In 1979, the Sony Walkman revolutionized the portable music industry. It was marketed for 30 years; and 400 million units were sold. The Walkman’s decline and ultimate demise was brought on by the Apple iPod, whose first version was introduced in fall 2001. Now after years of great success, like the Walkman, the iPod has seen a steady decline. And last week, Apple announced the withdrawal of the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano. Why? The rapid growth of streaming music.
Consider these observations and the chart below from Statista’s Malin Ridder:
“Apple killed the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano, trimming its portable music players to one model: the iPod Touch. According to Business Insider, Apple confirmed the discontinuation of both devices in an email after they had disappeared from the Apple Store Web site. The announcement doesn’t come as a surprise considering that both iPods haven’t been updated in years and do not support streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify.”
“The decision to further reduce the iPod lineup marks another chapter in the popular music player’s slow but steady decline. When the first iPod was released in fall 2001, it rang in the age of digital music and quickly became Apple’s cash cow. As our chart illustrates, the iPod accounted for as much as 40 percent of Apple’s revenue in 2006, just before the iPhone was released. With the growing popularity of smartphones however, MP3 players were gradually pushed towards obsolescence and iPod sales started declining in 2009. In 2014, the last year Apple broke down iPod sales as a separate category, the company sold 14.4 million iPods, down from nearly 55 million units in 2008.”
You will find more statistics at Statista