Before the iPhone, there was the iPod. On Oct. 23, 2001, Steve Jobs introduced the iPod to a small audience—nothing like the Apple release events of later years. But then, Apple was not the juggernaut in 2001 that it is today because of the iPod and then the iPhone. Let’s look back at the evolution of the iPod in this edition of Tech Time Warp.
The story behind the first iPod
While most readers likely had at least one iPod, you may not be up to speed on some interesting iPod trivia:
- The MP3 players on the market at the time of the first iPod release were either too big and clunky or had too little storage to be useful. Jobs saw an opportunity for Apple to create a product much easier to use. He assigned that task to Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, whose team developed the first iPod in under a year.
- The first iPod was a 5GB model that could hold up to 1,000 songs. It retailed for $399 and featured a 1.8-inch Toshiba hard drive (competitors had 2.5-inch hard drives). The device weighed 6.5 ounces and was controlled via a scrolling wheel with a center button and four auxiliary buttons. Only Mac users could use the first-generation iPod; PC compatibility was not available until the second-generation release in July 2002.
- The first iPod promotional video featured DJ/musician/songwriter Moby explaining how intuitive it was to use.
- Freelance copywriter Vinnie Chieco is credited with naming the iPod. Chieco was inspired by the line “Open the pod bay door, Hal!” from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Key iPod prototypes arrived on U.S. soil from Taiwan just as the 9/11 terrorist attacks were taking place—and right before U.S. authorities grounded all air traffic.
Apple released 32 versions of the iPod before announcing the end of the product line in May 2022.
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