iPod nostalgia is at an all-time high, so meet two new cheap, adorable tiny hi-res music players that invoke the best of the music-player era (bring your own white wired earbuds)
THE SO WHAT
Fiio and Shanling leaning into iPod nostalgia and wired-headphone revival show there’s durable demand for single-purpose, offline-first devices in a world of bloated smartphones. If you build consumer hardware or audio, there’s room to strip features, not add them—owning a narrow, high-quality use case can be a viable wedge.
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