Apple in retro fever: Grandiose reinterpretation of a classic

At first glance, a second spring would be desirable for one or the other Apple product. The retro cult is seductive. A good example is the following illustrated idea of ​​a very special resurrection. Looks cool, but it’s probably still a fiction.

Let’s be honest, the iPod had its time. She’s not coming back either. Apart from the iPod touch, which was actually always just an iPhone without a telephone function for poor bastards, the former cult player is history. Everything the iPod could do and what made it so popular, the iPhone can do better today.

Apple’s iPod: This is what a retro model could look like

And yet there is a lot of nostalgia in the room, recently even the iPod shuffle on TikTok has been more successful. After all, it was Apple’s first “lifestyle product” which just tilled the ground for the Apple cell phone. If you don’t have an iPod, you don’t have an iPhone either – it’s that simple. It’s understandable that fans like the designer Chin Patthara from Thailand still do iPod Resurrection Designs deliver (source: behavior).

His redesigned iPod classic is clearly based on the design language of the original iPod or the third generation from 2003. However, this player comes in a square, It is controlled via a central, round touch display – the classic “click wheel” and the screen form a unit.

Of course, such a model could also power Apple’s AirPods with music, something the original iPods could never have done due to the lack of Bluetooth. But for the nostalgic, there is of course also a normal jack connection. According to the designer, there would probably also be an integrated speaker. The mostly derogatory term “roaring cube” would be given new life here.

20 years ago the first iPod set out to conquer the world:

Do you really still need something like this?

At first sight, a feeling of desire sets in. Of course, if Apple builds something like this, we’ll buy it. But after just a few minutes, you begin to have doubts: And what do I do with the iPhone? Anything this player can do, the iPhone can do, whatever you have in your pocket. In the end, such an Apple product would be as successful as hand-picked high-res audio players. Sure, they have their customers too, but you can count them on one hand. This is nothing for the mass market targeted by Apple.

In this respect: Thank you for the smile that the concept elicits from us. However, the idea is and remains hopeless. The iPhone remains our jack of all trades.