The iPod made the iPhone possible

This week, Apple announced that it’s discontinuing the iPod Touch, its last product with the “iPod” name. More than 20 years after the original iPod was announced, and after over a decade in the shadow of the iPhone, it can be hard to remember just how important the device was to Apple. But the music player helped define the company we know today — and was a big factor in bringing it back from the brink of ruin.

The story of Apple’s comeback has been told over and over to the point of becoming mythologized, so I’ll try to keep it brief. The 1990s were not kind to the company, almost leaving it bankrupt. By the turn of the century, though, things were starting to turn around: the iMac G3 was selling well, and Apple’s revenue was starting...

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