The rise of the smartphone might have killed the dedicated MP3 player for the masses, but there’s a major case to be made for the “dumb” music device. Relying on your primary phone for audio means every song is interrupted by pings, emails or low-battery warnings. It’s hard to get lost in an album when your device is constantly begging for your attention or dying before you even finish your commute.
MP3 players continued to exist alongside smartphones for some time, and even added support for additional music file formats like WAV, AAC, WMA and FLAC. But as music streaming replaced the traditional practice of buying digital albums and tracks, it wasn’t long before having a separate music player felt redundant. iPod sales peaked in 2008 (the same year Apple launched the App Store for iPhones), and the last iPod was discontinued in 2022.
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