Pour one out for the iPod, a line of units that revolutionized transportable music greater than 20 years in the past.
On Tuesday, Apple introduced that the iPod Contact will now not be produced. The present mannequin, launched in 2019, will nonetheless be offered whereas provides final. It begins at $199 for 32GB. The iPod Contact was the final of the iPod line–primarily an iPhone SE with an A10 processor and no mobile connectivity. It was an iPod in title, however Music was simply one of many many apps filling the house display screen.
The iPod has a protracted historical past, reworking the corporate when it debuted in 2001. On the time, it was the uncommon Apple product that wasn’t a Mac—although it did want one to switch music. The iPod was initially derided for its excessive $399 price ticket, however it could quickly take over the world and endlessly alter the panorama of digital music. The iPod led to broader interoperability with Home windows, the iTunes Music Retailer and later the iPhone, and saved Apple from the brink of chapter and irrelevance.
The iPod contact launched in September 2007, just some months after the iPhone arrived on cabinets. Nonetheless, it hasn’t been promoted as part of Apple’s product catalog in a while, having misplaced its lone spot within the Music tab when Apple shuffled its web site menu final 12 months. The one strategy to discover it now could be to intentionally search for it within the Apple Retailer and few individuals are seemingly doing that.
Apple rightly notes that there’s actually no want for a devoted music participant anymore (not that the iPod Contact actually was one). “The expertise of taking one’s music library out into the world has been built-in throughout Apple’s product line — from iPhone and Apple Watch to iPad and Mac,” the corporate notes in its press launch. “As we speak, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve built-in an unbelievable music expertise throughout all of our merchandise, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and throughout Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound high quality with assist for spatial audio — there’s no higher strategy to take pleasure in, uncover, and expertise music.”
With out the iPod contact, the most cost effective machine for teenagers falls on the ten.2-inch iPad, which begins at $329.
