When Apple launched the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch in September, it also announced that the iPod Classic would no longer be sold. The iconic portable player first appeared in October 2001, helping to kickstart the digital music revolution with its huge capacity (5GB to begin with) and its iconic clickwheel interface that made browsing through large libraries of tunes a breeze.
It’s since been superseded by iPods and iPhones with touchscreen interfaces and flash storage, and Apple CEO Tim Cook says the parts are now very hard to source, too. Nevertheless, it seems like there’s still a lot of enthusiasm for the ageing gadget: the device is listed for as much as $479 on Amazon and $460 on eBay, some way north of the $249 price it was retailing for on Apple’s site before it was pulled. British site The Guardian has reported high prices in the UK too, again more than double the final retail price set by Apple — some third-party retailers are listing the device through Amazon for £600 (close to $1,000 with a rough conversion).
It would seem there’s still a market for 160GB of storage and a music player that does nothing else but play music (and a little bit of video). The biggest iPod Touch currently offers 64GB of storage room though there is of course the option of a 128GB iPhone or iPad. Add in the fact that the iPod Classic is one of the most important gadgets in the history of modern technology, and it’s perhaps unsurprising that people are rushing to grab one before it’s too late.
“The iPod revolutionized the way we listened to music and changed the industry forever along with the iTunes digital music catalog,” wrote our own Malarie Gokey after Apple had decided to discontinue the line. “We speculate the iPod finally met its demise because the iPhone 6 now comes with a 128GB option. Regardless, it’s sad to see it go. The retirement of the iPod Classic is truly the end of an era.”
The era may have ended, but it looks like there are plenty of iPod Classic enthusiasts that still want to own one.
[Header image courtesy of Canadapanda / Shutterstock.com]
