iPod celebrates fifth birthday

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The iPod music player has marked its fifth anniversary as a must-have fashion accessory which has also helped earn healthy profits for its developer Apple. The California-based company launched its mini music player five years ago on Monday on October 23, 2001 and has never looked back as sales of the trendy gadget have continued to rise and rise.

Apple shipped over eight million iPods during its fiscal fourth quarter, marking a 35 percent increase in such shipments over the year-ago quarter, according to the company's latest earnings statement released last Wednesday. And the sleek little music player has already become the "first cultural icon of the 21st Century," according to Michael Bull, a media lecturer at Britain's University of Sussex, who is...