Portable audio peaked 14 years ago – is it time to come full circle?

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The fourth-gen iPod Shuffle was portable audio at its practical peak

iPod MP3 digital music
(Image credit: Future)

While I often long for mum-made spaghetti bolognese and Lion King Bug Pops from my childhood, it isn’t often I find myself yearning for the technology I owned as a kid. Funnily enough, not once does my technologically spoilt adult self recall pining for my old CRT TV that was too big to properly close the cabinet doors on, or the portable DVD player that I used to have to hold very still and squint at to watch in the car. Do I miss the minutes-that-felt-like-hours spent waiting for AOL dial-up internet? No more than you do.

But a few weeks ago, I read about a device from my early teen years that I would happily use today (or rather, one I would use a modern-day version of) – the iPod Shuffle. The article stated that Apple had added its last-generation Shuffle to its worldwide ‘obsolete products’ list, a tech graveyard for the company’s products that haven't been distributed for sale for seven years or longer and can no longer be serviced or have new parts ordered for. Indeed, Apple stopped distributing the 2010-released fourth-gen Shuffle (alongside the seventh-gen Nano) in mid-2017, leaving the iPod lineup comprising only two models of iPod Touch. (Those last-of-’em iPod Touches were abandoned by Apple in 2022, of course, marking the end of the iPod shelf-life and indeed era, and will therefore hit that list in 2029.)

From a practical point of view, I’d argue that portable audio hasn’t been as attractive since. Superior-sounding? Absolutely. It’s quite amazing how good portable music players and similarly compact music machines can sound these days – but they’re phone-sized and often cost the same as the phone. They haven’t captured the hearts (and wallets) of the masses. Of course, we’ve become reliant on the phone for everything, including music playback, and with good reason; but can we look beyond it in the future? After all, innovative concepts like the AI-powered personal assistant Humane AI Pin device – tiny, clip-on, discreet – are trying to shift the way we interact with technology away from our phones, even if this headline-grabbing ‘pin’ is currently, according to the reviews, poorly executed.

Becky Roberts
Becky Roberts
Freelance contributor

Becky is a hi-fi, AV and technology journalist, formerly the Managing Editor at What Hi-Fi? and Editor of Australian Hi-Fi and Audio Esoterica magazines. With over twelve years of journalism experience in the hi-fi industry, she has reviewed all manner of audio gear, from budget amplifiers to high-end speakers, and particularly specialises in headphones and head-fi devices.

In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.