iPod Turns 20

I was in training to work at Apple when Steve Jobs announced the iPod twenty years ago today. We paused training to read about the device for a bit before resuming training. There was some excitement but a lot of questions.

One of my first official tasks at Apple was demoing iPod to the crowd gathered at the Grand Opening of the Apple Store in Cincinnati on November 3rd 2001. Apple sent a prototype with 4 songs on it, brief instructions on the “click wheel” and clear direction that customers were not to touch it. I showed off the device to the bemused crowd. I also took a list of names of people interested in the new device the list was short.

I still have my original iPod and will fire it up to see if it still works and what I was listening to 20 years ago. I wrote more extensively about iPod 5 years ago. You can find that here.

Today, I’ll get out this workhorse of a music player, charge it up and listen to whatever I listened to 20 years ago.