Blast from the past: 1st Gen iPod

Here’s one for you…who remembers the very 1st generation iPod? A revolution in portable MP3 technology designed and marketed by Apple, launched on October 23, 2001.

Originally available in 5GB white and then later with 10GB storage the legendary iPod has certainly come on a long way since.

The 1st generation iPod line was forged from Apple’s “digital hub” category, when the company began creating software for the growing market of personal digital devices. Apple found existing digital music players “big and clunky or small and useless” with user interfaces that were “unbelievably awful”. Naturally Apple set out to develop its own to compete in the portable digital player market.

CEO Steve Jobs assembled a team of engineers to design the iPod line which was developed in less than one year. Jobs announced it as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.” Songs could be transferred via Firewire, unlike modern iPods and iPhones which use USB.

The iPod software wasn’t entirely designed by Apple, in fact a majority of it was based on PortalPlayers reference platform. In addition Apple contracted Pixo to help design and implement the user interface which would become the USP of the iPod line.

In 2007 Apple discovered an existing UK patent for a similar device which was designed in 1981 by a British inventor called Kane Kramer. Kramer conceived the first Digital Audio Player, the IXI with five working prototypes and over £6million worth of orders from the music industry. The digital player was the size of a credit card with a small LCD screen and navigation and volume buttons and would have held data on an 8 MB bubble memory chip with a capacity of 3.5 minutes worth of audio.

Unfortunately Kramer couldn’t raise the funds required to renew the patent and the designs went to the public domain. The designs also included details about digital downloading of music over phone lines.

Since then the iPod has revolutionised the Mp3 market and with iTunes being a major source to download and market new music Apple has become a global leader in the digital music industry.

Modern iPods have touch screens, high capacity memory, seamless GUI and an ever expanding app store that is defining the future of handheld digital devices.