In a decision that has aroused nostalgic feelings among millions of people, Apple Inc has taken an official decision to put an end to the sale of its iconic music player iPod Nano and Shuffle, at least from its online stores.
Very few products would have had such a remarkable run from the very first day of their dramatic launch in 2001. Steve Jobs was already a legend by then and the last 16 years have seen some 400 million pieces of iPods sold and used.
But it is also true that the advent of the iPhones has eaten into the sales of the music-only models that the iPods are. To be fair, Apple is making the iPhone Lite or iPod Touch, a phone like device without the other features.
However, the iPod may still kindle all kinds of emotions in a whole generation of users around the world. Grown-ups will recall how they managed to starve themselves to save dollars to buy their first ever iPod. Music buffs will go back in memory to the time when they dumped their Walkman to choose this compact device that could hold thousands of songs.
In reality, the iPod was a game changer in the music industry itself and brought in an all new culture in the way music was downloaded and played. The way the concept of albums lost its significance is also recalled by many.
The official communication from Apple says that the iPod Touch will continue to be sold in two storage capacity variants; 64GB and 128GB. They will be priced at $199 and $299 respectively. Observers are quick to point out that at these prices, customers used to buy the devices at just 50% of the storage now being offered. It is definitely a climb-down.
Analysts are, however unable to place their fingers on what kind of a revenue hit the company may take due to pulling out the iPod Nano and Shuffle (the old iPod, as it is, was stopped in 2014). This is because Apple abandoned the practice of indicating the sales figures for these devices separately in its performance figures. It gets clubbed with a host of other products sold.
Some of the physical retail stores Apple products may still be holding stocks and if you wish to own a piece of history, you could pick one before they are sold out.
Image: Andrew via Flickr