Before the advent of the iPhone, the king of Apple’s products was, by and far, the iPod. In a time before the smartphone could deliver all of the music listening capability imaginable, the MP3 player was a must-have accessory. In that sphere, no one was doing MP3 players quite like Apple its signature product at the time, the iPod.
The iPod came in a lot of models, including the original iPod, the tiny iPod Nano, the displayless iPod Shuffle, the almost-a-phone iPod Touch, and the iconic iPod Mini. In particular, the 2004 model of the iPod Mini holds up as the most iconic iteration of Apple’s MP3 player. The iPod Mini was everything the original was, but it was smaller, sleeker, and more colorful.
What makes the iPod Mini so iconic amongst the already iconic line of MP3 players is that it was the iPod that introduced the signature click wheel to the lineup. Where previous offerings of the iPod up to the Mini’s release had the same wheel layout as separate or detached buttons, the Mini introduced the wheel as all one button that clicked on multiple sides. A simple, but intuitive piece of design that stuck to every iPod with a wheel released after the original Mini.
The iPod line was officially discontinued in 2022 with the announcement that the last iPod Touchs sold would be the last iPods sold altogether. However, the iPod Mini’s iconic design changes died out in 2007 with the release of the final iteration of the iPod Classic. The click wheel and sleek, colorful look introduced by the iPod Mini went on to influence the remaining years of the lineup’s lifespan. Though no iPods remain today, the iPod Mini stands tall as an icon of a bygone age of Apple products.
