The Last iPod Has Already Been Made ⇥ apple.com

This press release from Apple is kind of strange. The dek reads “iPod touch will be available while supplies last”, which is entirely what this release is intended to announce, but its three main paragraphs entirely skirt that news. Each of them reiterates how you can listen to music on Apple’s many other products. Seriously, read it — it is the same paragraph written in three different ways. And then you get to the very last sentence which reiterates how the iPod Touch is only available while supplies last.

For what it is worth, I think the true iPod era ended in either 2014, when the Classic was discontinued, or 2017 when the last Nano and Shuffle were made. But this was the last pocket-friendly Apple device you could buy that was not dependent on monthly fees. Pour one out for the last of the iPods.

I guess the big question now is whether this means anything for iOS 16’s device support. The iPod Touch includes an A10 Fusion SoC, similar as in the iPhone 7 line and the seventh-generation iPad. The iPod and iPad were both introduced in 2019, but the iPhone 7 will turn six years old this year. I would bet on another year of support, but it seems dicey.