iPod's Fifth Birthday

As anyone who has been in a major (or even not-so-major) city lately can attest, iPods and Razr phones are ubiquitous.

What a lot of the late arrivals to the iPod phenomenon don't realize is that the iPod as a product line is now five years old.

Yep, that streamlined, super bright screen, holds all your music, photos, TV shows and movies wonder pod had a slightly more humble beginning as a 5 GB, black-and-white screened music device.

Sure, the original iPod is nowhere near as insanely great as its current generation siblings, but speaking as someone whose only iPod is the original iPod, it is still a remarkable device. All of the basic controls and industry leading software integration was there from the start, and in that way, the iPod has changed very, very little (and that's a good thing).

So, in honor of the iPod's fifth birthday, here the introduction video of the iPod from its launch in October 2001.

If the oldest iPod you can picture is the iPod mini, watch the video and take a trip through history. (And remember when you are watching the video that when the iPod came out the only MP3 players anyone had ever heard of were small 512 MB units with miniature buttons and clunky interfaces that required patience, determination and luck to operate).

Sure the original is a little bit more festively plump than today's version, but it is still an icon.

Happy Birthday iPod!



(Oh, and another thing that hasn't changed since 2001 -- Smash Mouth's "All Star" was overplayed even way back then too).

UPDATE: Kevin Maney points out that Wired has the story of the iPod's origin on their site.

UPDATE #2: Playlist's iPod blog has a great selection of quotes/reaction from the original iPod's unveiling. Some favorites:

One of the “Top Five Worst Tech Gifts” to get for Christmas in 2001—TechTarget

“I think the iPod will be another one of Apple’s failures just like the Newton. It’s only for the Mac; not a lot of the MP3 world uses Macs, compared with PCs. It costs $400; you can get so many other players that work well for much less. Apple could have done more-innovative things with an MP3 player than just make it look cool and give it some fast features.”—Letter to the editor, April 2002 issue of Macworld

“If Apple ever lowers the iPod’s price and develops Windows software for it, watch out: the invasion of the iPod people will surely begin in earnest.”—David Pogue, New York Times

Don't look now, but I'm pretty sure we're living in the world envisioned by Pogue.