The discontinuation of the entire lineup is still an important moment in time. The iPod lineup has been around for years, predating the original iPhone, and went a long way to establishing Apple as the company many now know today. Of course, with the iPhone having continuously matured in features and abilities, the end of the iPod was only ever a matter of time.
It is not only the hardware that has improved in such a way that reliance on single-purpose devices, like MP3 players, has been reduced. For example, Apple also offers its own devices in and around the home, and often irrespective of the general hardware limitations of a device.
The original iPod launched all the way back in 2001. On October 23rd, Apple announced the iPod, referring to it as a “breakthrough MP3 music player” and going on to say how the company has “invented a whole new category of digital music player.” The original iPod came with a scroll wheel that could be physically turned to navigate through the various menus and settings. There were also Play, Menu, Next, and Previous controls surrounding the wheel, a 160 x 128 high-resolution LED backlight display, and a 60-mW amplifier. In of the software, the original iPod required iTunes 2 for transferring music and was d as capable of ing an entire album in less than 10 seconds, or 1,000 songs in under ten minutes.
First-Generation iPod Price And Specs
For those that opted to pick up the iPod (Scroll Wheel) at the time, the price was set at $399 in the United States. For that price, buyers were provided with a 5GB internal hard drive that could store up to 1,000 CD-quality songs. The when playing audio.
The original iPod also came with for MP3, MP3 VBR, AIFF and WAV formats, MP3 bit rates up to 320-Kbps, and a frequency range of 20 to 20,000 Hz. All purchases of the first-generation iPod were bundled with an iTunes 2 CD, earbuds, a FireWire cable, and a FireWire power adapter. Not too much changed in of what's in the box over the years, although the newest iPod touch does come bundled with updated EarPods and a Lightning to USB cable.
Source: Apple, Apple Store