subject: Small and Mighty: the History of the iPod [print this page] After meeting through a mutual friend in 1971, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs probably couldn't have imagined just how big an impact their start-up computer company, Apple, would have on day-to-day life globally. Having been friends for some time, the two largely self-taught computer and electronics enthusiasts built a computer and, after a local store offered to buy and distribute it, realised that the world was their oyster. Now, of all of the products that Apple produce, perhaps the most popular around the world isn't actually a computer at all, it's a small a compact music player: the iPod.
Having given iTunes to the world in 2001, a programme for the Macintosh which digitally converts CDs to computer files and stores them in a user-friendly interface, the first iPod was announced later that year. Holding 5GB of storage, about 1,000 songs, and working only on Macs; the new, chic device was instant hit, and prompted the question of whether Apple had originally launched iTunes with the iPod in mind?
By the end of the year, Apple had sold around 125,000 of the Mac-only iPods, and went on to launching the first upgrade in early 2002 with the $499 10GB edition. However, it wasn't until July of that year that the music player really took off, when Apple made the announcement that it would launch its first ever PC-friendly version, and that it would come with the innovative touch-sensitive scroll wheel, rather than the original moving scroll. With this jump forward in accessibility came a wider distribution network, new ground for Apple, which saw the likes of Dell and Target selling iPods and, inevitably, a wash of new digital music players flooded the market.
By April 2003, the iPod needed a facelift. The already slim design got a lot thinner and the whole thing became smaller on the outside and bigger on the inside, with $499 getting you a 30GB capacity of around 3,700 songs. There were cheaper third generation iPods, though to date, the most expensive iPod released by Apple is the celebrity engraved second generation device, with the signatures of celebrities like Madonna or Beck engraved on the back for an overall cost of $548. To coincide with the new look iPod, Apple also shook up iTunes with the announcement of the 99 cent album track as standard, bringing the cost of an entire album down to around $10, but, cleverly, for Mac users only at this point.
The start of 2004 saw the first iPod mini hit the shelves to fairly lukewarm reactions, as its tiny size and limited capacity didn't appeal as much as its bigger brother. However, Apple countered this with the mighty iPod Nano in 2005 which was responsible for a surge in sales which saw the total number of iPods sold reach around 6 million. Since then, larger capacity and crystal clear video play have meant that the iPod's success shows no sign of slowing down yet.
