Ten years ago today, Steve Jobs took the stage and introduced the first iPod.

Portable music players are seen as largely responsible for Apple dramatic comeback in the past decade. It also led Apple down the road to consumer electronics market. While iPod has diminished the importance of the past few years, the bottom line is now dominated by Apple devices like the iPhone and the iPad.

Macworld offers a great story detailing how the iPod came to be:

Behind every successful product remains in finding solutions to problems. The inspirational, in the case of the iPod, involving a sad state of young players MP3 market in the late 1990s.

Portable MP3 players have been around since the mid-1990s, but Apple has discovered that each market offers a lackluster user experience. Steve Jobs a strong term for a gadget like “nonsense”. Everyone agrees Apple.

The first reaction to the iPod is not fully compliant. The reaction of the famous Slashdot is “No wireless Less space than a freak .. Strain. “MacRumors is also there at that time also, and many readers also negative reactions. One commenter wrote:

All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The truth Field ™ Distiortion Steve started warped mind if he thinks for one second that this thing will take off.

Of course, ten years later, the iPod has sold over 304 million units.