Q: Is my iPod Touch considered obsolete now?

Nope, you can find a list of obsolete Apple products here -> Vintage and obsolete products

You can still use it and it probably has more features than it had when you bought it, but in order to get the latest version of iOS you'll need a new iPod touch. Even if you could put iOS 6 on that iPod touch, it might not preform as well as as iOS 4 when running on that iPod.

If it does what you still need, it's not obsolete. If it no longer does, then it is obsolete. Developers are choosing to only support versions of iOS newer than will run on your iPod, iOS 4.2.1, so you'll have fewer and fewer new apps available to you. Whether that makes it obsolete is something you'll have to decide for yourself. It's still going to do exactly what it did when you bought it, though, and more.

Regards.

By no means are you the only one. Many, many people are still happily using their 2G iPods. As long as your expectations and needs haven't grown and changed, they're still excellent devices. Heck, I have an old iPod that predates the clickwheel units that still serves me well, though it's no longer my primary device.

Regards.

Apple now requires that developers apps work with at least ios 5.0. Apple has created this obsolesence so you must buy a new ipod to keep apps you like. Developers know they are losing users due to this. Eventually all the ipod 2 will be good for is listening to your music (hopefully).

Edit: reply removed pending further research.

Message was edited by: varjak paw

It appearw that Apple is helping with not supporing iOS 4.2.1 and below since:

iOS 4.2.1 app compatibilty dropped when Apple stopped providing an iOS 4.2.1 coding stuff in the new xcode 4.5.2 update. All it lists is ios 6, 5, and 4.3. *****. I have a 2g ipod touch aswell so i hear your pain.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3752543?start=15&tstart=0

It's true that Xcode 4.5.x does not allow a developer to target anything earlier than iOS 4.3, but Xcode 4.4 is still available and should allow development of apps that target earlier iOS versions. I haven't tried to submit an app targeted to earlier versions, though, so I can't say that the App Store would reject such an app.

Regards.

But if the developer uses 4.4 does that mean he can't make it compatible (or use all the features of iOS 6) with iOS 6?

That would be correct, yes. You need Xcode 4.5.x to work with the iOS SDK. But you can't have your cake and eat it too; if you want to use new features of any new operating system release, eventually old versions will be cut off, and that's true here as well.

I bought an iPod Touch 3rd gen but just realized it is a 2nd gen.  Regardless of the generation, shouldn't it still work with the old apps?  This is horse manure that you can't use a product for what it was intended.  Isn't this grounds for a class action lawsuit???? 

I have a 4th generation that's not keeping with the times, I cannot sinc it with my MacPro because it is incapable of down loading iOS 8, only 6.1.6. Yours must be like an old tape recorder after the disc came out Lol. Don't feel too bad.

You can still sync the 4G with your Mac Pro. What happens when you try?

I agree. My gen 4 iPod Touch will use iOS 8.4.1 (latest release), although it has issue with wi-fi connectivity now, since the original 8.4 release. I connect it to my Mac Pro, running 10.9, Mavericks. The iOS 8.4 seems to have affected many devices since its update, but 8.4.1 at the least, corrected the issue with connecting to a desktop computer and using iTunes for back up.