The iPod is dead as Touch is finally discontinued, Apple says

Apple has killed off the iPod touch, the last remaining product in its line of portable media players.

The iPod helped build modern Apple, moving it from an underdog computer company into the brand as it is known today. But it has also been slowing dying out, killed by the iPhone that borrowed many of the same features when it was released a few years later.

Now Apple says that the iPod Touch would no longer be available. All of the rest of the line-up – such as the iPod Classic and iPod Nano – have already been phased out.

The iTunes software used to load songs onto the iPod was also discontinued some years ago. And Apple has focused on streaming music rather than buying it online, with much of its focus being on Apple Music.

The Touch will still be available to buy while stocks last, but will then no longer be on sale, Apple said.

But it said that the spirit of the original iPod was still present in its other products.

“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,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said in a statement.

“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.”

The iPod Touch had always been something of an outlier, since it sat somewhere between an iPhone and a traditional iPod. It is able to connect to WiFi and therefore stream from Apple Music or other services – though it does not have a cellular connection, and so cannot do so on the move.

As such, its position within Apple’s line-up has always been a little unusual, but it was able to continue even as other iPods were phased out.

Experts have however been forecasting its death for years. It came as something of a surprise when Apple updated the iPod Touch in 2019, when many had thought it more likely that Apple would announce it would no longer sell the iPod – but that generation, the seventh version of the iPod Touch, will now be the last iPod line ever to be made.

The first iPod was released in 2001, and marked a major turning point for Apple. Apple unveiled the iPod Touch in 2007, the same year the iPhone was released.