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Craving Nostalgia

Sad to see the iPod going and gone. There was a certain beauty to the simplicity of it and being just about one thing in the age of relentless distraction. Having grown up in the time of Walkman cassette players, the iPod was the Walkman made small, cute and delightful. You could get closer and cozier with with the music that you loved. 

For many people like myself there is not a single thing not to love about the iPod. Then the center of gravity moved over to the phone. Music was crowded out but other things craving attention. It became the also-ran. The rationale for the iPod's death makes sense from Apple's point of view - they are meant to run a business not feed the consumer's nostalgia for childhood and simpler times:

“At Apple, every single thing that was tried — at least under Steve — needed to ship because it was existential. You couldn’t not make the iPhone successful because you were cannibalizing the iPod business.”

The iPod was not existential for Apple and it's hard to argue with that. Was it existential to those of us who will miss it? Depends on how you are counting I guess.

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