Don't miss the latest stories
Behind The Design: The Apple iPod, Which Changed Music 20 Years Ago
By Mikelle Leow, 16 Mar 2021
Subscribe to newsletter
Like us on Facebook
Behind The Design is a segment brought to you by DesignTAXI where we wind back to the pioneering products and icons that steered the design world forward and transformed consumer perceptions forever.
Image via marleyPug / Shutterstock.com
What: iPod
Who designed it: Jonathan Ive, Apple Industrial Design Group
When: 2001
Apple’s first-gen iPod could carry 1,000 songs, and along with them the entire music player market. Although not the first MP3 player, the iPod’s refreshingly minimal design rewired the way brands and consumers expected handheld electronics to be.
The iPod’s development, led by Apple’s former head of design Jonathan Ive, exemplified Apple’s first steps away from its typical translucent polycarbonate plastic as well as its foray into stainless steel.
Image via marleyPug / Shutterstock.com
With only five buttons, a lighted black-and-white screen, and a mechanical scroll wheel, the 5GB device was the elegant cousin that every MP3 player wanted to be. While its relatives packed heavily for the outdoors, the lightweight iPod merely needed earphones and a USB cord.
“With the iPod, the MP3 phenomenon gave us an opportunity to develop an entirely new product,” Ive told the Design Museum. “The big wrestle was to trying to develop something that was new, that felt new and that had a meaning relevant to what it was.”
It can also be said that the iPod was the first portable music player that wasn’t just a music player. With its native iTunes application, users weren’t just able to explore songs, but they could also download books and apps as the software upgraded over the years.
And, of course, it led as ‘Podfather’ for the iPhone, which ended up inheriting its looks and philosophy.
Image via Pickaxe Media / Shutterstock.com
From left to right: first-gen iPod, third-gen iPod, fourth-gen iPod, and fifth-gen iPod. Image via Pickaxe Media / Shutterstock.com
[via MoMA, Dezeen, Engadget, images via Shutterstock]
Image via marleyPug / Shutterstock.com
What: iPod
Who designed it: Jonathan Ive, Apple Industrial Design Group
When: 2001
Apple’s first-gen iPod could carry 1,000 songs, and along with them the entire music player market. Although not the first MP3 player, the iPod’s refreshingly minimal design rewired the way brands and consumers expected handheld electronics to be.
The iPod’s development, led by Apple’s former head of design Jonathan Ive, exemplified Apple’s first steps away from its typical translucent polycarbonate plastic as well as its foray into stainless steel.
Image via marleyPug / Shutterstock.com
With only five buttons, a lighted black-and-white screen, and a mechanical scroll wheel, the 5GB device was the elegant cousin that every MP3 player wanted to be. While its relatives packed heavily for the outdoors, the lightweight iPod merely needed earphones and a USB cord.
“With the iPod, the MP3 phenomenon gave us an opportunity to develop an entirely new product,” Ive told the Design Museum. “The big wrestle was to trying to develop something that was new, that felt new and that had a meaning relevant to what it was.”
It can also be said that the iPod was the first portable music player that wasn’t just a music player. With its native iTunes application, users weren’t just able to explore songs, but they could also download books and apps as the software upgraded over the years.
And, of course, it led as ‘Podfather’ for the iPhone, which ended up inheriting its looks and philosophy.
Image via Pickaxe Media / Shutterstock.com
From left to right: first-gen iPod, third-gen iPod, fourth-gen iPod, and fifth-gen iPod. Image via Pickaxe Media / Shutterstock.com
[via MoMA, Dezeen, Engadget, images via Shutterstock]
Receive interesting stories like this one in your inbox
Also check out these recent news