iPod

1,000 songs in your pocket

Replaced
19902026

The iPod put 1,000 songs in your pocket in October 2001, rescued Apple, reshaped the music industry through iTunes and sold more than 400 million units. The iPhone made it redundant from 2007 onward, and Apple discontinued the last model, the iPod touch, on 10 May 2022.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2001
  2. 23 October 2001 Launch
    The first iPod

    5GB, $399, Mac-only, with a mechanical scroll wheel.

  3. 2003
  4. 28 April 2003 Feature
    The iTunes Store opens

    99-cent downloads reorganise the music industry.

  5. 2004
  6. 6 January 2004 Version
    iPod mini launches

    The line goes mainstream and colourful.

  7. 2007
  8. 29 June 2007 Decline
    The iPhone arrives

    Apple releases the device that will make the iPod unnecessary.

  9. 5 September 2007 Version
    iPod touch launches

    An iPhone without the phone; the last iPod standing.

  10. 2008
  11. 2008 Peak
    Over 54 million units sold in a year

    The high-water mark of the portable player era.

  12. 2014
  13. 9 September 2014 Decline
    iPod Classic discontinued

    The original form factor retires.

  14. 2017
  15. 27 July 2017 Decline
    Nano and Shuffle discontinued

    Only the Touch remains.

  16. 2022
  17. 10 May 2022 Shutdown
    The iPod touch is discontinued

    Apple ends the line after more than 400 million units.

The site through time

Browse apple.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Apple 2001–2022 Founded Product line retired May 2022

Key figures [edit]

MetricValueAs ofConfidence
Downloads ▲ 54.8 million 27 September 2008 Confirmed Units sold in Apple fiscal year 2008
Downloads 400 million 10 May 2022 Reported Cumulative units sold across the line

Confirmed official figures · Reported media, cites a source · Estimated analyst or our estimate

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Apple discontinued the iPod touch, the last iPod, on 10 May 2022, saying the experience "lives on" across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and HomePod.

Our analysis: The iPod was killed by its own successor: the iPhone made a separate music player redundant the moment it shipped in 2007, and streaming removed the last reason to carry a library at all. Apple simply took fifteen years to say it out loud.

History [edit]

The click wheel years

When Steve Jobs pulled the first iPod from his jeans pocket on 23 October 2001, the pitch was one line: 1,000 songs in your pocket. At $399 with a 5GB drive and a mechanical scroll wheel, it was expensive and Mac-only, and Slashdot's verdict became famous for being wrong: "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."

Windows support in 2002, the iTunes Store in 2003 and the white-earbud silhouette advertising campaign turned it into a cultural object. The Mini, Shuffle, Nano and Touch followed; sales peaked around 2008 at more than 54 million units in a year, iPod at one point accounted for roughly half of Apple's revenue, and the 99-cent download reorganised the entire music industry around Apple.

Eaten by the iPhone

The device that destroyed the iPod was Apple's own: the iPhone shipped in 2007 as, in Jobs's framing, "a widescreen iPod with touch controls" plus a phone plus an internet device. Why carry two? Sales fell every year after 2008; Apple stopped reporting iPod numbers separately in 2015, discontinued the Classic in 2014 and the Nano and Shuffle in 2017.

Only the Touch remained, unchanged since 2019, until Apple's 10 May 2022 announcement, titled "The music lives on," retired it. More than 400 million iPods had been sold across two decades. Nothing had replaced it, exactly: everything had.

Similar projects

Zune Microsoft's answer to the iPod, five years late 2006–2015 Microsoft Kin Dead in 48 days 2010–2011 Google Glass The face computer the public rejected 2013–2023 Pebble The smartwatch Kickstarter built, and Fitbit buried 2013–2018 Apple Newton The handheld that was right, ten years early 1993–1998 HP TouchPad Killed 49 days after launch 2011–2011

Sources [edit]

  1. The music lives on Apple 10 May 2022 [archived]
  2. Apple Discontinues iPod Touch MacRumors 10 May 2022 [archived]

Last verified: 11 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).