25 Years Ago, Apple Charged $399 for 5GB of Storage

On October 23, 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a device that changed how people carried music. The first iPod cost $399. That price tag included 5GB of storage, which held about 1,000 pop songs encoded as MP3s at 160Kbps.

Apple launched the player while recovering from the dot-com crash. Jobs had recently guided the company through the release of Mac OS X and the iMac. He positioned the new gadget as the next step in making the Mac the hub for digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media.

Jobs chose music because the market lacked a dominant player. He noted that companies like Sony, Creative, and Sonic Blue sold portable devices, but he argued none had found the right formula for digital music. At the time, four types of players existed: CD players, MP3 CD players, flash players, and hard-disk jukebox players. Jobs bet on the hard-disk category.

The device used 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 it as lighter than most cell phones. It played MP3, WAV, and AIFF files with CD-quality sound.

Jobs emphasized speed as a key feature. The player used a FireWire 400 connection for charging and file transfers. He claimed a full CD could transfer in five to 10 seconds, compared to five minutes over USB connections of that era. Filling the device with 1,000 songs took about 10 minutes, down from five hours on older systems. A lithium-polymer battery provided 10 hours of playback and reached 80% charge in one hour.

The design focused on one-hand control. Jobs highlighted an accelerated scroll wheel with a piezoelectric clicker for tactile feedback. Users could browse by playlist, artist, or song. The first track played on stage was Sarah McLachlan's "Building a Mystery."

Apple released iTunes 2 on the same day. The software added MP3 CD burning and automatic syncing. When connected, the iPod matched the library on the Mac. It also functioned as a FireWire hard drive. The first iPhone did not arrive until early 2007, more than five years after the iPod launch. The two products coexisted for over a decade before the iPod line faded. Apple released the final model, the seventh-generation iPod Touch, in May 2019. The company officially discontinued the line in May 2022.