Apple Ends Production of iPods After Nearly 22 Years

Apple increased the power of the iPod Mini by making iTunes available on Windows computers. This allowed Apple to introduce its brand name to millions more customers. Former executives claim that even though the move would be hailed as a feat of business brilliance later, Jobs refused to do it at the time.

Soon iPods were all the rage. Rubinstein stated that the iPod took off like a rocket.

Apple still needed to make the iPod smaller, and more powerful, said Mr. Jobs. According to Mr. Rubinstein, the company stopped production of the iPod Mini, its most popular product, in order to produce a Nano version that was slimmer and started at $200. The Nano-enabled the company to almost double its unit sales to 40,000,000 units in the following year.

The most significant contribution of the iPod was its role in launching the iPhone. Apple executives were concerned about losing ground to better technology as mobile phone manufacturers began to offer devices that could play songs. Apple was the only company that could make that happen, according to Mr. Jobs.

The combination of software and services that made the iPod successful continued to be a part of the iPhone’s success. The App Store was created to allow customers to download and purchase the software.

The company was renamed Apple Computer Inc. in 2007 and became Apple. It is now an electronics giant that has been around for six years.

“They demonstrated to the world that they had a nuclear bomb and five years later, they had a nuclear arsenal,” stated Talal Shamoon (CEO of Intertrust Technologies), a digital rights management firm working with the music business at the time. “After that, there was no doubt that Apple would own everyone.”