Then-CEO of Apple Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod 10 years ago at a special event. It has 4GB of storage, can hold up to a thousand songs, lasts for up to 10 hours, and can easily fit in one's pocket. Although it was not the first MP3 player introduced in the market, the iPod was the first to become immensely popular among consumers.
To date, over 300 million iPods have been sold, but it did not come easy. The first iPod had a hefty $399 price tag on its launch and since at that time it can only be connected to iTunes-installed Apple computers, the rest of the world (who mainly uses Windows-based PCs) did not care. Things only began to pick up in 2002 when Apple came up with a Windows-compatible version of iTunes. By 2003, Apple had sold one million iPods. A year later, sales had reached 10 million.
There was concern on the fate of the iPod when more and more people are beginning to carry their music on their smartphones. While iPhone sales are exploding, iPod sales cannot seem to catch up, accounting for just 8 percent of Apple's total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2010. The iPod Classic also did not get its update this year, as it usually does.
Whether new versions of iPods will be introduced or it will be shelved due to redundancy, the impact of the iPod in casual listening, as well as in the music industry itself, remains undeniable.
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