iPod The ending of the iPod is a disgraceful decision

[Kuckuckstein]

Does no one else agree with this. I mostly use my iPod when my phone is either charging or when I am out and don’t want to or don’t have access to internet. Even the best phones don’t have no where near as much storage space as an IPod does if the phone has to have lots of apps on it. What is someone like me meant to do. I love having a wide variety of music to listen to on a plane or beach without any wifi and inna few years I will simply lose that. How is this progress?

I am probably old school like you. I always feel that eras pass by too quickly. I think especially if you can’t ride the wave from day one, things feel like “wow, already gone?”

We had our previous car for 16 years - yes, I try to maintain my stuff. It was one of those models just before USB and Bluetooth became available as standard. And the car did not even have the audio input, since I purchased it as a demo (just did not have these extra coins for a “made to spec” car).

And so, when finally I bought my iPods I could not play them through the car stereo. Cd and radio only.

Finally this year I could not stretch it any longer. The old car had to go and I bought a Ford van instead. I was so looking forward to plugging in my iPods with all of the music and audio books … but, theFord sync system denied them. “These USB devices are not supported”. Too old. And because it supports all fancy iPhone, Bluetooth and CarPlay features, there is no need for an audio cable support either.

I sat there in the car realizing, by going from the very old car to the latest and greatest, I had jumped over an entire generation of media tech. I can show my phone’s maps on the car touch screen, stream all my music and audio books at no extra cost, the phone support and hands free speaking implementation is just wonderful.

But I sat in the car and was heart broken. I had looked forward to many kilometers of iPod driven entertainment. I will have the entertainment but something will be missing.

And so, I will continue to use my iPods - just not on road trips.

In all honesty - the iPod era was 20 years plus. That is a very long time and yet it feels like it flew by. The first ten years were superb, with one exciting new model after the other. The last one felt dull. But I will keep the chaps alive as long as their battery rocks.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Maintaining the iPod in the line would only make sense if they turned it into an audiophile-oriented hi-res DAP, something that has limited mainstream appeal. Not saying it couldn’t work, but I’m not surprised they decided to simply eliminate it entirely.

 

[philden]

I am probably old school like you. I always feel that eras pass by too quickly. I think especially if you can’t ride the wave from day one, things feel like “wow, already gone?”

We had our previous car for 16 years - yes, I try to maintain my stuff. It was one of those models just before USB and Bluetooth became available as standard. And the car did not even have the audio input, since I purchased it as a demo (just did not have these extra coins for a “made to spec” car).

And so, when finally I bought my iPods I could not play them through the car stereo. Cd and radio only.

Finally this year I could not stretch it any longer. The old car had to go and I bought a Ford van instead. I was so looking forward to plugging in my iPods with all of the music and audio books … but, theFord sync system denied them. “These USB devices are not supported”. Too old. And because it supports all fancy iPhone, Bluetooth and CarPlay features, there is no need for an audio cable support either.

I sat there in the car realizing, by going from the very old car to the latest and greatest, I had jumped over an entire generation of media tech. I can show my phone’s maps on the car touch screen, stream all my music and audio books at no extra cost, the phone support and hands free speaking implementation is just wonderful.

But I sat in the car and was heart broken. I had looked forward to many kilometers of iPod driven entertainment. I will have the entertainment but something will be missing.

And so, I will continue to use my iPods - just not on road trips.

In all honesty - the iPod era was 20 years plus. That is a very long time and yet it feels like it flew by. The first ten years were superb, with one exciting new model after the other. The last one felt dull. But I will keep the chaps alive as long as their battery rocks.

You might be able to connect via a Bluetooth adapter.

 

[mikehalloran]

Does no one else agree with this. (?)

Can't say that I do.

My mint condition Touch 7 256GB is for sale because I just don't use it anymore — for anything ever.

Now that every configuration is sold out in the Apple Store, mine is listed in the Marketplace under iOS. I hope it finds a good home.

iPod Touch 7 256GB w/ case Blue

 

[mikehalloran]

OP, Amazon UK has latest generation iPods in stock …

Although the Apple USA is sold out of every configuration as of this morning, Apple UK does have availability on many of them.

