It is the law of nature that is catching up Apple’s iPod line-up, with the old giving way to the new. For now, it is the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano that has ended up being on the chopping block, something that we have seen happening to the iPod Classic back in 2014 itself.
Apple too has confirmed both the Shuffle and Nano having reached the end of their lifecycle with the company site also reflecting the same. The company’s iPod lineup too never looked this simple before given that it is only the iPod Touch on offer, with no trace of either the Shuffle or Nano.
The iPod Touch lineup again comprises of two models – 32 GB and 128 GB. The former is priced $199 while its more spacious brethren will set you back $299. Those are the prices that the 16 GB and 64 GB versions sold for previously, both of which stands discontinued now.
So for anyone looking for either the shuffle or nano, their best bet will be third-party retailers like Best Buy or eBay. Of course, those will be limited in quantity as there won’t be further replenishment once the existing stock sells out.
The development again isn’t anything that Apple wasn’t prepared for. With the company’s iPhone range improving by leaps and bounds with its successive generation, it surely didn’t make much sense to hold on to an another device just for listening to music.
Apple too has been prepared for just this sort of a scenario and had predicted several years back how it is the iPhone that would ultimately prevail over the iPod. In fact, all of it can be considered to be part of a well thought out strategy on part of Apple where it is only app based devices that would remain in contention. Surely, it wouldn’t make much economic sense for the company to continue with a device that only supported just a single app – Apple Music.
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Further, with the push towards online streaming of music, owning music titles too had lost its relevance long back. Instead, it is the monthly subscription against an all-you-can-eat model that is in vogue and is being pursued by most.
In any case, it is the end of a long journey spanning 12 years for both the Nano and Shuffle and that again is no mean feat. It’s just that the times have changed for more capable and multi-purpose devices to take things forward.
