iPod Touch Completely Sold Out in Apple's US Store Just Days After Being Discontinued

[philrock]

So either people felt sentimental about the last product with the iPod name and bought the last ones, or people think they can make a quick buck marking them up on eBay.

People with children were probably holding out for a new one to be introduced, I know we were. Many probably swooped in a bought what they could knowing it was over. The iPT is a great size for small hands and a decent price. Perfect to facetime with grandma, take pictures, watch videos on long car trips and get them accustomed to being responsible for a device.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I was able to order iPod Touch "Product Red" last minute. Glad, I did. They are sold out.

 

[shinyleaf]

The quick inventory sold out is everyone stocking up before they figure out what to do next.

What everyone is missing here is that iPod Touch is heavily used in enterprise and in retail as mPOS. There's a lot of cradles for them (barcode scanner cradles, credit card swipes, etc). While the $329 iPad has taken over some of that for stationary placements, the mobile handheld usage is still iPod touch because of how cheap and reliable it is. The lack of TouchID is actually good thing in these use cases.

Same with the HD gen4 Apple TV. People here keep asking why it stuck around. It's because it's one of the cheapest digital signage solution with remote management. tvOS support all the same corporate MDM remote management as iOS.

Whenever you see Apple keeping a very old model product around for seemingly no obvious consumer reasons, it's always because there's an enterprise use case. (See Intel Mac Mini. Widely use as Mac server compute instances. ie MacStadium, AWS, Scaleway, etc)

 

[jsalda]

Unsurprising. People who want to get the last of the new ones from Apple would flock to this. And they did. And collectors will probably buy them for their, well, collector value years from now.

I was tempted. My first iPod was the iPod Touch. But honestly, I kinda wish Apple would make a cheap(ish) old school iPod with the wheel to scroll through songs. All I want now is a music player. Something I can carry with me that's light and easily pocketable that just has my tunes on it.

Oh well. Thanks for the memories, iPod.

This would actually be a pretty cool product. Give it WiFi in order to connect to Apple Music and a headphone jack. There are times when I will grab my 5th gen with a 256GB SD card, plug in my V-Modas and just go sit outside, distraction free. The only problem is I'm limited to the music I purchased, nothing past the year 2019.

 

[lordofthereef]

The iPod touch was far smaller than any recent iPhone.

Even the mini? Not trying to be pedantic. I haven't held a touch in a REALLY long time.

EDIT: Looks like yes, but just barely.

iPod Touch: 4.86 x 2.31 x 0.24 inches (123.4 x 58.6 x 6.1 mm)
iPhone mini: 5.18 x 2.53 x 0.29 inches (131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm)

 

[mikethemartian]

I think you'll find something called the Apple ][ served as Apple's foundation, and something called a Mac in 1984 was a household name decades before the iPhone.

The Apple II is a classic.

 

[John V Keogh]

In UK: half the refurbished iPod models on the Apple store sold out yesterday. I got a 256 GB from cex.co.uk for £240.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Apple should revive the iPod Nano (6th gen) — the small square one.

Not everybody needs or wants full connectivity or a device that can do everything under the sun when they just want to listen to some music.

This will never happen of course, because it goes against high margin products only, the fully online culture, and pathological and pervasive data collection.

How is the Watch not exactly what you’re describing?
With AirPods it literally functions the same, with even more functionality if you need it

 

[GrumpyOldGuy52]

I bought a 32GB red one because I wanted one for my collection and this was the last chance to get one new from Apple (I'm sure some refurbs will show up here and there over the next couple of months). I poked around on eBay and, if anyone is doing this just to scalp or speculate (which would not surprise me), I think they're going to be very disappointed (at least in the short run).

 

[imnotthewalrus]

I was able to order iPod Touch "Product Red" last minute. Glad, I did. They are sold out.

I’m jealous! 😊

 

[2009 mac user]

While prices for new in-box ipod classic 7 gen devices skyrocketed after they where discontinued, I don't really see this happening for the ipod touch 7. Sure, there will definitely be plenty of overpriced Ebay listings fo these things, but I don't think many people will buy them. I mean, even 3rd/4rth gen sealed in-box iPod touch devices from years ago aren't selling for all that much on Ebay.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I'm starting to think that Greg Joswiak had a hand in letting the iPod touch decline. There was a time when the iPod touch had better tech specs than the contemporary iPhone. And certainly, we could've been given something that had the body of the non-Plus iPhone 6s, but didn't have a cellular radio. The 2012 design didn't need to stick around unmodified like that. The rise of Apple Music and how it has taken what was previously an okay experience managing an actual music collection in iOS and turned it into a royal pain certainly didn't help either. I have a fifth generation iPod touch capped on iOS 9.3.6 and, so long as I'm not using any third party apps or even internet, it's a pretty decent iPod even still. But I'd imagine that a seventh generation iPod touch capped at whatever its final iOS release will be (if not iOS 15) won't be as nice of a local music library playback experience.

 

[Thebrochure]

So either people felt sentimental about the last product with the iPod name and bought the last ones, or people think they can make a quick buck marking them up on eBay.

I'll take what's behind current number two.

