Well, that was quick: Only a few days after Apple announced its new subscription music service, Apple Music has replaced the iPod at the top of the company’s site. Here’s where everyone starts checking the deathwatch clock.
The iPod used to sit on the top of the site with the categories Store, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch and Support, but alas, Music has taken its place, notes AppleInsider, in what appears to be yet another sign of the device’s slide into obscurity.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t still buy an iPod, you just have to find them in the online Apple Store or at the bottom of the Apple Music page.
The first usurper to the iPod throne was the first iPhone in 2007, as it allowed people to carry their music and make phone calls/text/use the Internet on one device. Why carry two devices when one will do?
While the iPhone and other smartphones surged in popularity, the iPod has slowly been fading away, with sales declining every quarter for the past few years, notes AppleInsider. In the future, the company won’t even be revealing its quarterly sales.
The last major update for the iPod came in 2012, followed by the demise of the iPod Classic in September 2014. Though there are rumors of a product refresh potentially happening this year, it seems it’s only a matter of time before the iPod finally bites the dust, to live on only in boxes of dusty, unused hardware and in my memories as the only person to live in New York City without an iPod in 2004-2005. Commuting was hell, I tell you.
iPod’s disappearance from top of Apple website signals further slide into obscurity [AppleInsider]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist