Last October, the tech world – and us with it – celebrated the 20th anniversary of the iPod. Admittedly, the heyday of the player that changed the history of Apple, mobility and music seemed to have passed long ago, after twelve years of unchallenged reign. The Iphone, “best iPod ever made”according to Steve Jobs, has replaced it at the top of the food chain of Apple products, and increasingly affordable smartphones have finished putting the lead in the wing.
The launch of a service like Apple Music, which relies on streaming content and therefore a permanent connection to the Internet, even outside the home, clearly indicated the direction of the story. The iPod – touch, since it was the last survivor – was no longer fully adapted to fashionable use.
Yesterday, at the end of the day, Paris time, Apple announced that “the music lives on”but that “iPod touch will remain available until supplies run out”. The Cupertino giant therefore leaves a few days, months, weeks for the former sales giant to slowly die out.
For some, it may even be a surprise – was the iPod still on sale? For others, it may be the occasion for a final “souvenir” purchase. Beware, nostalgia is always expensive. The 32 GB model is sold for 240 euros, the 128 GB point to 359 euros, while the 256 GB model is sold for just 469 euros. Not so far from the price at which the iPhone SE was sold until recently.
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But before the iPod touch, there were wheel models. A genius invention, which was meant to navigate through a simple textual interface with a thumb – even if it was greasy to have grabbed too many spring rolls – legend has it that it was a test among the teams in charge of its development . After the ultra-compact hard disk models, the flash memory models were invented, the nano in mind. So many successful iPod iterations, but also an opportunity for Apple to put in place and refine technological and logistical know-how – on this last point, Tim Cook was already at work in the shadows, from Steve Jobs at the time.
So it’s no shorthand to say that without iPod there wouldn’t have been an iPhone, not to this extent, not with this success. Music as life goes on. Those most nostalgic for the iPod will find his features in the Apple Watch, in the iPhone, via the iPad, just as one sometimes finds in the face of a child the features of a grandfather who has just turn off.