Initial Forum Reaction To iPod In 2001: It Won't Sell

Steve Jobs introduced the original 5-gigabyte iPod, which cost $400, in October of 2001. Sales of the device -- and the influence it has on the design of a wide range of consumer electronics and other products -- are now legendary.

But when the player was first announced, the Mac faithful were generally unimpressed. Here are some comments posted during and immediately after Jobs' announcement on the MacRumors forum. Enjoy!

"The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off." "Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where's the Newton?!" "I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!" "I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional." "It has good features but forget about getting it for $399!!!! Never, who gets that thing is a very stupid person. Steve Jobs is under terrible consuling or is under too much pot. This propusal is not realistic at all. If Apple does something like this again is going down. This unit may work for an audio engeneer to record some conference or rock band on the field in place of buying a expensive DAT machine, that is the only real good market this machine is gonna have." "This Christmas you will see mp3 players be commoditized. Meaning that the players from Korea will be way less expensive tha iPod. The real money is in DRM and distribution (ala Real Musicnet). If Apple were smart they would be focusing on high gross revenue from services rather than a playback device."