There’s one more thing Apple didn’t mention at its iPhone 6 and Apple Watch launch earlier this week, and that was the fate of the iPod Classic. Shaped like a deck of cards and complete with Apple’s famous but now outdated click-wheel, which has been reborn in a way as the pushable, swivelling “digital crown” on the Apple Watch, the iPod Classic is no more. Sure, you can still buy the iPod Nano, the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Touch, but the iPod Classic is dead, its hard-disk based storage technology rapidly becoming a thing of the past as the rest of the line uses flash memory chips. I still remember buying my first iPod and marvelling at its elegant design, effortless navigation and ample storage space, and how much better it was than the iPod clones of its day.
Back then, mp3 makers desperately tried including voice recording through a built-in microphone, FM radios and vertical sliding interfaces that couldn’t be round due to the fact Apple had patents on the click wheel, and how all those efforts did little to stem the tide of the iPod’s popularity. The same phenomenon has been seen over the past few years with Android phones sporting FM radios, larger screens and little-used features such as eye tracking, all of which have done little to dent the iPhone’s popularity as the most premium smartphone out there. So. it’s the end of an era for the original iPod, and while many electronics retail stores worldwide will still have remaining stocks they’ll presumably want to quickly get rid of, soon the only way you’ll be able to buy a classic iPod of any kind will only be via the second hand market. The LA Times has its own retrospective on the iPod that’s worth a read if you want to know more. |
