The Vergecast - Bonus: Walt Mossberg remembers the iPod nano

Episode Date: July 28, 2017

Apple announced this week that the iPod nano has been discontinued, taking down the website for both the shuffle and the nano today. Walt Mossberg - renowned tech reviewer, looks back on the iPod nano's origin with an anecdote about an interaction he had with Steve Jobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steve Jobs did show me this device before it came out. He kept cannibalizing himself, he and Apple. And I remember they had the iPod in Mini, which was held more songs. It came in different colors. The iPod Mini is what all of our competitors have their sites focused on. And I remember going to see him one day and he said, we're pulling the Mini off the market. And I said, what are you talking about? It isn't that all? He said, well, not only is it not that old, but it's the most popular MP3 player in the world.

And he said, but I'm bringing out this other thing. And he whipped out of his pocket, the nano. The iPod Nano. Which was way smaller and had even more capacity and all that stuff in a much smaller body. And I said, well, why are you doing that? And he said, well, I want to be the one to cannibalize us. And the problem with the mini now is it's been out for however long it's been out. not that long, maybe a year, year, something like that, a year and a half.

And he said, and the contract manufacturers in Asia have figured out pretty much how to match this so other people can bring out their own versions that look a lot like this, but they can't do the nano yet. So I'm taking this off the market and putting the nano on. One third the size of the smallest phone on the market. Want to stay ahead. That's how small this is. It's really small size.