'What a Shame': A Generation Mourns as Apple Announces It Will Discontinue Beloved Device The tech giant announced that it will be discontinuing production of the music-playing product on Wednesday.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The glory days of the early 2000s were elite for millennials.
It was the age of updating your Top 8 friends on your MySpace profile, messaging your friends (and crushes) on AIM and figuring out ways to download songs off of Limewire or Kazaa, only to sync them to your iTunes library where you could transfer them for portable listening onto this new device by Apple that was called in iPod.
Today, Apple broke the hearts of many (and made many feel very old) by announcing that it would be sunsetting the production of the iPod.
The iPod, which first debuted over 20 years ago in 2001, was the first of its kind MP3 player that raised the brows of many with its original brow-raising "1,000 songs in your pocket" tagline.
The tech giant made the announcement Wednesday that the only remaining iPod that's still on shelves — the iPod Touch — would only be sold until supplies last before Apple closes the chapter on the revolutionary music-playing device.
Related: Half of of Apple's U.S. Employees Are Now From Underrepresented Communities
"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 company release. "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."
Fans poured their hearts out on social media upon hearing the news, sharing their favorite memories with the device and lamenting the loss of an iconic tech favorite.
some of you have never had to download mp3s one by one and painstakingly change the song title and artist credits for it to appear somewhat put together on your ipod and it shows
— local 94zphile (@houseofwhalien) May 10, 2022
RIP to the iPod. Kids today will never know the glory of having these all listed as different artists
— Chad Hartigan (@chadhartigan) May 10, 2022
Death Cab for Cutie
Death cab for cutie
Death Cab For Cutie
Death Cab for Cu...
absolutely sick thinking about what the ipod being discontinued means for future generations listening to replay by iyaz
— maddie (@fettyschwapp) May 11, 2022
END OF AN ERA Apple have officially discontinued the iPod pic.twitter.com/IGHxFc6erd
— boohoo (@boohoo) May 10, 2022
Farewell, #iPod. The iPod Nano was my first Apple device. I was truly amazed by the build quality, the software, and the interface. Apple truly revolutionised how people listen to music.
— Ayush Singh (@isayushsingh) May 11, 2022
Little did I know that, after almost 10 years, I would end up working for Apple :) pic.twitter.com/QlTWjDxqRM
Going from a MP3 player to an iPod was the first of all Apple glow ups. RIP to a real one.
— champagne nikki (@HollywoodChole_) May 11, 2022
With the Apple iPod officially sailing off into the sunset, let us all pay our respects to perhaps the most brilliant ad of all time.
— Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) May 11, 2022
"1,000 songs in your pocket"
Simple, intuitive, perfect. pic.twitter.com/ELVFB27nLY
Imagine 10 years from now when the next generation makes fun of us, thinking we've confused the iPod with an iPhone. Being one of my earliest tech products, it's always gonna have a special significance in my heart.#RIPiPod pic.twitter.com/Bs9IV6SYCS
— Maaz Bin Ali | معا ذ بِن علی (@MaazBinAli14) May 10, 2022
Y'all don't know struggle unless you had an iPod shuffle. That thing didn't even have a screen
— anemia (@dirrrtychai) May 11, 2022
What a shame :( . I'm still rocking my 7th gen iPod nano and it's probably my fav apple device I've ever owned pic.twitter.com/ir6wIgroXd
— Rubén Romero (@unstoppable12rr) May 11, 2022
Awww, RIP iPod, I still use mine! #iPod
— Darlene (@darlngal) May 11, 2022
R.I.P. #iPod I still use mine regularly. I know other inventions have been far more important over time but I could never have imagined when listening to my Walkman in the 80s that one day you could have your whole collection on one device. pic.twitter.com/HZiGOE1OoG
— James Tansley (@tansleyjames) May 10, 2022
The iPod really did change the game, suddenly everyone was a DJ and they all played Don't Stop Believin'.
— Marke B. (@supermarke) May 11, 2022
My 7th generation iPod still works! Definitely one of the most reliable tech products I ever purchased.
— Listen to the Scientists (@Katheri56003806) May 10, 2022
Mann talk about the end of an Era! I still have the original iPod. Do you know how many songs I have on this thing. #iPod pic.twitter.com/thJz1oGeCt
— D-Ware (@DeMarcusWare) May 11, 2022
The original iPod (which held 1,000 songs and could last on a full charge for 10 hours) morphed and evolved throughout the years, constantly raising the bar for what a portable music playing device could be.
From the aesthetically pleasing colorful iPod minis to the first-of-its-kind iPod Video (the concept of a device with video-playing capabilities was unheard of at the time) to the iPhone predecessor iPod Touch (launched in 2007), the iPod set the stage for what technology and smart devices are capable of today.
Related: Apple Launches First Budget 5G iPhone
Reuters pointed out that Apple hasn't reported sales of iPod devices since 2015.
"The biggest thing about iPod is it holds 1,000 songs. Now this is a quantum leap because for most people this is their entire music library. This is huge," Apple founder Steve Jobs said upon the original unveiling of the iPod over 20 years ago. "The coolest thing about iPod is that your entire music library fits into your pocket. OK? You can take your whole music library with you, right in your pocket. Never before possible. So that's iPod."
How far we've come.
Apple was up over 19% year over year as of Wednesday afternoon.