Apple UK — iPod Touch 7

 

[rui no onna]

I really think Apple are going to annoy a lot of people who don’t want to have to listen to music all the time on a phone that will need charging A lot quicker than a iPod does. I wouldn’t feel comfortable buying another type of MP3 without actually understanding how it works and I can’t find any bigger than 64gb and I don’t understand how an sd card works and what ones accept them.

Iirc, the last time Apple reported unit sales, iPods were selling less than 200,000 units a year. Compare that to iPhones which sell 30-40 million units per quarter. I don’t think they’ll be annoying that many customers.

I just want something that plays all my cd’s. My current collection is just under 64gb but it will pass it soon. What would psople on here do?

I keep my old iPhones when I upgrade and just have them in airplane mode. Also, I paid like $350 for my iPhone SE2 256GB which I think was cheaper than or on par with the iPod touch 256GB.

 

[Michael CM1]

It’s not good for those of us who listen to a lot of music and really struggle sometimes when things are charging. It’s not exactly a good look to be sitting with a portable charger because they is no other way of charging and the battery is draining

I got an Anker wireless iPhone charger with MagSafe for about $60. No "not exactly a good look" worries with it.

Pretty sure Apple just couldn't justify using bandwidth to keep making things like this for a severely small market. Apple Watch is kind of an iPod nano. If you don't want a cellular device, iPads exist. I think iPhones go up to 1TB. HomePod mini is great for home streaming.

I'm kind of in the same boat on the original HomePod. It was a little overpriced, but my goodness it is a killer speaker. Apple really shouldn't have killed it until it developed some replacement. A soundbar with Apple TV built in would be a hot seller.

 

[dgdosen]

If I were Microsoft, I'd get a small team and reintroduce the Zune on the cheap.

 

[ian87w]

If I were Microsoft, I'd get a small team and reintroduce the Zune on the cheap.

Why would Microsoft put money into a sunset industry?

 

[MajorFubar]

Is it rare? How many people can afford constantly streaming music via data or paying for WIFi in the many public places it’s not free. I am sure they are many times people use music on iPod‘s offline. Surely lots of people save Music and podcasts to avoid paying for data and to listen to when internet access is not certain or not possible. Now roming charges are coming back accessing data outside the UK is increasingly even more expensive.

Yes, you really are a rare case. I'm in the UK too. By far the biggest method of music consumption these days is music streaming. I pay £10 a month for unlimited txt's, unlimited calls and 20GB data, which is way more than enough for the times when I'm not near a wifi. I still buy CDs and LPs of albums I actually want to call mine, but like the vast majority of people, mostly my casual music consumption is via streaming. I don't go on planes so I've not a clue about the wifi situation on them. Americans fly on planes like we get on trains and buses so it's probably more common to have free wifi on planes over there. But if I did, I'd just download half a dozen albums to my phone and be done.

 

[MajorFubar]

I only get 2gb a month for £10.

You're getting royally screwed over. I had a better deal than that 10 years ago. And I live in the same country as you.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

The decision wasn’t to push anyone to buy an iPhone. No company would kill a product if it had strong sales. The sales were obviously not there, and it didn’t pay to have assembly set up for this one product. They still sell the basic iPad, which is not much more than the Touch, so there is clearly still demand for this product.

Most people will use their phone for playing music. You prefer the iPod, but you are the exception. I still have mine, along with a few Shuffles. But I use my iPhone for playing everything.

This doesn’t mean they are killing the iPod line forever — maybe they will release an “iPod” in the future, but I doubt it. Would I buy a full screen, TouchID power button iPod? Absolutely. I’m just not expecting it.

 

[Kuckuckstein]

You might be able to connect via a Bluetooth adapter.

Thanks but … this is what 20-10 years back me would have done. I would keep gadgets, Macs and PCs running, bumping up what can be bumped, adding better drives, more memory, and said adapters etc. But often you end up with a ton of electronic extras and the fight is futile.

