Apple has removed the iPod from its homepage, eliciting speculations that the iconic music player that signaled the company's rebirth as a leader in the technology industry is nearing the end of its term.
For 13 years, the iPod enjoyed its place at the top of the Apple homepage, alongside the company's other major products, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac and, most recently, the Apple Watch. Taking the place of the iPod is a new tab for Music, which is created mainly to promote Apple's new on-demand streaming music service Apple Music.
Apple has not removed the iPod from its website, though. Scrolling down the Music tab, users will find a picture of the iPod Touch, iPad Shuffle and iPad Nano and a small link to the iPod page, where users can go on to purchase one of the iPod models.
As is typical of Apple, the company has made no announcements about what it plans to do with the iPod. However, it would not be surprising if the Cupertino-based iPhone maker quietly killed off the entire iPod product line, the same way it pulled the plug from the iPod Classic last year with nothing but a passing reference by Apple CEO Tim Cook during the unveiling of the Apple Watch in September.
"It turns out, with every revolutionary product that Apple has created, a breakthrough in user interface was required. With the Mac, we introduced the mouse. The click-wheel on the iPod. And with the iPhone, multi-touch gave us the ability to interact with a beautiful canvas of photos or video or music," Cook said (video).
It was all the tribute the iPod Classic received. Later, Cook himself confirmed the iPod Classic's demise, citing difficulty sourcing the components as the main reason for getting rid of the once-revolutionary device. And with consumers turning to their smartphones to listen to music, Cook said it was not practical to redesign the iPod Classic.
Furthermore, Apple's newfound focus on streaming music fueled by declining music downloads is only additional proof that the company is more than willing to cannibalize its music downloads business, and thus let the iPod go. Every time an iTunes user purchases music from Apple's store, Apple encourages the buyer to take up a three-month free trial of its newly launched Apple Music instead.
Since the iPod was made to contain thousands of songs and albums downloaded by users, it stands to say that Apple will no longer find use for the iconic music player as it shifts from offering music for download to streaming music at a fixed $9.99 monthly fee.
Photo: Chris Harrison | Flickr
