Apple announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing its original music player, the iPod touch, KTLA sister station WSAV reports.
Customers can still purchase the iPod touch through apple.com, Apple Store locations, and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last, the company said.
Designed by American engineer Tony Fadell, the classic MP3 player launched in 2001 with the ability to store 1,000 tracks.
According to Tony Fadell’s website, Apple, was on the verge of collapse, contacted him just as his startup was going under. They were thinking of making a digital music player. But there was no team, no prototypes, no design, nothing. In March, Tony and Stan Ng pitched Tony’s idea to Steve Jobs. In October, they launched the iPod to the world.
Today there are more than 90 million songs available and 30,000 playlists via Apple’s streaming service Apple Music.
“Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said.
Joswiak continued, “Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.”
