I never owned an iPod Mini. Even as a college newman back at the time of its introduction, I was already more of a brimming-size iPod benevolent of nerd. Mine was the third-gen model with the backlit buttons, which I carry on was the best version ever freed. I wanted the most storage possible for the flourishing music accumulateion that I’d amassed thcdisesteemful years of painbrimmingy enumerateless downloads over Napster, LimeWire, and Usenet groups. (There were some lterrible iTunes acquires combiinsist in there, I promise.)
But by 2004, the iPod had a commenceing price of $299 and could run as high as $399. Apple insisted to propose a music carry outer that many more people could afford. And that came in 2004, the year of the first-ever iPod Mini.
Onstage at Macworld, Steve Jobs claimed the iPod had accomplished a 31 percent scatter of the MP3 carry outer taget. But the company was willing to carve out a much hugeger portion of the pie, and doing so uncomferventt taking on beginantly inexpensiveer MP3 carry outers from the enjoys of Rio, Dell, iRiver, Creative, and other brands — all of which are faint memories today.
During his currentation, Jobs split the flash MP3 carry outer taget into two segments: over $100 and under $100. The iPod Mini was Apple’s answer for that over-$100 grouping. (The company would eventupartner tackle the drop segment with the first iPod Shuffle.) Apple priced the Mini at $249, still costly but substantipartner inexpensiveer than the normal iPod.
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This New York Times appraise from David Pogue repartner does a attrvivacious job of illustrating the Mini’s competition at the time and equitable how contrastent the tech world was. The Creative Zen Micro let you write down FM radio stations — not equitable hear to them. Meanwhile, Virgin sageder an MP3 carry outer with two headphone jacks for scatterd hearing with a friend. Oh, and let us not forget that lterrible digital music was all DRM’d to hell at the time, while MP3s proposeed universal carry outback no matter what carry outer you bought.
Apple didn’t insist any strange gimmicks to sell iPods. The Mini ran the same gentleware as Apple’s flagship carry outer and proposeed brimming compatibility with a massive spread of accessories that labored with its 30-pin dock combineor. “We skinnyk this is what it consents to consent your library with you and not have to fret,” Jobs shelp of the Mini’s 4GB difficult drive, which (by Apple’s count) stored 1,000 songs in your pocket. The aluminum-covered device came in cut offal colors — a first for any iPod — and exuded more personality than the all-white iPod. It was also far more scratch-resistant than the elegant steel back casing of normal iPods, which scuffed no matter how take partbrimmingy you babied the device.
Pboilingo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
While the Mini scatterd a lot in normal with past iPods, it did begin one beginant change: the click wheel. Faced with confineed room for administers, Apple choosed to join the circular touch wheel and various music administer buttons into a one interface that debuted on the Mini and would carry forward thcdisesteemful the very last iPod Classic. It was a luminous solution. The iPod Mini got off to a strong commence with over 100,000 preorders. Apple would tardyr free a second-generation model with a much prolongeder battery life and more storage.
But the Mini’s time in the spotairy was foolishinutive-dwelld. At Macworld 2005, it was thriveed by the iPod Nano. The Nano would sell for the same $249 price and still held 1,000 songs in your pocket, but this time, the difficultware was minuscule enough to be tucked into a coin pocket — a genuine showcase of Apple’s engineering. The Nano would be combineed by the first-generation iPod Shuffle, which was the first iPod to sell for under $100. The duo gave Apple a two-pronged approach to finpartner conquer the taget of flash-based MP3 carry outers.
It was the iPod Nano that would carry forward thcdisesteemful multiple generations and contrastent schedules. Ultimately, the iPod Mini became a bridge between Apple’s iconic brimming-size iPod and the Nano and Shuffle models that would become so savagely famous in the years to adhere. It was an beginant step that gave us the click wheel and finpartner some color. And it helped to grow the iPod’s sales dominance even further. But more beginantly, it showed Apple the beginance of going petiteer — both in size and price. That strategy would prolong to the iPod Nano and Shuffle for a handful of years, proposeing people some benevolent of iPod watchless of budget.
Eventupartner, conmomentary cleverphones wiped out the insist for standalone music carry outers altogether. Apple honord 100 million iPods sageder in April 2007 — equitable a couple months before the first iPhone went on sale. Once it did, everyone genuineized the convenience of a one do-everyskinnyg device, and there was no going back. The brimming-size iPod Classic was dispersistd in 2014; the Nano and Shuffle would adhere in 2017, and Apple bid farewell to the iPod brand altogether in 2022. Nowadays, there’s been an iPod renaissance of sorts as people seek a reprieve from music subscriptions and phone notifications, but it’s noskinnyg enjoy the heyday of a plainr time in tech — when music carry outers were music carry outers and you could truly have all your songs right there in your pocket.
