Apple has officially discontinued the iPod nano and iPod shuffle, signalling the end of an era as the last remaining traditional iPod models in its lineup disappear. Both devices have been removed from the Apple online store, which now points only to the iPod touch, which has also been updated with lower pricing, lowering the prices of the 32GB and 128GB models to $199 and $299, respectively, while entirely discontinuing the 16GB and 64GB models that were previously sold at those prices.
Apple introduced the original iPod nano and iPod shuffle back in 2005, two years before the debut of the iPhone. The iPod nano saw six updates on a mostly annual basis over the next seven years, making a dramatic shift to a square form-factor with the sixth-generation model in 2011, and then going with an iOS-like design in the final seventh-generation iPod nano, released in 2012. The iPod shuffle went through four updates, with three significant design changes, including the conversion buttonless third-generation iPod shuffle in 2009, following by a return to the more traditional design in 2010 with the final fourth-generation iPod shuffle.
The iPod nano and iPod shuffle were the last of Apple’s iTunes-tethered devices, using the older non-iOS “iPod software” design — the iOS-like interface of the seventh-generation iPod nano was entirely superficial. With the advent of the Apple Watch and Apple’s push toward iOS, it was more surprising that the iPod nano and iPod shuffle continued to be sold for the past 5–7 years; Apple quietly discontinued the venerable iPod classic in 2014, which had also continued to be sold five years following its last minor refresh in 2009, leaving the two smaller iPods to stand alone as anachronistic oddities in a world dominated by iOS.
