After almost 21 years, the iPod has finally met its end. The original iPod was released October 23, 2001 and now Apple has just announced they're discontinuing the final iteration of the iconic music player, the 7th generation iPod Touch.
Sure, you can still download music to your iPhone and a bunch of other Apple devices, but there was a certain magic to walking around with that big ol' iPod brick in your pocket back in the day. Or running home and downloading your favorite album (by whatever means you did that) to your iTunes and then plugging in the iPod, waiting for it to upload before you went out to do whatever you were doing that day. Yes, it was antiquated and a big pain in the ass a lot of the time, but it was also nice to not be so connected to the world and to just enjoy music. Plus it was a hell of a lot better than trying to jam a CD player in your pocket… unless you had JNCOs.
"Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in the announcement. "Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We've integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there's no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music."
So here's to the end of an era, before smartphones but right at the cusp of technology having a massive impact on all our lives. We'll miss you.
