Apple silently discontinued the iPod nano and iPod shuffle a few days ago. Although not entirely surprising ¹ , it’s still worth noting the significance of this.

The nano was, and still is an excellent device. I still have a first generation one at home which despite being over eleven years old, wouldn’t look out of place today.

The shuffle is interesting in that it was the only music player in Apple’s lineup that was truly great for exercise. Until the Apple Watch fulfills a better role in health and fitness, there really isn’t any device now in the lineup that is portable and light enough to be comfortable to wear while running or in the gym.

The iPod touch hangs on as the last link to the iPod brand - but it’s unlikely to see any more significant updates as it slowly fades into history.

For all the nostalgia and admiration for these devices however, there is no getting away from the fact that the world has long moved on from the notion of syncing music to a device using a computer, and that is really what killed these iPods.