The Original iPod Went on Sale 25 Years Ago Today

Apple's archetypal iPod went connected merchantability 25 years agone today, connected November 10, 2001. The $399 euphony subordinate initially worked lone with a Mac, but it went connected to go 1 of Apple's astir important products and helped the institution grow beyond the machine business.


Steve Jobs had unveiled the archetypal iPod conscionable implicit 2 weeks earlier, connected October 23, astatine a tiny property lawsuit successful the Town Hall auditorium astatine Apple's Infinite Loop headquarters. Advertised arsenic offering "1,000 songs successful your pocket," the instrumentality combined a 5GB hard thrust with a monochrome LCD display, a mechanical scroll wheel, and up to 10 hours of artillery life.

The archetypal exemplary required iTunes. Its FireWire transportation transferred euphony and charged the battery, portion automatic synchronization copied songs and playlists from the user's iTunes library. Apple said that an full CD could beryllium transferred successful nether 10 seconds and a postulation of 1,000 songs successful little than 10 minutes. The hard thrust could besides store documents and different files.

Ahead of the announcement, Apple invited the property to the unveiling of a "breakthrough integer device," specifying that it was not a Mac. Reports variously suggested a euphony player, a location stereo accessory, oregon a handheld instrumentality with handwriting recognition. A MacRumors rumor roundup published 2 days earlier the lawsuit included the sanction "iPod."



The announcement received a mixed response. Our original coverage is inactive available, on with scholar comments questioning the device's price, Mac-only compatibility, and significance. One scholar described it arsenic "far from revolutionary," portion different wrote, "all this hype for thing truthful ridiculous!" Early forum discussions besides covered fingerprints connected the polished rear enclosure, vigor portion charging, and the dependable prime of the included earbuds.

Hardware revisions followed successful speedy succession. The second-generation iPod adopted a touch-sensitive scroll wheel, portion the third-generation exemplary introduced the 30-pin Dock Connector successful 2003. The full-size iPod gained a colour show successful 2004 and video playback successful 2005.

The iPod mini was announced successful January 2004, representing the archetypal hold of the merchandise line. It featured a smaller anodized aluminum enclosure successful silver, gold, pink, blue, oregon green, and introduced the Click Wheel, which integrated playback buttons into the touch-sensitive scrolling surface. Apple adopted the aforesaid power for the fourth-generation full-size iPod aboriginal that year.



In 2005, Apple introduced some the iPod shuffle and iPod nano. The shuffle omitted a show and offered a smaller, simpler euphony player, portion the nano replaced the mini with a bladed plan based connected flash storage. Later iPod nano models added video playback, a video camera, and a touchscreen. The quadrate sixth-generation model, introduced successful 2010, could beryllium worn connected the wrist utilizing third-party ticker straps.

By April 2007, Apple had sold 100 cardinal iPods, little than six years aft the archetypal exemplary reached customers. By October 2011, income had exceeded 304 cardinal units.

The iPod touch arrived successful September 2007, respective months aft the archetypal iPhone went connected sale. It featured a 3.5-inch Multi-Touch display, Wi-Fi, and Safari, without requiring a cellular plan.



Apple discontinued the iPod classical successful September 2014, 5 years aft its last hardware revision. The iPod nano and iPod shuffle followed successful July 2017, leaving the iPod interaction arsenic the sole model.

The seventh-generation iPod interaction received an A10 Fusion spot and up to 256GB of retention successful May 2019. It remained connected merchantability without further hardware updates until May 10, 2022, erstwhile Apple announced its discontinuation and said it would beryllium disposable portion supplies lasted.

In its announcement, Apple attributed the extremity of the lineup to the integration of euphony playback crossed its different products. Greg Joswiak, Apple's elder vice president of worldwide marketing, said that "the tone of iPod lives on" done devices including the iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod mini, Mac, iPad, and Apple TV.
This article, "The Original iPod Went connected Sale 25 Years Ago Today" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

Discuss this article successful our forums