Apple has officially announced that the iPod nano and iPod shuffle are obsolete. This feels like the end of an era because these were pretty iconic music players.
Whenever a device is marked as obsolete under Apple, it means it will be removed from Apple’s repair services, and the company will not service them. The iPhone 6 has also been added to the list of obsolete devices. Apple categorizes its older devices as vintage or obsolete based on a clear timeframe. The difference between the two is that a vintage device can still be repaired, while an obsolete device cannot. Each device is categorized based on how long it has been since Apple last sold them. For example, a device becomes vintage five years after its last sale and obsolete two years after that.
The iPod nano, iPhone 6, and iPod shuffle were last sold in 2017. This means that they should have been declared obsolete designation back in 2022. There was no reasoning given for the way, but Apple recently added a bunch of devices to their obsolete list, so it may be the company doing a sweep. Unfortunately, there are no reported exceptions for repair of obsolete devices. So, anyone who still uses these will have to find other ways to repair them.
This is notable because the iPod Touch, the last device in the line of iPods, was discontinued in 2022. This means there will only be five more years until every iPod is obsolete, according to Apple. However, there is always the chance that Apple had enough stock to last until 2023, which would mean the date could go as far as 2030. Even as Apple has largely moved away from iPods, you can still use them with modern versions of iTunes on Windows or the Apple Music app on Mac.
Source: Apple via Apple Insider