoted from SkyNews, Wednesday, May 11, the company has slowly turned off the iPod range in recent years, with cell phone technology that allows customers to listen to music services on their cellphones.

In 2014, the Classic model was discontinued, then the Shuffle and Nano were shut down three years later. The seventh-generation iPod touch is the only model still on sale today.