Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

RIP iPod: A Look Back at Apple's Iconic Music Player Over the Years

The first gen Shuffle still sounds incredible, there was definitely something about the SigmaTel DAC on that model. Shame its capacity is so tiny by today‘s standards as I’d otherwise probably still use mine (yes, it’s that good).
 
$399 in 2001 dollars is about $650 today. They still sold like crazy and put Apple on the path to where they are today.

I don’t think this is the end of the iPod.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: krspkbl
Still love my 3rd Gen. Found it a few years ago moving, and totally forgot you need a fire wire charger. Found a replacement on EBay and put in a new battery and the thing still runs like a champ to this day. Lots of nostalgic music in it from 90s, early 2000s.
 
I never owned one, but this still was a fun trip down memory lane. Thanks for putting it together!
 
I’ll never forget when I got the 4th gen. click wheel. it was the only gift I got for Christmas that year lol and I was SO annoyed that the photo version came out soon after. my best friend of course got it…
 
I still remember unboxing the 4th gen iPod. It was so unique and the smell was so apple. Miss those days.
 
this is what got me into Apple. but they just pushed the best of this device to the iphone, watch, ipad.
 
AngerDanger said:
Yeah, I think I remember reading about that. :) This is something I got off of eBay a couple years back to run Rockbox (for GB emulation) and iPod Linux; it's such an interesting time capsule of tech capability.
Click to expand...
Rockbox was so neat. I had it on my nano and it could play video! Which the 1st-gen nano could not

Doom on the scroll wheel was ... odd
 
  • Love
Reactions: AngerDanger
I understand that the iPOD Touch was expensive to produce with little gain, but I think Apple shouldn't give up on the iPod concept. Shrink the product down to an iPOD Shuffle with a touch screen, cheaper components, just those needed for music and I think they'll have a winner. There is more life in the iPOD in my mind, and I don't mean for nostalgia. It doesn't have to have the latest of everything on it, just some kind of connectivity, and still functional as a digital storage unit and of course, have all your music you want at, say the beach, where the internet is sketchy at times. Tim Cook is still a bean counter sadly, so the iPOD is likely dead. :confused:
 
The second and third generation iPod touches did have a different design from the first generation, and the 6th generation was released in 2015, not 2017.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AlexESP
I still have an old nano and just bought a 7th gen touch to keep in the car. It makes it easier than connecting my phone each time - I like having a dedicated iPod in the car.
 
  • Like
Reactions: krspkbl
I didn’t even know that third gen Shuffle was a thing! I own a first and second gen, and I’ve seen the fourth gen, but that control-less third generation I’ve never seen before.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacAddict1978
It's a shame Apple's manufacturing process means they can only make and sell things in large volumes, and can't keep niche items around like an iPod. I'd probably buy a classic iPod with an SSD in it just for the heck of it, but the only way Apple can keep selling iPods is if they can make millions of them at the same time. Same with the iPhone mini apparently. If I needed a second phone I'd want it to be the iPhone mini, but they will probably stop selling it soon because they don't sell enough of them to justify the production line or whatever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: thejadedmonkey
Ipod not only revolutionized the way we listen to music, I think it was one of the best "just works" products Apple has ever brought out. I know in the years I've had Iphone or Ipad or even the Mac, there are things I don't understand about the products that they talk about at events. They make things look so easy, yet when I play with them, I always get confused (Best example is probably all the split screen capabilities on Ipad) and kind of just go with what I know. With the Ipod, it was such a basic product that you knew how to use it in the first 5 minutes of owning it. It was simple, effective, and powerful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EedyBeedyBeeps
i had the original nano, the little square nano with a clip, and a classic ipod. loved those devices.

the ipod was magnificent but i think it's right apple discontinued it. it makes me feel old now :( lol and it also has me thinking there will be one day where we'll be reading about Apple discontinuing the iPhone.

while it's sad to see things go we can also be excited about the future. i know iPhone was the future of iPod but i'm wondering what the future of iPhone is. Maybe headsets?
 
  • Like
Reactions: zhtfreak
Remember going to my local retailer and seeing the first iPod IRL was a exciting moment. Much like seeing the sunflower iMac IRL. Bought one when 4th gen came out. Still have it but the drive has gone bad. Also bought first gen shuffle that is still working.
 
I bought a 1st Gen 5 gb with the physical scroll wheel the moment Windows was supported. I had to install a FireWire card in my PC and MusicMatch Jukebox was needed to sync it. The following year iTunes for Windows was released which made things so much better.

It led me to buy a G3 iBook and I’ve been a Mac only user now since 2007 (which was when I got my first iPod Touch too…).

The iPod had its day in the sun. I could never go back to syncing music manually any more.

Really, the Apple Watch is probably the closest thing to an iPod Nano replacement.
 
nutmac said:
A nice retrospective.

If you are feeling nostalgic, the best iPods to get IMO are:
  1. iPod Classic, whose 1.8" HDD can be upgraded with mSATA SSD
  2. iPod nano (5th generation), the last iPod Apple made with the classic click wheel and classic UI.
  3. iPod nano (7th generation), the last non-iOS iPod Apple released
Click to expand...
Wow, apparently there's a mod part that lets you put a 1TiB SSD into the Classic. IIRC, that was also the one that had a FireWire port. That means you could transfer data faster than with today's iPhone!
 
Last edited:
JosephAW said:
My iPod touch was my first iPhone. Couldn’t afford the real thing. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
My first was a SIMless iPhone 1 taken from the trash, jailbroken of course. It was surprisingly capable. At the time, the 4 or 4S was the latest.

Somehow I have positive feelings about having to connect to random Linksys wifi networks to download more Cydia hacks to screw up my phone even more.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JosephAW
Kierkegaarden said:
$399 in 2001 dollars is about $650 today. They still sold like crazy and put Apple on the path to where they are today.

I don’t think this is the end of the iPod.
Click to expand...
It's possible they reuse the name for something unrelated. Like how iBook was a laptop and later an ebook platform.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back