iPod
Twenty-one years of iPod, from the first 5 GB FireWire model to the last touch Apple quietly stopped selling in May 2022.
21 models documented
2001iPod (1st generation)
1st generation
A thousand songs in your pocket. 5 GB, FireWire, a physically rotating scroll wheel, and Mac only.
2002iPod (2nd generation)
2nd generation
Solid-state touch wheel, 20 GB at the top, and the first Windows support via Musicmatch Jukebox.
2003iPod (3rd generation)
3rd generation
Four glowing touch buttons in a row above the wheel, and the debut of the 30-pin dock connector that lasted until 2012.
2004iPod mini (1st generation)
1st generation
Anodized aluminum in five colors at the size of a business card, and the debut of the Click Wheel. The best-selling iPod of its era.
2004iPod (4th generation)
4th generation
The Click Wheel returns from the mini, battery life goes to 12 hours, and the iPod passes 90% of the hard-drive player market.
2005iPod shuffle (1st generation)
1st generation
No screen, a control ring and a USB plug under the cap. Autofill picked the music and you pressed play.
2005iPod mini (2nd generation)
2nd generation
6 GB, a brighter screen and 18 hours of battery. Discontinued seven months later to make room for the nano.
2005iPod nano (1st generation)
1st generation
6.9mm thick, flash memory, a color screen, and a scratch-prone clear coat that ended in a class action and a settlement.
2005iPod (5th generation)
5th generation
The video iPod, though Apple never called it that. Launched the same day the iTunes Store started selling television at $1.99 an episode.
2006iPod shuffle (2nd generation)
2nd generation
An aluminum square with a clip on the back, 15 grams, still no screen. The smallest thing Apple has sold with a battery in it.
2006iPod nano (2nd generation)
2nd generation
Anodized aluminum in six colors with a finish that answered the first nano's scratching complaints, and 24 hours of battery.
2007iPod classic
6th generation
The last Click Wheel iPod and the last with a spinning disk. On sale almost unchanged for seven years, to 160 GB.
2007iPod touch (1st generation)
1st generation
An iPhone without the phone: the same multi-touch screen, Safari and Wi-Fi, minus the radio and the contract.
2007iPod nano (3rd generation)
3rd generation
The near-square fat nano, widened to fit a 2-inch video screen and Cover Flow. Apple went back to the tall thin body a year later.
2009iPod shuffle (3rd generation)
3rd generation
Every control moved onto the headphone cable, which meant it only worked properly with Apple's own earphones. Apple reversed the decision a year later.
2009iPod nano (5th generation)
5th generation
The nano with a video camera, an FM radio and a pedometer. Apple removed the camera from the next generation and never brought it back.
2010iPod nano (6th generation)
6th generation
A 1.54-inch touchscreen square with a clip, which enough people wore as a watch to start a cottage industry in straps.
2010iPod shuffle (4th generation)
4th generation
Physical buttons return after the unpopular cable-control third generation, with VoiceOver reading track names aloud.
2012iPod nano (7th generation)
7th generation
The last nano: a 2.5-inch touchscreen, a home button, Bluetooth and Lightning, on sale for five years almost unchanged.
2012iPod touch (5th generation)
5th generation
The 4-inch Retina touch, 6.1mm thick in five colors. This body carried the iPod through to the final 2019 model.
2019iPod touch (7th generation)
7th generation
The last iPod. The iPhone 7's A10 Fusion in the 2012 body, discontinued on 10 May 2022 after twenty-one years of iPod.