Apple's iPod changed the world of music 15 years ago

The biggest change happened in 2007 when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone and gave it all of the iPod features.

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Smartphones, including the iPhone, almost entirely replaced the MP3 players, but Apple's iPod earned its place in history because it forever changed the world of music.

Apple's iPod changed the world of music 15 years ago 01

Steve Jobs introduced the iPod at a very humble presentation on this day, October 23rd, 15 years ago. The iPod, which had 5GB of storage and allowed you to carry a thousand songs in your pocket, along with iTunes, started a revolution in the way we buy music and movies.

The first iPod was the size of a deck of cards, with an aluminum back and plastic front end. It had a rather modest screen compared to today's standards, and its price was $399 for a 5GB model, FireWire port included.

Next year, Apple slightly upgraded the iPod, giving it a larger capacity and support for Windows. One one of the most important years for iPod and Apple was 2003 when iTunes was introduced. Just in the first week of the release of iTunes, Apple sold more than a million song for a price of 99 cents per song.

The following years brought us the iPod Mini, then the first iPod with color display, iPod Shuffle with no screen, and in 2005 the iPod Nano with smaller capacity and a slightly lower price. The same year, the iPod had received support for video.

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The biggest change happened in 2007 when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone and gave it all of the iPod features. However, he also introduced the iPod Touch.

iPod laid the foundations for the iPhone and iPad. It also contributed Apple's arrival among the most valuable companies in the world. Just four years after its launch, nearly 50% of Apple's revenue came thanks to the iPod. Despite the fact that the device wasn't cheap, iPod, in various version, sold nearly 400 million copies.

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But, after years of excellent sales, figures started to drop. In early 2015, Apple stopped providing information on the numbers of sold iPods, which is today offered as iPod Touch, Nano, and Shuffle.

The main reason the iPod sales dropped is, of course, the iPhone and smartphones in general. The iPhone became the main entertainment device that can do everything that iPod can. Apple pointed out this summer that in less than ten years they sold more than a billion iPhones.

NEWS SOURCE:statista.com

Lana has a passion for technology and science. She spends her time looking for the latest and most interesting technology and science news. Her passion is in gadgets, wearables, and other cool and interesting applications of technology or science. She also spends her free time gaming in MMOs like World of Warcraft. She has prior experience covering technology for publications and breaking news. If she’s not doing either, you might just find her exploring the metaverse in VR. Lana wants to expand TweakTown’s coverage of mobile, wearables and gadgets while also bringing her experience with science and general tech to TweakTown. Her area of coverage is around science, technology, smartphones, wearables, and general neat gadgets. She hopes to one day be able to drive around in her self-driving car while she schedules an appointment for a SpaceX trip to the moon on her smartwatch.

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