I get that it's second nature for corporate marketing to try to dampen the message when they're taking something away, but this is on a whole new level.
People see this news as the "end of an era" -- an era that began with Apple's reinvention in the early 2000s. That's the implicit message. There are two ways to interpret this:
1. Wow, what an iconic product. Come to think of it, we haven't really felt that way about a new Apple product in a while... Maybe this is not just the end of iPod, but of Apple's product innovation, too?
2. Wow, what an iconic product. Wild to think that we could only have 1,000 songs but even that was revolutionary. Apple changed music forever and they're still ahead of the industry with products like AirPods and Spatial Audio. I wonder what they'll do next?
Interpretation #1 is a very real risk to Apple’s brand. It's the job of their PR team to steer the message toward interpretation #2.
It doesn't help that Apple was pretty much hiding that they still sold them. They were not discoverable through the site or most Apple stores. You have to use the search or ask someone about it, respectively. They were pivoting away from it first.
That doesn't follow (and all three above assertions are false, to boot).
> Customers can purchase iPod touch through apple.com, Apple Store locations, and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last.
That's pretty clear that more won't be made.
This is:
"You can buy our product while we sell it"
"Music is super great isn't it"
"We have lots of ways to let you listen to music"
"We love that our customers like listening to music"
"So yeah, as we clearly said, you can buy our product while we sell it"
I'd argue that the primary message they were trying to convey was something that had to be inferred from their text, as opposed to being something clearly stated in their text, and therefore that it is NOT clear.
This is true for every product ever made