Yesterday was twenty years of the iPod, one of the flagship products from Apple since its inception. The entire design and production of the iPod has household names. For example, the design was carried out by the team of Jony Ive, one of the most important designers at Apple, who left the company in 2019. A few hours ago it was published an unreleased prototype of the 1st generation of the iPod which saw the light on October 23, 2001. This prototype is very large and as confirmed by Fadell, father of the iPod, it was a way to prevent the final design from leaking at that time.
A huge iPod as a prototype of the first generation
There have been many iPod models that we have seen with our own eyes. From iPod Classic to iPod Nano through Shuffle. A movement that caused great changes in the reproduction of music and that today have an impact on music products and services around the world. However, the beginnings are difficult and especially for Apple when none of these products was commercialized on a large scale.
A few hours ago they were published in Panic the images of one of the first prototypes of the 1st generation iPod Classic. This device that Steve Jobs would present on October 23, 2001 on top of a stage. First. As we can see in the images, the screen was tiny compared to the screen that they finally incorporated. The buttons on the side were large and did not reflect a good way to control playback. And the well-known iPod wheel was changed to a circular system located in the upper left.
This is a P68 / Dulcimer iPod prototype we (very quickly) made before the true form factor design was ready. Didn't want it look like an iPod for confidentiality - the buttons placement, the size - it was mostly air inside - and the wheel worked (poorly) https://t.co/qeNMHMmVsc
- Tony Fadell (@tfadell) October 23, 2021
Fadell, the father of the player, has posted a tweet commenting on the prototype. He assures that it was a prototype that they made quickly and that it worked but in which there was a lot of air. That is true as you can see in the images in the article. The interior of the prototype is very large compared to the materials introduced for its operation. It was not just another way of trying to avoid a leak of a new product that did not exist at the time.