Apple finally calls "time of death" for the iPod

Apple announced today the death of the iPod touch. A part of the iPod family that has been around for over 20 years, the iPod touch will still be available until supplies of the device are all gone. The iPod touch is priced starting at $199 for the model with 32GB of storage, $299 for 128GB of storage, and $399 for the iPod touch sporting 256GB of storage. Color options are Space Gray, Silver, Pink, Blue, Gold, and PRODUCT(RED).

The iPod touch was first released in 2007 delivering streaming music, a browser, messaging capabilities, a camera, and more. It connects to the internet via Wi-Fi only so a wireless data plan is not necessary, and the small battery weighs in at 1043mAh. The iPod touch does not feature native telephonic capabilities.

With the end of the iPod touch, the entire iPod line has been discontinued. The remaining iPod touch units available are the seventh generation model with a 4-inch LCD display and  640 x 1136 resolution. Under the hood is the 16nm A10 Fusion chipset which was first released in September 2016. The camera on the device weighs in at 8MP with an f/2.4 aperture. There is an f/1.2MP front-facing FaceTime camera.

Apple sold many iPod touch units and during the first six years from 2007 to 2013, more than 100 million units were rung up. Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said, "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."

Joswiak added that "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."

We'd suggest that if you are looking to buy one of the remaining iPod touch units as a collectible item, you might want to step up to the plate soon because once they are all gone, they are all gone. Arguably, had Apple not succeeded with the iPod, there probably wouldn't have been an iPhone. The iPod was first released on October 23, 2001 and with today's announcement, the iPod is done.