They aren't obsolete for those of us who don't want our music interrupted by texts, notifications and phone calls all the time and want to listen to music that isn't available on Spotify.
I usually keep about eight iPods in my Edge - seven Nanos and a Touch. The Nanos play perfectly, the Touch can be a bit buggy sometimes but unfortunately Sync 3 can't cope with any of my iPod Classics, even those with an SSD conversion.