The 2001 iPod cost $399 for 1,000 songs
Steve Jobs unveiled the device on October 23, 2001, positioning it as a hub for personal media in an era before smartphones dominated the market.
By Carmen Wojcik ·
Apple sold 5GB of storage for $399 when it launched the first iPod on October 23, 2001. That price tag bought a user a pocket-sized library capable of holding approximately 1,000 typical pop songs encoded as MP3s at 160Kbps. At the time, the device represented a major shift in how consumers accessed music, moving away from physical discs toward digital files stored on a small hard drive.
Steve Jobs introduced the product as a breakthrough digital device that was not a Mac. He framed the launch within the context of Apple's recovery from the dot-com bubble burst. The company had recently released Mac OS X, and products like the iBook and iMac were selling well. Jobs envisioned the Mac as the center of a digital lifestyle, acting as a hub for various media devices including cameras and portable players.
Music was the specific market Apple targeted. Jobs noted that while companies like Creative, Sonic Blue, and Sony already sold portable players, none had found a successful recipe for digital music. The market at the time included four main categories: CD players, MP3 CD players, flash players, and hard-disk jukebox players. Apple selected the hard-disk format as the best entry point into the industry.
The device featured a 1.8-inch Toshiba hard drive that was 0.2 inches thick. The iPod measured 2.4 by 4 by 0.78 inches and weighed 6.5 ounces. Jobs described the weight as being lighter than most cell phones of that era. The player offered 20 minutes of skip protection and used a single FireWire 400 cable for both charging and file transfer.
Speed was a key selling point for the transfer technology. Jobs stated that FireWire could move an entire CD onto the player in five to 10 seconds. This was much faster than the USB connections common at the time, which took roughly five minutes for the same task. Transferring 1,000 songs took about 10 minutes over FireWire, compared to five hours via USB. A rechargeable lithium-polymer battery provided 10 hours of continuous playback and could reach 80% charge in one hour.
Design focused on ease of use and portability. The device featured a minimal back and sides. Controls were designed for one-handed operation, utilizing an accelerated scroll wheel. This wheel used a piezoelectric clicker to provide tactile feedback, allowing users to navigate music by playlist, artist, or song. The first track demonstrated during the launch event was Sarah McLachlan's Building a Mystery.
The launch coincided with the release of iTunes 2. This software update added features such as MP3 CD burning and support for syncing the new player. The Auto-Sync feature allowed libraries built on a Mac to automatically match the iPod whenever the device was connected. The iPod also functioned as a FireWire hard drive when attached to a computer.
The first iPhone did not arrive until early 2007, more than five years after the iPod debut. The two products coexisted in Apple's lineup for over a decade. However, the iPod's popularity declined as smartphones matured. The final model was the seventh-generation iPod Touch, released in May 2019. Apple officially discontinued the line in May 2022.
