2001 Tech: The $399 cost of a pocket music library
Steve Jobs claimed the new player held 1,000 songs on 5GB of storage, a capacity that cost nearly four times more per gigabyte than current flash drives.
By Julian Kobayashi ·
Apple announced the first iPod on October 23, 2001, for a price of $399. The device contained 5GB of hard drive storage, which company chief executive Steve Jobs said could hold approximately 1,000 MP3-encoded pop songs at 160Kbps. At launch, that capacity represented the entire music collection for many users, according to Jobs.
The launch occurred while Apple was stabilizing after the dot-com crash. The company had recently released Mac OS X, and products like the iMac were performing well. Jobs positioned the Mac as a central hub for digital media, including cameras and portable players. He identified music as the primary target market because no single competitor had dominated the space. Although Sony, Creative, and Sonic Blue sold portable devices, Jobs stated that none had yet solved the problem of digital music consumption effectively.
The hardware relied on a 1.8-inch hard drive from Toshiba. The player measured 2.4 by 4 by 0.78 inches and weighed 6.5 ounces, which Jobs described as lighter than most cell phones of that era. It supported MP3, WAV, and AIFF file formats. Connectivity was handled through a single FireWire 400 cable for both charging and data transfer. Jobs noted that FireWire could transfer a full CD in five to 10 seconds, a process that took about five minutes over USB. A rechargeable lithium-polymer battery provided 10 hours of playback and reached 80% charge in one hour.
The device featured a scroll wheel with tactile feedback for navigation. Users could browse by playlist, artist, or song. The first track played during the demonstration was "Building a Mystery" by Sarah McLachlan. Apple released iTunes 2 on the same day to support the new hardware. This software update added MP3 CD burning and automatic library syncing. The iPod also functioned as an external FireWire hard drive when connected to a computer.
The iPod line continued for two decades. The iPhone, released in 2007, eventually absorbed the music player function. The final standalone model was the seventh-generation iPod Touch, released in May 2019. Apple stopped updating the product line and officially discontinued the iPod in May 2022.
Source: Tom's Hardware
