Apple's 1,000-Song Device Changed the Tune 25 Years Ago
Steve Jobs introduced a small hard drive player that could hold thousands of digital tracks for $399.
By Sofia Ramirez ·
On this day in 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new product that he described as a breakthrough digital device that was not a Mac. It was the original iPod, a music player that became a staple in pockets for years. The device was designed to carry a complete music collection for a price of $399.
At the time, Apple had moved past the beige box era and was seeing strong sales with its iMac and iBook lines. Jobs believed the Mac could become the center of a digital lifestyle, acting as a hub for cameras and other electronics. He targeted music because there was no clear leader in that market. While companies like Creative, Sonic Blue, and Sony were selling digital players, Jobs stated that none of them had found the recipe for digital music.
The hardware relied on a 1.8-inch Toshiba hard drive with 5GB of capacity. Apple marketed this storage as enough to hold 1,000 songs, specifically MP3 files encoded at 160Kbps. Jobs claimed that for most people, this meant their entire music library. The device was built to be small, with dimensions of 2.4 by 4 by 0.78 inches, and it weighed 6.5 ounces, which Apple noted was lighter than most cell phones.
Apple promoted the device's fast transfer speeds as a major advantage. It used a FireWire 400 connection to move music. Jobs said moving an entire CD to the player took five to ten seconds, while a USB connection would take five minutes. Filling the device with 1,000 songs was estimated to take 10 minutes with FireWire, compared to five hours for USB. The player included a lithium-polymer battery providing 10 hours of playback and could reach an 80 percent charge in one hour.
The interface was designed for one-handed use with a scroll wheel that provided tactile feedback. Apple also launched iTunes 2 on the same day with Auto-Sync features. This allowed libraries created on a Mac to sync automatically with the player when connected. The device also worked as an external hard drive.
The iPhone did not arrive until early 2007, more than five years later. Both devices were sold by Apple for over a decade. However, the iPod Touch received its last update in May 2019, and Apple officially discontinued the product line in May 2022.
Source: Tom's Hardware
