Apple introduced the iPod
On this day · 23 October 2001
With "1,000 songs in your pocket," Apple turned a small white box into the soundtrack of a decade.
On October 23, 2001, Apple unveiled the iPod, a pocket-sized music player built around a 5 GB hard drive. CEO Steve Jobs pitched it with a single, sticky promise: “1,000 songs in your pocket.”
Weighing just 6.5 ounces, the device synced to a Mac over FireWire and paired with the iTunes software Apple had launched earlier that year. Its scroll wheel and clean white shell set it apart from clunkier rival players.
“With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player,” Jobs said.
Skeptics noted the $399 price and Mac-only requirement, and early reaction was lukewarm. But the iPod, paired later with the iTunes Store, reshaped how people bought and carried music — selling in the hundreds of millions and helping transform Apple from a computer maker into a consumer-electronics giant.
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