iPod Classic No More? Tim Cook Talks About Why The Original iPod Had To Go

The Wall Street Journal had a candid interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook. In the interview one hot topic item was discussed, the death of the iPod classic.

The interview took place on Monday while speaking at the WSJ.D conference in Laguna Beach, California. Cook was mainly talking about the new Apple Pay system and its success. However, during the Q&A other topics were brought up such as the death of the iPod Classic. The person asking the question claimed they had over 40,000 songs and wanted to purchase a 160 GB iPod classic. However, Cook had a very straightforward answer for why the iPod classic had to make its way to the grave.

“We couldn’t get the parts any more, not anywhere on Earth. It wasn’t a matter of me swinging the axe, saying ‘what can I kill today’. The engineering work was massive, and the number of people who wanted it very small. I felt there were reasonable alternatives.”

In other words, there is no hope of the classic returning from the grave and Cook had no choice but to discontinue the old device as there was not a reasonable way to keep the device original.

However, there are still “modern” iPod alternatives for the iPod fans of the world. The iPod Nano, Touch and Shuffle are all still being sold.

Mashable notes that the iPod classic was just a small portion of what was discussed in the conference. Apple Pay and the new Apple Watch were key topics. Cook notes that Apple Pay is a huge success regardless of some companies already leaving the Apple Pay System. Cook says that there are already over one million credit cards activated within the system.

“That’s more than all the other guys combined. And we’re only just getting started. I’m already getting flooded with emails from customers.”

The Apple Watch charging time was also discussed as many people were confused by previous statements that the device would need to be charged daily. During the launch of the device, Cook noted that the device would need to charge every day. Therefore, some wondered if that meant it would need to charge at some point during the middle of the day or just at night. However, Cook also noted that if you use the device less frequently you may not need to charge as often, but that there wasn’t a lot of data on that particular issue just yet.

“People are going to charge it overnight, we think. There’s a scenario where you use it less and charge less frequently, certainly.”

What do you think of Cook’s Q&A? Are there still any unanswered questions regarding new Apple products or the death of the iPod that you are dying to have answered?