Nilay Patel at The Verge:
The MP3 player market is dead, and Apple doesn’t seem to know how to move on.
There was a glimmer of hope a year ago, when Apple updated the previous watch-sized iPod nano with new clock displays and even began selling nano watch bands in its retail stores. The nano wasn’t a very good watch, but the potential was blindingly obvious — it was Bluetooth and a connectivity protocol away from being the ultimate iPhone accessory. It felt like a brewing revolution in wearable computing that guaranteed an extra $149 in revenue from every iPhone owner.
While Nilay’s piece might be a tad linkbait-y in nature, I’m inclined to agree with his point: the iPod nano — more than any other Apple device — seems like a product of the past. I own and use a Shuffle when I work out and ride my bike, and I use my iPhone just about everywhere else. I don’t see much room in my life for the Nano, and when I think about it, it really doesn’t make much sense for me to try to fit it in.