Was this the sickest iPod?

By Chris WelchBy Chris Welch

Design By Cath VirginiaDesign By Cath Virginia

Developed By Graham MacAreeDeveloped By Graham MacAree

I ne'er owned an iPod Mini. Even arsenic a assemblage freshman backmost astatine the clip of its introduction, I was already much of a full-size iPod benignant of nerd. Mine was the third-gen model with the backlit buttons, which I support was the champion mentation ever released. I wanted the astir retention imaginable for the flourishing euphony postulation that I’d amassed done years of painfully dilatory downloads implicit Napster, LimeWire, and Usenet groups. (There were some ineligible iTunes purchases mixed successful there, I promise.) 

But by 2004, the iPod had a starting terms of $299 and could tally arsenic precocious arsenic $399. Apple needed to connection a euphony subordinate that galore much radical could afford. And that came successful 2004, the twelvemonth of the first-ever iPod Mini.

Onstage astatine Macworld, Steve Jobs claimed the iPod had reached a 31 percent stock of the MP3 subordinate market. But the institution was anxious to carve retired a overmuch bigger information of the pie, and doing truthful meant taking connected importantly cheaper MP3 players from the likes of Rio, Dell, iRiver, Creative, and different brands — each of which are faint memories today.

During his presentation, Jobs divided the flash MP3 subordinate marketplace into 2 segments: implicit $100 and nether $100. The iPod Mini was Apple’s reply for that over-$100 grouping. (The institution would yet tackle the little conception with the archetypal iPod Shuffle.) Apple priced the Mini astatine $249, inactive costly but substantially cheaper than the regular iPod.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

This New York Times review from David Pogue truly does a beauteous occupation of illustrating the Mini’s contention astatine the clip and conscionable however antithetic the tech satellite was. The Creative Zen Micro fto you record FM vigor stations — not conscionable perceive to them. Meanwhile, Virgin sold an MP3 subordinate with 2 headphone jacks for shared listening with a friend. Oh, and fto america not hide that ineligible integer euphony was each DRM’d to hellhole astatine the time, portion MP3s offered cosmopolitan playback nary substance what subordinate you bought. 

Apple didn’t request immoderate unusual gimmicks to merchantability iPods. The Mini ran the aforesaid bundle arsenic Apple’s flagship subordinate and offered afloat compatibility with a monolithic dispersed of accessories that worked with its 30-pin dock connector. “We deliberation this is what it takes to instrumentality your room with you and not person to fret,” Jobs said of the Mini’s 4GB hard drive, which (by Apple’s count) stored 1,000 songs successful your pocket. The aluminum-covered instrumentality came successful respective colors — a archetypal for immoderate iPod — and exuded much property than the all-white iPod. It was besides acold much scratch-resistant than the polished alloy backmost casing of regular iPods, which scuffed nary substance however cautiously you babied the device.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

While the Mini shared a batch successful communal with past iPods, it did present 1 important change: the click wheel. Faced with constricted country for controls, Apple decided to harvester the circular interaction instrumentality and assorted euphony power buttons into a azygous interface that debuted connected the Mini and would transportation guardant done the precise past iPod Classic. It was a superb solution. The iPod Mini got disconnected to a beardown commencement with over 100,000 preorders. Apple would aboriginal merchandise a second-generation model with a much longer artillery life and much storage.

But the Mini’s clip successful the spotlight was short-lived. At Macworld 2005, it was succeeded by the iPod Nano. The Nano would merchantability for the aforesaid $249 terms and inactive held 1,000 songs successful your pocket, but this time, the hardware was tiny capable to beryllium tucked into a coin pouch — a existent showcase of Apple’s engineering. The Nano would beryllium joined by the first-generation iPod Shuffle, which was the archetypal iPod to merchantability for nether $100. The duo gave Apple a two-pronged attack to yet conquer the marketplace of flash-based MP3 players. 

It was the iPod Nano that would transportation guardant done aggregate generations and antithetic designs. Ultimately, the iPod Mini became a span betwixt Apple’s iconic full-size iPod and the Nano and Shuffle models that would go truthful wildly fashionable successful the years to follow. It was an important measurement that gave america the click instrumentality and yet immoderate color. And it helped to turn the iPod’s income dominance adjacent further. But much importantly, it showed Apple the value of going smaller — some successful size and price. That strategy would widen to the iPod Nano and Shuffle for a fistful of years, offering radical some benignant of iPod careless of budget.

Eventually, modern smartphones wiped retired the request for standalone euphony players altogether. Apple celebrated 100 cardinal iPods sold successful April 2007 — conscionable a mates months earlier the archetypal iPhone went connected sale. Once it did, everyone realized the convenience of a azygous do-everything device, and determination was nary going back. The full-size iPod Classic was discontinued successful 2014; the Nano and Shuffle would travel successful 2017, and Apple bid farewell to the iPod marque altogether successful 2022. Nowadays, there’s been an iPod renaissance of sorts arsenic radical seek a reprieve from euphony subscriptions and telephone notifications, but it’s thing similar the heyday of a simpler clip successful tech — erstwhile euphony players were euphony players and you could genuinely person each your songs close determination successful your pocket.