October 23, 2001: Apple iPod is Announced

2011 – Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson was released on Kindle and iBookstore, with a full release at Midnight. The book was planned to be released a lot later. However due to Job’s health, they pushed it up as much as possible.

2001– Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod. Little did we know what that really meant for not only Apple, but also the change in technology. You were able to get either a 5 GB or 6 GB model. The original iPod connected via firewire and was touted to hold 1000 songs – most people’s entire music library.iPod actually was a reference from 2001: a Space Odyssey. The trademark was already taken by another company, but the product – an Internet Kiosk – was discontinued by 2001, so Apple finally received the Trademark in 2005.

From the Keynote to the iPod event, Steve Jobs said:

The choice we made was music. Now why music? Well, we love music. And it’s always good to do something you love. More important, music is a part of everyone’s life. EVERYONE. Music has been around forever, it will always be around – this is not a speculative market. And because it’s a part of everyone’s life, it’s a very large target market; all around the world. It knows no boundries.

Interestingly enough, in this whole new digital music revolution, there is no market leader. There are small companies like creative and sonic blue, and then there’s large companies like Sony that haven’t had a hit yet.  They have found no recipe yet for digital music.  We think not only can we find the recipe, but we think the Apple brand is going to be fantastic because people trust the Apple brand to get their great digital electronics from.

iPod was priced at $399.

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