Apple is discontinuing the iPod, more than 20 years after the device became the face of portable music, Apple said in a blog post recently.

The iPod had kickstarted Apple's meteoric rise into one of the world's biggest company.

Since its launch in 2001, the iPod took on a storm of competing music players before being eclipsed by smartphones, online music streaming and within the Apple pantheon, by the rise of the iPhone.

The iPod has undergone several iterations since its inception featuring a scroll wheel, the capacity to store 1,000 songs and a 10-hour battery-life. The version that has been carried till date - the iPod Touch - was launched in 2007, the same year as the iPhone.

Apple stopped reporting iPod sales in 2015.

The iPod Touch, the only version of the portable music player still being sold, will be available till supplies last.