Jason Snell, with a brief reminiscence about the release of the iPod, 25 years ago today:

[…] I was struck by just how quickly the iPod’s importance was overshadowed by the iPhone. There are barely more than five years between the launch of the iPod and the launch of the iPhone. While both products took time to grow into their markets, I think it’s still the case that the true “iPod era” was only a handful of years long, and it’s been entirely overshadowed by the product that came after it.

That’s a shame, in a way, because I think people who didn’t live through this era don’t understand just what a hit the iPod was. It completely changed Apple’s fortunes, rehabbed its brand identity, gave people reasons to go into Apple’s relatively new retail stores for the first time, and taught Apple lessons that it needed to learn before it could build a smartphone.

Snell and Myke Hurley cohost Designed in California, “Expertly-told stories about the 50-year history of Apple and the world it created.” The current series is about the origin of the iPod and is worth a listen if you’re at all interested in its history.

(Snell also wrote “25 things to know about the product that changed Apple (and the world)” for Tom’s Guide.)

The iPod was the first completely new product Apple announced after I joined the company in April 2001. I remember all of the rumors, but the announcement came as a complete surprise. (It was my first—but by no means my last!—example of what “Need to Know” meant at Apple.)

I recall taking a road trip with my good friend Elliot to see the San Francisco Giants play the Los Angeles Dodgers^[1], about a month before the iPod announcement. Elliot is a techie and early adopter (like me), and he already sported a hard drive-based music player in his VW Bug. Cruising down the highway, we blasted music and debated whether an Apple music player could possibly compete in a market that was already well established. What could Apple possibly add except to make it prettier and more expensive? Both were true, of course, but little did we know how important—and iconic—iPod would become.

I’m pretty sure I still have my original iPod somewhere. The last I saw it, the chrome back had been scratched to hell. It remained absolutely beautiful.