Apple Marks iPod’s 25th Anniversary With Working iPod Hidden on Apple Music Site

The virtual iPod can be controlled with a mouse, trackpad or touchscreen, according to TechRadar. Its library is large, and random selections played the matching song, though each clip ran for just over a minute rather than the full track, the report said. TechRadar described the feature as a way to market Apple Music and a reminder of the original player’s appeal.

Apple unveiled the first iPod on Oct. 23, 2001, at its Town Hall auditorium on the Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California. Steve Jobs presented it as a “breakthrough digital device” priced at $399 in the United States and £349 in the United Kingdom. The pitch centered on “1,000 songs in your pocket,” backed by 5GB of storage, a scroll wheel and 10 hours of battery life. The device synced with iTunes on a Mac and used a new Toshiba hard drive, helping it balance storage and portability at a time when rival MP3 players offered either more bulk or less capacity.

The immediate response was not uniformly celebratory. Jason Snell, former editor of Macworld and host of the Designed in California podcast, was in the Town Hall auditorium and told TechRadar the reaction was mixed. He said the $399 price was considered high despite the promise of carrying a thousand songs, and that many people did not understand what the iPod was. Apple gave journalists a taped-together cube of CD jewel boxes representing the music preloaded on the first iPod, Snell recalled. He said his existing MP3 player held eight songs and that his work computer’s music collection was about 3GB, so the iPod could hold every MP3 he had made with room to spare.

Reaction in Apple’s own fan community was also divided. TechRadar pointed to the original MacRumors thread from Oct. 23, 2001, where some users called the iPod overly expensive, a “glorified consumer gimmick” and “stupid,” with one asking, “Why would they do this?” Others were more positive, saying the device “looks really cool” and represented “just the beginning.” At the time, many people already owned CD players and did not have $400 to spare, TechRadar noted.

The New York Times coverage, as summarized by TechRadar, reflected a similar split between potential and uncertainty. Industry analysts recognized the emerging digital music player market but questioned how much impact the iPod could have without Windows support; iTunes for Windows did not arrive until 2003. NYT columnist David Pogue praised the iPod’s FireWire connection, 5GB capacity and portable size.

Twenty-five years later, the original iPod’s limits look small next to Apple Music’s access to 100 million songs, TechRadar noted. The hidden website iPod does not restore the old hardware, but it lets visitors interact with a simulation of the interface that introduced many users to digital music. TechRadar said the feature had prompted nostalgia for the style and simplicity of the iPod line, which included the Classic, Mini, Nano and Shuffle.

Editor's Summary

Apple has marked the iPod’s 25th anniversary with a working first-generation iPod hidden on the Apple Music “page not found” page, offering short song clips through a virtual version of the original interface. The device launched on Oct. 23, 2001, at $399 with 5GB storage and a “1,000 songs in your pocket” pitch, drawing mixed early reviews over price and purpose. TechRadar’s retrospective shows that the iPod’s importance became clearer as digital music moved into the mainstream.