Twenty-five years ago yesterday, on October 23, 2001, Steve Jobs walked into the Town Hall auditorium at Infinite Loop and pulled out “1,000 songs in your pocket.” MacRumors has a great look back.
The highlights
- The original: a 5GB hard drive, monochrome screen, mechanical scroll wheel, up to 10 hours of battery, FireWire, and $399. It needed a Mac with iTunes.
- Not everyone was sold. One MacRumors reader called it “far from revolutionary.”
- Then it came fast: a touch wheel, the 30-pin Dock Connector in 2003, the iPod mini and Click Wheel in 2004, color and video, then the shuffle and nano in 2005.
- Apple sold 100 million by April 2007 and more than 304 million by the 10th anniversary in 2011.
- The iPod touch arrived in September 2007, a few months after the first iPhone.
My take
The iPod is what turned Apple from a Mac company into what it is today, and it paved the road for the iPhone. I still remember loading up my first one and feeling like I was carrying my whole CD collection around. Which I was. Happy birthday, little guy.
Have a blessed day! And Happy Hacking!
