Twenty five years of iPod: How 1,000 songs in your pocket changed an industry

A thousand songs in your pocket – that was the promise Apple made when it launched the iPod 25 years ago. — Gero Breloer/dpa

SAN JOSE: When Apple introduced the iPod 25 years ago, it was easy to dismiss it. The Western world was still reeling from the World Trade Center attacks in New York, and economic uncertainty was growing. And in that climate, Apple wanted US$399 for an MP3 music player – one that initially was only for owners of the company's Mac computers, which then had less than 3% of the market.

Despite all the doubts, however, the first iPod laid the foundation for a hugely successful product line that breathed new life into a music industry battered by rampant online piracy –and shaped Apple's future.

Steve Jobs said this kind of device would be ‘terrible.’ 16 years later, Apple seems set to release it

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口袋里装着上千首歌——这是苹果公司25年前推出iPod时做出的承诺。——Gero Breloer/dpa

圣何塞：25年前苹果公司推出iPod时，人们很容易对其不屑一顾。当时，西方世界仍在纽约世贸中心恐怖袭击的阴影下挣扎，经济形势日益不明朗。在这样的环境下，苹果公司竟然要价399美元购买一款MP3音乐播放器——而且这款播放器最初只面向苹果Mac电脑用户，而当时Mac电脑的市场份额还不到3%。

尽管存在种种疑虑，但第一款 iPod 为苹果公司奠定了极其成功的产品线基础，为饱受猖獗的网络盗版之苦的音乐产业注入了新的活力，并塑造了苹果的未来。

史蒂夫·乔布斯曾说过这种设备“糟糕透了”。16年后，苹果似乎准备发布它。

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