Yesterday, Apple removed iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano from the company website, and from online stores worldwide. Thereafter, the company officially confirmed that the two iconic media players are obsolete. In the process, the iPod Touch becomes available with updated storage and pricing, in two variants – 32GB+$199 and 128GB+$299.
Users can still find the availability of the iPod Shuffle and Nano in many resellers, including Apple Stores. Given that, the company will remove it all soon. For the American users, iPod Shuffle is priced at $49 with 2GB storage, and Nano priced at $149 with 16GB storage.
Shuffle received its last updates in September 2010, while Nano had the same in October 2012. In fact, the iPod Touch received the same in July 2015, packing an 8MP rear camera and an A8 chip. Furthermore, Apple launched the Shuffle in January 2005, and the Nano in September of the same year. As for generations, Shuffle had its share of four generations of updates, while Nano with seven of the same.
Apple had been observing its sales of iPod declining over the past few years. The fourth quarter of 2014 saw the company sell 2.6 million of iPods, according to its report. After that, Apple categorized iPod marketing under ‘Other Products’ of the company. 2008 was the year of iPod sales at its peak with 54.8 millions of distribution of the models. In comparison, the company sold 14.3 millions of iPod models in the entire year of 2014.
As known, the world first got the taste of iPods in 2001 by the late Steve Jobs. The success in marketing the models put Apple back to being one of the most prosperous technology companies. However, the company introduced iPhones in 2007. Since that time, both Shuffle and Nano gradually became running for survival in the market.
Statement by Apple
An Apple spokesperson gave a statement to Business Insider regarding the company’s aforementioned activities. It suggests that the company aimed at simplifying its iPod lineup by introducing the two variants of iPod Touch. This followed the removal of Shuffle and Nano from the market.
