The device that took us from CDs and cassettes to digital — is dead.

Apple only sells one version of the iPod still — the iPod touch — and they just announced that when the current inventory is gone, it’s gone.

To say that the gadget changed the way we listened to music is an understatement — it is estimated that over 450 million have been sold since its inception.

Sure, MP3 players had been around for quite a few years when Apple launched it. But the company saw a suite spot between tiny flash-memory units with little song capacity and the bulky hard-drive like models of the day. Between that and the ease of acquiring your music through the iTunes store, the device became ubiquitous.

Check out this excellent post-mortem from Engadget. — [eric] from [Q101]