 

[turnierwa]

Apple wanted to kill this for years. they could have easily just update it using the current parts used in the iPhone. they did not. I thought they would have kept it going on because the iPod touch could have easily been used in corporate environments like hospitals and large warehouses as a communication device. I saw that in plastic mac book line being sold directly to schools for students and teachers. guess they wanted to be out of the "cheap" devices. right now a ipad mini is the closes thing to an ipod touch.

 

[turnierwa]

I’m jealous! ?

I got my project red 256gb Ipod touch the moment I saw it being discontinued. I have been saying that for years and had to do it or else my membership in my iPod touch club would be revoked.

 

[ralphthemagi]

The quick inventory sold out is everyone stocking up before they figure out what to do next.

What everyone is missing here is that iPod Touch is heavily used in enterprise and in retail as mPOS. There's a lot of cradles for them (barcode scanner cradles, credit card swipes, etc). While the $329 iPad has taken over some of that for stationary placements, the mobile handheld usage is still iPod touch because of how cheap and reliable it is. The lack of TouchID is actually good thing in these use cases.

Same with the HD gen4 Apple TV. People here keep asking why it stuck around. It's because it's one of the cheapest digital signage solution with remote management. tvOS support all the same corporate MDM remote management as iOS.

Whenever you see Apple keeping a very old model product around for seemingly no obvious consumer reasons, it's always because there's an enterprise use case. (See Intel Mac Mini. Widely use as Mac server compute instances. ie MacStadium, AWS, Scaleway, etc)

I just drove 30 mins out of my way to pick up the last two at a store near me. I use these for so many different things. No intention of selling them. I use them at home for drones, remotes, and as backup authenticators. I use them at the office for barcode scanning, quick sync'd photo library for recording outbound logistics documentation, and several other single-application uses (time clock, color calibrator, etc.).

At $199 it's extremely versatile. Sad to see it go. I had hoped for an updated one, perhaps with NFC. I'll probably switch to the iPhone SE for these things in the future, but at $429 it's more than twice the price. And it's bulkier. The more economical solution now is actually the iPad at $329… but it's too bulky for any handheld applications.

 

[0924487]

Apple should revive the iPod Nano (6th gen) — the small square one.

Not everybody needs or wants full connectivity or a device that can do everything under the sun when they just want to listen to some music.

This will never happen of course, because it goes against high margin products only, the fully online culture, and pathological and pervasive data collection.

Just get the Apple Watch?

 

[macness]

Go much smaller than the mini and you start running into problems with scaling iPad versions of apps. Either everything scales down to be unusably tiny, or UI elements stay the same size and cramp out space for content etc.

The mini already has issues with scaling. Especially the UI as a whole

 

[Slix]

Not so much a quick buck, but holding for a few years. Literally any sealed discontinued iPod sells for well over original price. This being the final model should be no different.

Look at most sold prices for older iPods that are sealed in recent months. Almost all of them are below the original prices they sold at. The only recently discontinued iPod that I can see that was worth more money than it sold for originally (at least before the iPod touch was announced as being discontinued) was the iPod shuffle, for about $60-$100. Hardly worth spending $200+ right now in hopes it will be worth more than that in a few years. The only iPods that are worth a lot being sealed at this point in time seem to be the original models, and certain other models with cult followings. The 7th gen touch doesn't have a lot to offer as a sealed item compared to other iPod touches.

Heck, most of the ones that have sold this week since the announcement were almost half of the prices Apple sold them for. Clearly there isn't that much interest in them aside from the few that bought them already.

That aside, it's interesting that no iPod line ever went past 7 generations. Maybe that was why Apple discontinued it after all. ?

 

[ayres]

I've always had a soft spot for the iPod line, as I love having a standalone music player for my ripped music. I've owned several over the years and few daps have an UI close to iOS's music player (not to mention, pocket-ability). Though I think as Apple pushed streaming service more and more, the music player lost some it's ease-of-use.

Does anyone remember pre-iOS 7 music player? really wonderful.

 

[reggavegga]

My father in law had a 5c that was a replacement for his that had a bloated battery. Then right after that he got an SE. So the battery is hardly used and this is what I use as my ipod now , has bluetooth so works with all my JBL speakers.

 

[ufgatorvet]

I bought a 32GB blue one spur of the moment when I saw the Macrumors story.

I quickly developed buyers remorse and I have requested a return of this to Apple without even opening the original box it was shipped in .... it's sitting here on my desk (delivered today) waiting to go back to FedEx and back to Apple.

If anyone missed out, make me an offer, I am bringing it to FedEx Monday to be returned to Apple. Highest bidder gets it.

Hope I am not breaking any forum rules (sorry!) but message me if interested ..

 

[TheOldChevy]

Go much smaller than the mini and you start running into problems with scaling iPad versions of apps. Either everything scales down to be unusably tiny, or UI elements stay the same size and cramp out space for content etc.

Agreed. I would run iPhone apps.

 

[DownUnderDan]

So either people felt sentimental about the last product with the iPod name and bought the last ones, or people think they can make a quick buck marking them up on eBay.

Or they could be buying a spare like I did, while they are still available. People do actually still use them for their intended purpose.

 

[svish]

All those who wanted it as a collectors item should have ordered it by now!!