Apple Officially Discontinues the iPod touch
Earlier this year, we asked, “Has Apple Abandoned the iPod touch?” (22 February 2022). It turns out the answer is yes.
In an Apple Newsroom post titled “The music lives on,” Apple emphasizes the many ways you can listen to music using the company’s devices and its Apple Music service. If you failed to read the post carefully, you might have missed the death knell in the subtitle and clarified at the end:
Customers can purchase iPod touch through apple.com, Apple Store locations, and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last.
If you want an iPod touch for some reason, it’s now or never. However, at this point, the iPod touch is so outdated that the main reason to buy one may be for nostalgic reasons—though it still makes a good dedicated music player. A base model iPad or even a used iPhone would likely be a better value.
When Apple first released the original iPod over 20 years ago, on 23 October 2001, it was a revolutionary product, even if everyone didn’t see it at first. As Jeff Carlson noted at the time in “iPod Makes Music More Attractive” (29 October 2001), there was reason to think the iPod could go either way. The iMac had been a market-changing success, while the Power Mac G4 Cube was a commercial failure despite having a novel industrial design that earned its own niche of fans.
But Apple is seldom nostalgic, and the core capabilities of the early iPods have long been met and exceeded by the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, HomePod, and even the Apple Watch. The last surviving member of the line, the iPod touch, hasn’t brought much to the party for years. While it’s sad to see the iPod touch go and the curtain come down on the iPod line, its time had come.
We’ll leave you and the iPod with a peek at what could have been. Tony Fadell, often credited as the father of the iPod, recently gave TechCrunch a look at an iPhone prototype that was much closer to the clickwheel iPod than the iPhone we know today:
To mark the release of his new book, @tfadell gave us a peek at what's been taking up space in his garage all these years — including this wild iPod/iPhone hybrid concept device. https://t.co/LOsakpQs2i pic.twitter.com/8s0akWrgOe
— Brian Heater (@bheater) May 6, 2022
I would disagree. Although it is no longer powerful enough for use as an app platform, it is a great music player (although I think the last-generation click-wheel iPods were better).
iPhones are more expensive and don’t have headphone jacks - and I don’t want to drain my phone’s battery playing music all day. And iPads are not pocket-sized.
I agree David C. The lack of a headphone jack is a big negative.
As far as the interface goes, IMO, the click wheel was faster and easier to use than any of the touch interfaces. the iPod nano with clickwheel was the best music player ever, in my use. I’d love a modern clickwheel iPod with USB-C.
I have a iPod touch that has a complete copy of my music and acts as a limited phone e.g. with WiFi calling if my iPhone is out of service (such as when I sent it in to have the battery replaced).
I’ll miss the iPod touch.
Kevin
I found a nice replacement for the Touch in the original iPhone SE, which is the same size and does have a headphone jack. Hard to find now, but for a while these were available from Total Wireless, Tracfone, etc for $150 or so.
The iPod Touch page at Apple.com shows every combination of color and storage I could check as “sold out”. I suppose there are other sources, but as of now there are none at Apple.com.
I converted my iPhone 3GS into an iTouch 3GS years ago!
The ipod was great for listening to audiobooks in my car; I could leave it in the glove compartment and it would pick up where I had left off. As far as I know the one I have still works, but I haven’t used it in 3-4 years because I haven’t been driving much by myself lately.
I am suitably despondent.
I had previously bought the newest iPhone SE as a modern substitute when it came out — apparently I am Cassandra reincarnated. Naturally, the performance is most welcome. If you’re going to try that, just bear in mind that you can’t use Continuity to make phone calls through another iPhone in the absence of a SIM card. It doesn’t make sense, but that’s the state of affairs now.
I will keep and treasure my iPod Touch.
That’s how I felt when the Shuffle was canned - still do. Made worse when I accidentally washed the 2gb one I got from my SO. I’ve bought a few off eBay but none are perfect.
Thanks though for giving me the idea about using my old SE in the car!
Diane