wow my 401(k) really takes a hit. Glad I put all that money into Bitcoin! uhhh…
The clear view
Weeks after the iPhone’s release in January 2007, Steve Jobs visited New York City to showcase his creation to top editors at a number of publications. I received him for lunch at news week, and my bosses were stunned by a hands-on demo of the new device months before its release. While chatting with Jobs before he left, I shared a thought with him: wouldn’t it be cool to have an iPhone without the phone? I mentioned this because he explained at several points in his presentation why certain features were limited by the mobile operator’s security and connectivity needs.
It wouldn’t work, he said, rather disdainfully.
Later that year, however, we saw the iPod Touch — a phoneless iPhone, complete with iOS, a touchscreen, and of course a music player, among many other apps available. It was one of the countless 180s Jobs performed during his years at Apple, a skill that freed him from prejudice. Or was it going on when we spoke and he, uh, put me on the wrong track? Whatever. What no one knew at the time, however, was that this SIM-less marvel would ever be the last remaining device to claim the iconic designation of an iPod. And as of this week there are none. Apple announced Tuesday that it will discontinue the iPod. (You can still buy one while supplies last.) The company took the rare step of releasing a press release reflecting on the iPod legacy, which captivated a generation of avid users.
Me included. I would in no way ignore this event – I wrote the book on the iPod! So while I wrote last week about Apple losing its soul, this week I have to tell you that Apple is literally losing its Touch.
What are Apple and the world losing by not having an iPod? The question is anticlimactic, as it was a chore to call the Touch an iPod in the first place. His iPodness came through his iPhone lineage, and as all Apple geeks know, Jobs introduced the iPhone as three devices in one: a phone, an Internet communicator, and an iPod. But the secret weapon of the iPhone was how the operating system worked with sensors and connectivity to deliver new kinds of apps. The iPod Touch, like its sibling, had music as just one of its countless other functions. In the days since Apple’s announcement this week, experts have pondered the ontology of iPodness. Jobs himself once posed this question to me when I asked him why we should think of the just-announced iPod Shuffle, with no clickwheel or display, as an iPod. What is an iPod? I wanted to know. “An iPod,” he told me, “is just a great digital music player.”
