Apple on Thursday said it is discontinuing its iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle, after 12 years. It stopped making the iconic iPod classic in 2014. The iPod line will remain alive with the internet-connected iPod Touch, which has been upgraded to 32GB and 128GB.
The Nano and Shuffle were initially less expensive alternatives to the standard iPod and their sales peaked in 2008, when they made the company around $9.2 billion. The same year, the iPhone generated revenue of $1.8 billion. But now, the two iPods’ earnings have dropped so much that their sales are not detailed in Apple’s financial statements, AP reported.
Apple has long maintained that the iPods not connected to the internet would be overtaken by their iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch. The Nano had not been updated since 2012 either, besides being made available in new colours in 2015.
The iPod was a “massive financial and cultural hit”, says Quartz, and “changed the way the world listens to music”.
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