Watch Steve Jobs Unveil the First iPod [Video]

Today, Apple officially discontinued the iPod touch, effectively discontinuing the iPod as well. The iPod touch was the last remaining iPod model sold by the company.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPod on October 23, 2001. It featured a 5GB hard drive that put "1,000 songs in your pocket".


Development of the iPod was spearheaded by Tony Fadell and the name iPod was proposed by Vinnie Chieco, a freelance copywriter.

After Chieco saw a prototype, he thought of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the phrase "Open the pod bay doors, Hal", which refers to the white EVA Pods of the Discovery One spaceship. Chieco saw an analogy to the relationship between the spaceship and the smaller independent pods in the relationship between a personal computer and the music player. [W]

The popularity of iPod was enormous, especially in the United States, where it reached over 90% market share for hard drive based players. Apple followed up its original iPod with the iPod mini, the iPod nano, the iPod shuffle, and the iPod touch.

Take a look at how it all began...