On the 23rd of October, 2001, Apple’s first iPod was launched – a date now over 22 years agp – and while competing devices existed, none captured the zeitgeist the way the iPod did, turbo charging Apple into the multi-trillion dollar company it is today.
Apple’s original iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player on the market, but it was the first to pack what Apple describes as a “mind-blowing 1,000 songs and a 10-hour battery into a stunning 184-gram (6.5-ounce) package.”
At the time, competing MP3 players either used precursors to the SD card, or were larger devices with hard drives that had lots of storage, but weren’t as sleek or pocketable as the iPod.
One review said the iPod had “no wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.”
The Nomad was an MP3 player from Singaporean audio brand Creative, which was around the same size as a portable Discman CD player, which could be set up to receive songs wirelessly from a connected PC.
The original iPad was compatible with Macs only, but PC compatibility quickly arrived, and Apple’s prowess as a consumer electronics maker, as opposed to “just” a computer maker, really took off.
Over the next 20 years, Apple launched iPods in a range of ever more advanced form factors, from chewing gum stick-sized devices through to players as small as the Apple Watch today, culminating in the iPod touch, a device that was essentially an iPhone without the mobile phone component, even though iPod touch models could make voice and video calls via FaceTime, Skype or other Internet phone and video calling programs.
Apple discontinued the iPod range back in 2022, but today, the iPod lives on as a music player in every iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, Apple TV and HomePod.
Meanwhile, Apple Music is a subscription service that offers over 100 million songs and 30,000 playlists all ad-free, along with the world’s largest classical music catalogue, with spatial audio that is like surround sound on steroids, with lyrics for each song you can see on your iPhone, iPad or screen your Apple TV is connected to,
You can listen to your songs online, and naturally, you can download all of your favourite songs to your device to listen offline.
iPods by themselves only now exist as legacy, discontinued devices, and while people still use them and they still work, the disconnected player is a bit like the portable cassette recorder and player – something that belongs to a bygone era, despite vinyl records and record players having made a comeback for mostly nostalgic purposes.
