14 DAY TRIAL // The last time Apple filed a quarterly earnings report, the company said it would take its dwindling iPod sales and mash them together with the rest of the stuff that’s no longer hot and / or doesn’t generate insane amounts of cash.
This week, Apple made good on its promise and took out the iPod figures from its quarterly earnings report, placing the media players in the bucket of “other products,” alongside things like accessories and the Apple TV. In short, you can no longer find out how many iPods Apple sells each quarter. Even if you somehow cared.
The iPod is dying and Apple knows it
The company would not do that unless the iPod was a declining business. Which it is and has been for the past seven years or so. While the iPod still generates enough cash annually to earn its spot in the hot-selling lineup, it is slowly but surely losing its Steam.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the company just recently discontinued one of its most popular iPods ever: the classic. Considering that the mighty iPod classic had to go but the shuffle is still on board for 2015 seems a bit unjust. However, Apple made it clear that the primary reason for shelving the product was lack of parts. The iPod classic was based on platter drives, or HDD. Today’s standard is NAND Flash (or SSD).
So while the Flash-equipped iPod nano, iPod touch, and iPod shuffle may still have some life in them, don't expect them to stick around for much longer either.