2 ms·

That’s not the main message. No one cares that iPod touch is being discontinued. No one was buying them. People see this news as the "end of an era" -- an era

That’s not the main message. No one cares that iPod touch is being discontinued. No one was buying them. People see this news as the "end of an era" -- an era that began with Apple's reinvention in the early 2000s. That's the implicit message. There are two ways to interpret this: 1. Wow, what an iconic product. Come to think of it, we haven't really felt that way about a new Apple product in a while... Maybe this is not just the end of iPod, but of Apple's product innovation, too? 2. Wow, what an iconic product. Wild to think that we could only have 1,000 songs but even that was revolutionary. Apple changed music forever and they're still ahead of the industry with products like AirPods and Spatial Audio. I wonder what they'll do next? Interpretation #1 is a very real risk to Apple’s brand. It's the job of their PR team to steer the message toward interpretation #2.

Tao332 4y ago
> No one was buying them. It doesn't help that Apple was pretty much hiding that they still sold them. They were not discoverable through the site or most Apple stores. You have to use the search or ask someone about it, respectively. They were pivoting away from it first.
- mikepurvis 4y ago
  Which is a pretty reasonable way to manage a phase-out, and points to one of the many advantages Apple holds in controlling the retail relationship with their customers: They can heavily de-emphasize a product they want to be rid of, and measure how much effort people will go to to still track it down, or whether those customers end up upgraded to iPhone or the various iPad options— including "mini" ones that aren't even all that much bigger than a modern iPhone Max.
prvc 4y ago
>That’s not the main message. No one cares that iPod touch is being discontinued. No one was buying them. That doesn't follow (and all three above assertions are false, to boot).

Tao332 4y ago

> No one was buying them. It doesn't help that Apple was pretty much hiding that they still sold them. They were not discoverable through the site or most Apple stores. You have to use the search or ask someone about it, respectively. They were pivoting away from it first.

mikepurvis 4y ago
Which is a pretty reasonable way to manage a phase-out, and points to one of the many advantages Apple holds in controlling the retail relationship with their customers: They can heavily de-emphasize a product they want to be rid of, and measure how much effort people will go to to still track it down, or whether those customers end up upgraded to iPhone or the various iPad options— including "mini" ones that aren't even all that much bigger than a modern iPhone Max.

prvc 4y ago

>That’s not the main message. No one cares that iPod touch is being discontinued. No one was buying them. That doesn't follow (and all three above assertions are false, to boot).