1979

September 09th, 2008

It turns out the idea for the iPod came from Kane Kramer who at the age of 23 in 1979 came up with this design for a digital music player.  The chip could only play 3.5 minutes of music.  Kane could not raise the money to produce his digital music player and he allowed the patent to expire in 1998.  The rest is history!

original_ipod.jpg


15 comments
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15 Comments so far

  1. dopeboifreshyes September 9th, 2008 11:27 am

    wowwwww thats truely crazy that somebody thought of that in 1979…..now apple has capitalized on it….that guy couldve been filthy rich

  2. MikeyMcFly215 September 9th, 2008 12:05 pm

    Damn sorry to hear that…First

    http://www.mikeymcfly.com

  3. denise_islove September 9th, 2008 12:07 pm

    Nice. It’s amazing how back in the days they had these ideas already! I find that fascinating.

  4. MzJones September 9th, 2008 12:13 pm

    Wow if he would have let patent last a few more years. He would have been set for life.

  5. SneakersAreMyLife September 9th, 2008 12:36 pm

    Ouch that’s crazy!
    Could it be that Apple just waited for the patent to expire? LOL

  6. London September 9th, 2008 12:44 pm

    Oh wow, and someone else got rich off his idea.

  7. s_ermel September 9th, 2008 2:33 pm

    Sorry Kane but dieter was the first with the braun T3 Radio (1958-1960)
    http://www.hi-id.com/atcl/0703/Braun_T3_iPod.jpg

    This blog also reported of it:
    http://bbcicecream.com/blog/2008/03/13/dieter-rams-vs-jonathan-ive/

  8. adubbisfinallyfamous September 9th, 2008 4:54 pm

    damn id be real pissed

  9. storm September 9th, 2008 5:46 pm

    kane kramer huh? sounds like something that came from cramerica

  10. A-Gent September 9th, 2008 8:47 pm

    yeah, very sad, but this happens with everything. My grandpa actually invented the wireless phone, but tried to get it to run off of telephone wires verse satellites, his patent also ran out. Sorry to hear this, sad story.

  11. loveyoursneaker September 9th, 2008 9:21 pm

    damn s_ermal lol u clockin lol amazing ppl do amazing things the power of an IDEA

  12. Lolita September 9th, 2008 11:15 pm

    what a bummer for kane kramer! if only he extended his patent.
    i love the sketch though……..it reminds me of the sketches i used to do in art school……..ahhhh memories :(

  13. Liza September 10th, 2008 9:17 am

    The patent expired in 1988 ^^
    Apple credits Kramer with this invention, but isnt planning to offer him royalties or any part of the pie. They obviously offered him…….an Ipod!

  14. Et Cetera September 11th, 2008 3:33 am

    Wow. That’s slick as hell on Apple’s part. I guess if you snooze you lose but no royalties? That’s tough.

  15. Find Hype September 13th, 2008 10:54 pm

    Story added…

    Your story was featured in Find Hype! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://findhype.com/Tech/History_of_iPod_1979...

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