Amaya Toman The iPod has been part of Apple's product range since 2001, when its first generation was released. Although it was far from the first portable music player in history, it revolutionized the market in a certain way and very quickly gained popularity among users. With each subsequent generation of its player, Apple tried to bring news and improvements to its customers. The fourth generation iPod was no exception, which was newly enriched with a practical click wheel.
"The best digital music player just got better," praised Steve Jobs at the time of its release. As is often the case, not everyone shared his enthusiasm. Apple was doing very well when the fourth generation iPod was released. iPods were selling well, and the iTunes Music Store, which at the time was celebrating the milestone of 100 million songs sold, was not doing badly either.
Before the fourth generation iPod officially saw the light of day, it was rumored that the novelty would be completely redesigned from head to toe. For example, there was talk of a color display, support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, a completely new design and up to 60GB of storage. In the light of such expectations, on the one hand, a certain disappointment on the part of users is not surprising, however bizarre it may seem to us today that someone would rely so much on wild speculation.
So the most important innovation of the fourth generation iPod was the click wheel, which Apple introduced with its iPod mini, released in the same year. Instead of a physical scroll wheel, surrounded by separate buttons with additional control functions, Apple introduced the iPod Click Wheel for the new iPod, which was fully touch-sensitive and completely blended into the surface of the iPod. But the wheel was not the only novelty. The fourth generation iPod was the first "larger" iPod to offer charging via a USB 2.0 connector. Apple also worked on a better battery life for it, which promised up to twelve hours of operation on a single charge.
At the same time, the Cupertino company managed to reach more bearable prices with the new iPod. The version with 20GB of storage cost $299 at the time, the 40GB version cost the user a hundred dollars more. Later, Apple also came out with limited editions of its iPod - in October 2004, for example, the U2 iPod 4G came out, and in September 2005, the Harry Potter Edition, equipped with the cult audiobooks of JK Rowling.
