Apple's iconic MP3 player, iPod turns 15

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs on October 23, 2001 launched iPod, a portable music player that transformed the way people buy and listen to music.

iPod laid the foundation for the powerhouses that Apple has had with the iPhone and iPad today.

Early iPod featured a 5GB hard drive, FireWire port for syncing and a physically-rotating scroll wheel that could save 1,000 songs; the next set of the device came with touch control and added Windows support.

The device has also evolved as tech innovation advices thus extending into three versions: iPod- the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and the touchscreen iPod Touch.


In June 2003, Apple sold its millionth iPod, and by the end of 2004, it sold 10 million units. The end of 2015 marked the sale of 42 million and by September 1, 2010, the sales grew to 275 million.

In January 2015, Apple said that it would stop reporting iPod sales as it was pushed back by iPhone, whose design was partly influenced by the iPod.

Apple’s iTunes music software is still going strong, and has become a big focus of the company’s current strategy as instead of downloading songs to a portable device, people are simply streaming them.