The Digital Audio Player Is Dead, Long Live Digital Audio Players

The iPod is going the way of the dodo, but digital audio players still have a bright future.

- Kenny Yeo

It might seem like a long time ago, but the iPod was the product that really set Apple on its crazy upward trajectory. The release of the iPhone in 2007 changed everything though, making the iPod superfluous in the process.

Apple made tweaks and revisions to the iPod but it couldn’t prevent the inevitable. So in July this year, Apple finally pulled the plug on the iPod nano and iPod shuffle, leaving the iPod touch as the only iPod product that it still sells.

But as the iPod sinks to a slow demise, the market for digital audio players is actually getting stronger. This is thanks to the growth of the headphones market. Sales of headphones exceeded US$4 billion in 2015 and are expected to grow up to US$15 billion by 2025.