The Best Comments From The Day The iPod Was Released, 14 Years Ago This Week

On October 23, 2001, Steve Jobs launched what he described as a “revolutionary” product known as the iPod, to which many Mac enthusiasts responded: “YOU SUCK, JOBS! WHERE ARE OUR SEX ROBOTS AND TELEPORTATION PDAs?!”

A Reddit user unearthed this delightful MacRumors thread from a 2001 that encapsulates the visionary wisdom of the festering hive mind known as the Internet Commentariat. People were outraged that Jobs would describe the iPod as a revolutionary device when there were already perfectly satisfactory MP3 players on the market like the RaveMP or the Nomad Jukebox. Duhhhh!

Many also grumbled, fairly, at the $399 price tag. But the main gripe against the iPod was Apple’s drift into the consumer goods market (citing missteps like the Newton) rather than doing what they do best: computers. Think of what amazing comments you’ve left on the Internet for the amusement of future historians.

Enjoy!

I have no use for an Mp3 player.

My house has a CD player.
My car has a CD player.
My Mac has a CD player

I don’t use headphones.

The iPod requires me to change my lifestyle to meet it’s needs…

I need round holes, not square holes.

For $99 I might buy the toy, for $399? Why?

Doesn’t a Mac with a CDR undermine the need for most of this? All that’s left is the number of songs you can play and the ability to listen to all of them with headphones anywhere. Do I really need ALL my songs ALL the time?

uhm, no.

Won’t last. Another Cube.

All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve’s mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.

This iPod is for spoil rich kids with insane parents or an Apple fan as fannatic as a Taliban. It has good features but forget about getting it for $399!!!! Never, who gets that thing is a very stupid person.

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

I am very sad that Apple seems to be repeating the same mistake they made with the Cube – great, nifty product that anyone would love to own, except that it’s burdened by an unbelievably poor price/performance ratio.

Raise your hand if you have iTunes… Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port… Raise your hand if you have both… Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device… There is Apple’s market. Pretty slim, eh? I don’t see many sales in the future of iPod.

this really isn’t that revolutionary of a product. I have a Nomad Jukebox with a 6gig hardrive and it only cost me $250. It works great and syncs fine with the computer and the transfer is relativley fast. I don’t know what the big deal is. So…it works well with apple’s software….big deal, anyone can do that. There is nothing there of interest. It’s just a little but smaller, has a little better battery, and is $150 dollars more. Whatever…….this thing would be cool…..for $200.

Regards,

Matt Hodgson

All I can say is, as an Apple “fan”, I’m sad.

You are all a bunch of imbecile crybabies. I bet you haven’t even gone over the specs and all you can do is whine and cry because you didn’t get a Newton. Get a life! I bet all you do is troll Mac bbs’ critizicing [sic] Apple and how they can NEVER meet your stupid way out of this world expectations.

THIS THING IS AMAZING!!!

It’s not jus ANOTHER mp3 player. It’s a BREAKTROUGH[sic] mp3 player!

If the ipod is only the world’s most baddass MP3 player then I don’t know if I’m really going to stand in line to buy it, I have a cd walkman and a burner already, and besides that now that I don’t have a dotcom job anymore I need that $400 to pay car payments and rent. Steve, bring down the price or add video to it and I’ll eat TopRamen for a month to afford one.

A few comments have already come in saying that this product isn’t “innovative” enough. You can get more-or-less the same thing elsewhere.

But what does being highly innovative get Apple? Think Newton. It still runs circles around the Palm, but was a commercial failure. It was too innovative.

But, how about if you took the idea of an MP3 player, made it look nice, gave it a Firewire port for fast transfers and easy recharging, and made the whole thing sync seamlessly with iTunes.

Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I imagine they’ll sell quite a few. It’s the right feature set at the right time.