Remembering Apple’s Special Music Events

It's well known that the original iPod was introduced in the fall of 2001, and that the iTunes Store was first shown off in April 2003.

Throughout the 2000s, many of Apple's consumer announcements revolved around Macworld Expo, held each January in San Francisco. However, only a few iPods that was introduced there: iPod mini, in January 2004, and the iPod shuffle in January of 2005.

The iPod mini was the second member of the iPod lineup. Equipped with a 4 GB hard drive that could 1,000 songs and the first example of the Clickwheel with integrated buttons, it was designed to "go after" the Flash-based players that were flooding the market at the time.

At $249, the iPod mini was more expensive than Flash players of the time, but it was a huge hit. Its small size and choice of colors — silver, gold, green blue and pink — made it part MP3 player, part fashion accessory.

After a couple of years, Apple realized that the iPod was a huge seller for the holidays, and moved new releases from January to later in the year to ensure that new, lustworthy iPods would be on sale for the holiday shopping season.

2004-2006: The Golden Era

In October of 2004, Apple held its first music event. After some housekeeping, Steve Jobs announced two new iPods: the iPod Photo and the first U2 iPod.

The iPod photo was based on the 4th-generation iPod, but it came a color screen and the ability to view photos synced to the device via iTunes. It sat above the regular — grayscale — iPod in the product line at $499 for 40 GB and $599 for 60 GB, but the two would be folded into one model in June 2005.

(I remember being very jealous of my roommate's iPod photo.)

The second iPod introduced in October 2004 wasn't as revolutionary. The U2 iPod was the physical manifestation of the growing partnership between Apple and the band. Bono had helped demo iChat video conferencing, and the band featured in Apple's dancing silhouette ads.

The U2 iPod was black with a red clickwheel, as opposed to the white and light gray used on the 4th-generation model on which it was built. The stainless steel back boasted laser engraved signatures from the band members.

The $349 iPod didn't come with any of the features of the iPod photo, but it did come with a poster of the band and also included an iTunes Store coupon redeemable for $50 U.S. off of the price of The Complete U2, a "digital boxed set" featuring over 400 U2 tracks.

Yeah. Um, I can't think of much nice to say here, so let's just move on...

In September 2005, Apple replaced the iPod mini with the iPod nano.

The iPod mini was the most popular iPod to date; in fact, it was the most popular MP3 player in the world. Like the iPod mini and the original iPod before it, the nano boasted "1,000 songs in your pocket," but the joke was that the iPod nano was so small, it fit in that weird little pocket found on most jeans. When Jobs pulled it out, there was audible "oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience. It was nearly one-third the size of the iPod mini before it.

Feature-wise, the iPod nano shipped with photo support, but the nano was the first iPod to include a lap timer, world clock and screen lock.

Instead of the anodized aluminum that wrapped the iPod mini, the nano came in white and black plastic, with stainless steel backgrounds.

While the first-generation iPod nano would be incredibly popular, they weren't without their problems. Users complained of heavy scratching, including on the screen, and a few years later, Apple would open a warranty replacement program for units with defective batteries.

Just a month after the iPod nano, in October 2005, Apple gathered the media for a second Special Music event in as many months. The topic? Music videos and TV shows in the iTunes store and on the iPod.

Dubbed the "white iPod" at this point by Jobs, the new 5th-generation iPod featured a larger, 2.5-inch (320 by 240 pixels) display. Coupled with new internals, this iPod could play H.264 and MPEG 4 files at a full 30 frames per second and even send video out over a wire to a television set.

Like the iPod nano, it came in both black and white. The 5th-generation model debuted with 30 GB and 60 GB models that were both thinner than the 20 GB iPod with color display it replaced.

Mercifully, 2006 included just one Special Event, in which the company overhauled the entire iPod line. The 5th-generation iPod got a brighter screen, a better battery and a price drop, not to mention gapless playback support. The U2 iPod was revved to match its video-playing cousins.

The iPod nano got a bigger update. With the second-generation Nano, Apple returned to an aluminum design with anodized colors. The thinner device could now play music for 24 hours straight, and could hold up to 2,000 songs for users who purchased the black 8 GB SKU.

The Shuffle received the largest update, however. Gone was the stick-of-gum form factor, replaced by a smaller, clip-based design. "Wearability," Jobs said, was what customers wanted most out of the shuffle." The clip made is possible to wear without the need of a case or lanyard.

2007-2012: Winding Down

In my mind, 2006 was the last great Music Special Event. Apple only had one new iPod model to introduce after the iPhone was released in June 2007: the iPod touch. As the dedicated music player declined in both importance and relevance, Apple wisely let its foot off the gas.

That's not to say that the Music Special Events weren't newsworthy. Apple released some of their best iPods after 2007. Of course, the iPod touch got bigger and more powerful, albeit usually a step behind the iPhone.

The mainstream iPod got re-named the iPod classic in 2007, forever losing its white plastic case in exchange for silver and black aluminum.

Some of the best iPod nanos came out between 2007 and 2012, including my personal favorite, 2008's "Nanochormatic" 4th-generation model.

It came in bold, bright colors, and returned to the candybar form factor after whatever this was. The return to form was short lived, as 2010's iPod nano was square and featured a touch screen instead of a clickwheel, leading some to use the device as a watch.

Where are they now?

The hard drive-based iPod classic is gone. Apple stopped selling it in September 2014. The company had changed the size of the iPod's hard drive several times since 2007, but there were no other significant changes to the line. While I like having an iPod classic to keep all of my music with me, clearly I'm in the minority. I don't think most consumers miss this as an option.

The iPod nano we have today is more or less the same as the 7th-generation device, with its 2.5-inch touchscreen display and weird, iOS-inspired-but-not-really-iOS software. Apple's tweaked the colors over the years, but that's about it.

Besides color changes, the current iPod shuffle was last updated in September 2010. From 2009-2010, Apple sold a buttonless iPod shuffle, but returned to the (slightly smaller) clip-based design before putting the product on life support.

Really, the only iPod receiving any kind of attention from Apple at all is the iPod touch. While it was a long time coming, this year's update brought lots of improvements to the device. The iPod touch probably more of a portable gaming device than a portable MP3 player these days.

It's a matter of time before the nano and shuffle quietly join the iPod classic in the great iPod dock in the sky. They don't sell well, and clearly Apple's not interested in bringing new features to the products. While that makes sense, it makes me a little sad. I love my iPhone 6S Plus, and while it is the primary way I listen to music, I'll always remember the excitement each fall brought when Steve Jobs got on stage to show off what the iPod would be like for the next year.