The iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle are officially dead

iPod shuffle.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

For die-hard Apple lovers, it's a time of mourning: As of Thursday, the technology company has officially discontinued the iPod Nano and the iPod Shuffle. The music players were the last devices the company offered that were not programmed with iOS, and they are no longer available for purchase on Apple's online store and will soon be phased out of retail stores.

The iPod Shuffle revolutionized the digital music industry in 2005 as the first iPod with faster flash storage and no screen. The iPod Nano debuted later that year, replacing the iPod Mini and paving the way for the creation of the iPhone. These products, however, were never updated to support Bluetooth or Apple Music and thus were out of sync with the company's later innovations.

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Lucy Friedmann

Lucy Friedmann is a literature major at Yale University and serves as The Huffington Post's Yale Campus Editor-at-Large. When she's not writing, she spends her free time fencing on Yale's Division I Team.