Apple's Steve Jobs Unveils the $399 iPod Music Player

1,000 songs. That was the figure Apple CEO Steve Jobs put forth on this day in 2001 when he took the stage to introduce the first iPod, a device he had earlier teased as a breakthrough product outside the Mac lineup. Priced at $399, the portable digital music player was designed to place an entire music library into a user's pocket, a claim Jobs asserted was a capability for most people. The presentation marked the company's official entry into the competitive market for portable music solutions.

At the time of the announcement, Apple had recently navigated the aftermath of the dot-com bubble's collapse, establishing its new iMac and iBook product lines and steering the company into the Mac OS X era. Jobs stated his vision was for the Mac to become the hub of a user's digital lifestyle, connecting to devices like cameras and DVD players. The company chose to pursue the music market because it was a large target without a clear leader, he explained. Jobs acknowledged that other companies, including Creative, Sonic Blue, and Sony, were already selling digital music players, but he stated that "none of them has really found the recipe yet, for digital music."

The iPod launched with support for CD-quality sound and common file formats of the time, including MP3, WAV, and AIFF. Its 5GB hard drive could store approximately 1,000 songs at a 160Kbps bit rate. Jobs outlined three primary advantages for the device. The first was its ultra-portable design, made possible by a Toshiba hard drive that measured 1.8 inches in diameter. The resulting device measured 2.4 by 4 by 0.78 inches and weighed 6.5 ounces, a size comparable to a deck of cards and lighter than most cell phones of that era.

The iPod's second major advantage, as described by Jobs, was its design and user interface. The device featured a scroll wheel with tactile feedback, allowing users to navigate their music library by playlist, artist, or song with one hand. The first song demonstrated on stage during the presentation was Sarah McLachlan's 'Building a Mystery'. The product's third key feature was Auto-Sync with iTunes. This functionality, introduced alongside iTunes 2 on the same day, automatically synchronized a user's curated music library from their computer to the iPod upon connection.

The device was also equipped with a FireWire 400 connection for data transfer and charging. During the presentation, Apple claimed this connection could transfer an entire CD to the iPod in five to ten seconds, while filling the device with 1,000 songs would take ten minutes. By comparison, filling a USB-based music player with the same collection of songs was estimated to take five hours. The iPod's lithium-polymer battery was rated for 10 hours of continuous playback.

The first iPhone was released more than five years later, in early 2007. For over a decade, both the iPhone and iPod product lines were sold by Apple. The iPod's prominence gradually diminished with the rise of smartphones. The final model produced was the 7th-generation iPod Touch, released in May 2019. The entire iPod product line was officially discontinued in May 2022.

Looking ahead, the event marks the beginning of a product line that would become a major part of Apple's business for two decades. The company's focus on music, which Jobs justified by noting everyone loves music, led to the creation of a device that defined a category of consumer electronics. The iPod's success paved the way for Apple's later expansion into other consumer products and services related to digital media.