The Next-Gen iPod touch
We can’t blame you if you’re forgotten the iPod touch even exists, since Apple does very little to promote the device. It also releases new models so sporadically that we’re always wondering if the lineup is on the edge of being put out to pasture.
Based on recent rumours, however, we wouldn’t count the inexpensive device out just yet. There are reports that Apple is working on an eighth-generation version of the device, but we don’t know much about it just yet.
It’s the only device that Apple still sells bearing the venerable iPod name, but Apple’s not keeping it around for nostalgic reasons — the iPod touch offers an easy and affordable way into the iOS, App Store, and Apple Music ecosystem for users who can’t afford an iPhone, or simply don’t want one for whatever reason.
Even if Apple had a new iPod touch ready to go, however, it’s extremely unlikely it would have gained any stage time at WWDC. More likely, Apple would have slipped it out via press release sometime during the week. However, this also means that it could really arrive any time — it doesn’t have to be tied to any specific Apple event.
After all, ever since Apple stopped updating the device annually back in 2010, new iPod touch models have seemed to show up pretty randomly. The last one that got any stage time at all was alongside the iPhone 5 back in September 2012, after skipping a 2011 release. That was followed by some quiet refreshes to that same model in 2013 and 2014, and then a new sixth-gen model that came out of the blue in 2015.
However, since the last one came right before WWDC 2019, ending a four-year dry spell, it wasn’t unreasonable to think Apple may have chosen to do the same this year.