(Originally written for and posted on Reddit/r/iPod)
The iPod has certainly had a long run before the plug was finally pulled and the world wouldn't be the way it is today if it wasn't for this one line of products. It helped define eras, generations and shape society as a whole and it's certainly easy to hold it in high regard because of its impact.
While it may be sad because of all it has done over the past two decades and change, the discontinuation of the iPod product line as a whole is just Apple's official acknowledgement of how the world has changed for better or for worse.
Two decades ago, there was indeed a market out there for reasonably priced consumer-grade portable audio players. 15 years ago, they took the opportunity to modernise their entry in that segment in response to consumer demand for devices that can be used to consume more media than just audio.
Today, most general consumers (i.e. who the iPod was always made for) have adopted the smartphone and its audio-playing functions as the new way to take digital audio on the go. The iPod fell off general consumers' radars and into a niche market as soon as smartphones and subscription-based audio services reached widespread adoption together.
The iPod's eventual niche market fell in between the general consumer market and the audiophile market. While the iPod does receive praise (or at least respect) from the audiophile market, it was never an audiophile device–it was always engineered and built for the general consumer.
Sure, it did end up with features like the ability to not only decode and play back high-resolution lossless audio but also stream it over the Internet. However, its native output has always been capped at 24 bit/48 kHz, and it couldn't support many pieces of audiophile equipment without the use of external accessories either.
Apple would have certainly heard the calls of audiophiles and iPod devotees to reimagine it as a high-end, audio-centric smart device that could natively output higher resolution audio and drive power-hungry headphones and speakers. However, devices like this already existed–just not from Apple–and Apple didn't see fit to enter the audiophile market since they've always made the most off the general consumer and would like to continue doing so.
While the legacy of the iPod in the world at large should not be forgotten or otherwise ignored, it has unfortunately lost its place in the world with an abundance of substitutes and shifts in consumer behaviour. We may be shocked at Apple's decision to discontinue these products at seemingly random times, at how they persisted to keep producing and selling them for as long as they did, or how they even dared to axe one of the most important and influential products in their 46-year history. However, the iPod's time had already come and it overstayed its welcome.
By writing this, I had no intentions to put down the iPod line in any way and I'm happy to see its success and legacy reflected in its continued following from a sizable number of people, whether iPods have been in their lives for some time through history, or if they're just getting into them.
The iPod has certainly had a long run before the plug was finally pulled and the world wouldn't be the way it is today if it wasn't for this one line of products. It helped define eras, generations and shape society as a whole and it's certainly easy to hold it in high regard because of its impact.
While it may be sad because of all it has done over the past two decades and change, the discontinuation of the iPod product line as a whole is just Apple's official acknowledgement of how the world has changed for better or for worse.
Two decades ago, there was indeed a market out there for reasonably priced consumer-grade portable audio players. 15 years ago, they took the opportunity to modernise their entry in that segment in response to consumer demand for devices that can be used to consume more media than just audio.
Today, most general consumers (i.e. who the iPod was always made for) have adopted the smartphone and its audio-playing functions as the new way to take digital audio on the go. The iPod fell off general consumers' radars and into a niche market as soon as smartphones and subscription-based audio services reached widespread adoption together.
The iPod's eventual niche market fell in between the general consumer market and the audiophile market. While the iPod does receive praise (or at least respect) from the audiophile market, it was never an audiophile device–it was always engineered and built for the general consumer.
Sure, it did end up with features like the ability to not only decode and play back high-resolution lossless audio but also stream it over the Internet. However, its native output has always been capped at 24 bit/48 kHz, and it couldn't support many pieces of audiophile equipment without the use of external accessories either.
Apple would have certainly heard the calls of audiophiles and iPod devotees to reimagine it as a high-end, audio-centric smart device that could natively output higher resolution audio and drive power-hungry headphones and speakers. However, devices like this already existed–just not from Apple–and Apple didn't see fit to enter the audiophile market since they've always made the most off the general consumer and would like to continue doing so.
While the legacy of the iPod in the world at large should not be forgotten or otherwise ignored, it has unfortunately lost its place in the world with an abundance of substitutes and shifts in consumer behaviour. We may be shocked at Apple's decision to discontinue these products at seemingly random times, at how they persisted to keep producing and selling them for as long as they did, or how they even dared to axe one of the most important and influential products in their 46-year history. However, the iPod's time had already come and it overstayed its welcome.
By writing this, I had no intentions to put down the iPod line in any way and I'm happy to see its success and legacy reflected in its continued following from a sizable number of people, whether iPods have been in their lives for some time through history, or if they're just getting into them.
