March 22, 2002: iPod Storage Increases

When the first iPod was introduced, it was a minor hit. The thing was on constant backorder and people were beginning to fall in love with the iPod. The temptation for many at this point would be to relish the product shortages until demand was fully sated.

Apple, however, chose to go a different route. Instead of waiting until supply could meet demand, they began the steady cycle of iPod updates. The first iPod upgrade didn't involve a size reduction or video capability. It involved only the hard drive. Instead Apple doubled the size of the internal hard drive from 5 to 10 GB, allowing the Apple press release to read:

“iPod lets you easily put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it anywhere. With the new 10GB iPod, you can listen to your music continuously on six round-trip flights between San Francisco and Tokyo and never hear the same song twice. Plus, now you can store your contact lists inside your iPod, too.”

The iPod got contact list compatibility and 2,000-song storage while keeping its $499 price tag, this week in 2002.