Our little synthetic external organ pal has come a long way since the fall of 2001 what with a diverse line of models designed for different lifestyles. Apple’s god MP3 player has evolved from a blocky contraption to a compact Mini to a streamlined video-capable player with some noteworthy media additions in the form of photo, flash, and the useful portable hard-drive abilities. Apple introduced the iTunes online store where users can purchase music-even whole albums along with the file transfer software. Strategically, Apple decided to concentrate on presentation and aesthetics aside from technical capability. Owed in part due to this user-friendly prone strategy, more than a hundred million units were sold by the Fall of 2007. It is the sales leader among all portable music players.
A freelance copywriter by the name of Vinnie Chieco suggested the name “iPod” after seeing one of the original prototypes. It evoked a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey in which a character utters the phrase “Open the pod bay door, Hal!” referring to the denture-white EVA Pods in the Discovery One spaceship. After a bout of searching for the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office, Apple discovered that “iPod” was listed with the USPTO in July, 2000 by New Jersey resident, Joseph N. Grasso, for a line of internet kiosks. The trademark was registered by the USPTO in November 2003, and Grasso eventually assigned it to Apple Computer, Inc. in 2005.
The iPod was birthed in the form of Apple’s foray into the growing portable device market as other third-party devices were considered inferior or too inefficient thus provoking Apple’s hardware production to action by the command of Steve Jobs. This team of engineers developed the first prototypes in a couple of months under a veil of intrigue before its foray in October, 2001. The first iPod compared to today’s models was rather blocky and weighty albeit with a brow-lifting 5GB mobile hard-drive with the capacity of up to a thousand audio files. To the surprise of thousands of users, the iPod’s production was not entirely comprised of first-party developers. Apple contracted two companies for more cost efficient production: the software group of Pixo for the interface production and PortalPlayer’s operating system development and additional tech.
Since then, the iPod has evolved into different interfaces and further into different models from the original to the iPod Touch.
Each model or iteration of the iPod is considered a generation. The Classic generation has evolved into four different models while the Nano and Shuffle are iPod’s advancement to smaller, much more compact mobile devices where today’s iPod Touch is a step further into mainstream usage as it is a pro-MP3 off-shoot of Apple’s popular mobile phone, the iPhone. With each generation varying in size and “user-lifestyle”, each came equipped with flash memory, colorful LEDs, and that distinct circular click wheel.