Apple's iPod Classic was silently laid to rest in September with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, after which Apple quietly removed the MP3 player from store shelves.
But why? Sure, it was an outdated piece of hardware that hadn't seen an update since 2009, but if Apple would continue to make money off the product, why not sell it?
It's likely a combination of factors, with Apple moving on to new products and little demand for the old-school iPod. There is at least one definitive reason why the iPod classic is gone, and it comes straight from the source, Apple CEO Tom Cook.
Speaking at the WSJD Live conference on Monday, Cook had a simple answer when a member of the audience asked about the iPod classic's fate: Apple couldn't obtain the necessary parts to keep producing the product.
"We couldn't get the parts anymore, not anywhere on Earth," Cook said during the conference. "It wasn't a matter of me swinging the ax, saying, 'What can I kill today.'"
As suspected, there also wasn't enough demand for the product to justify Apple releasing a new and improved version of the device.
"The engineering work to do that would be massive, and the number of people who wanted it very small," Cook said. "I felt there were reasonable alternatives."
The iPod classic might not be able to stand toe-to-toe with today's iPhones, but the MP3 player did innovate with its massive storage space -- a whooping 160gb. That's around 40,000 songs. For music junkies who loved to have all of their media on the go, the iPod Classic was a dream come true.
Cook, at the conference, also spoke about Apple Pay and the current controversy involving CVS and Rite Aid, two retailers who so far aren't supporting Apple Pay in favor of rival service CurrenC. It doesn't concern Cook too much, saying that retailers will have to eventually give in to what consumers want. With more than one million card activations on Apple Pay in the first 72 hours, it seems like Apple definitely has momentum on their side. Cook also revealed that the Apple Watch's battery life will require daily charging.
Still, none of that news pulls at the heartstrings quite the same way as the explanation for the iPod Classic's untimely fate. R.I.P. iPod. You will be missed.
Photo: Dyobmit via Flickr