We have a 12 year old iMac, that with the help of an SSD runs smooth, starts quickly etc. But I also had to replace the hard drive and the BIOS will not recognize it properly for temperature sensing, and without manual fan speed control, one of the fans would spin at full all the time. And since Apple will no longer include these machines in their OS update, the browsers have fallen behind. The machine could handle what it is intended for, but the lack of JavaScript engine update renders it more and more useless / tedious / unsafe.

In short, often the combined system can still not do smoothly what you want to do and you spend more time fixing than enjoying.

There are many ways I can still enjoy the old iPods. Connect them to a mixer all at once and set them to play could be a fun thing to do ?

And for the car, the iPhone is just a glorious iPod which will do nicely. It was just a sentimental reminder that technology things which require an ecosystem will have an end.

 

[slashlos]

my nano lives in my car as I loathe to use, handle a phone while driving, and suspect is just another cutout on the road towards maintaining shareholder equity.

 

[tkermit]

tbh, the iPod touch was an iPod in name only, in reality it was an iPhone sans modem. The iPod era ended when Apple ceased production of the iPod classic, several years ago.

 

[ACG12]

Apple could’ve kept it alive by upping the base storage to 64gb and giving it the A13 that’s being used in the base iPad.

That would’ve made it a good deal at $199.

 

[MajorFubar]

Apple could’ve kept it alive by upping the base storage to 64gb and giving it the A13 that’s being used in the base iPad.

That would’ve made it a good deal at $199.

Yeah except Apple would have charged >=$299 lol.

 

[Warped9]

I’m rather old school. I don’t stream music. I like having it—owning it—on my device or media. I’m not excited about streaming “millions of songs” partly because I don’t know millions of songs. I doubt I know thousands. Maybe hundreds?

I like having a dedicated device for music alone.

 

[satchmo]

Why are these selling out?

I’m guessing it’s mostly collectors or speculators hoping to flip it for profit.

 

[hcherry]

“Disgraceful” seems a tad overblown.

Companies should consider where the resources they use (material inputs, employee time, capital) can create the most value for customers.

This move seem like a (probably overdue) recognition that the iPod no longer is the best place to invest resources to create value for customers.

 

[pianostar9]

@House3344 I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Reddit’s r/iPod has shown for quite a while what a discontinued iPod ecosystem can still do - people are able to mod old iPods to add extra storage & still have fun with it despite having been discontinued for years

You can always look into that if that’s something you’re interested in!

 

[pianostar9]

Why are these selling out?

Also, probably waited until most of the stock was already gone to discontinue a product having chosen to manufacture more

 

[coolguy4747]

I just grew up in a environment where second hand was always seen as something to avoid and it was better to go without or go cheaper than buy second hand.

It might be time to get over this, just like the idea that "it's a bad look" to use a portable charger. A bad look? To whom??? Why??? Who cares if you get to listen to your music in peace??? We are all alive today because of humans' amazing capacity for adaptability. Make use of it. You will find yourself quite miserable in life if you never change anything "just because."

edit: felt it prudent to add that I don't fundamentally disagree, I refuse to switch to streaming music. I have hundreds of ripped CDs in my iTunes library, along with iTunes purchases, original music, downloads from band websites/bandcamp, etc. That's why I haven't purchased an iPhone/iPad/Mac with less than 256GB storage since it's been available. Oh, and a portable charger in case my battery is running low.

 

[Adamantoise]

OP I think this is a really bad take.

This is a decision Apple should have taken much sooner imo. iPods today aren't like the iPods 15 years ago. They require WiFi, touchscreens, chips and controllers that could be put to better use in an environment where they're scarce.

The iPod in its current form is simply a waste of resources. Everyone who has an iPod also owns a phone that can do everything an iPod does.

 

[Adamantoise]

If I were Microsoft, I'd get a small team and reintroduce the Zune on the cheap.

And this is why you don't run a company lol.