2005

In January 2005, Apple launched its first flashed based player, the iPod shuffle. The tiny shuffle was about the size of a pack of gum and had the USB plug built-in so you could directly plug in the device in your computer without having to bother with a cable. The shuffle came in two capacity options, 512 MB and 1 GB.

In February the iPod mini went through minor changes which included brighter colours and the discontinuation of the gold colour model. The letters on the click wheel were now body coloured. There was also a new 6 GB model available now.
Apple discontinued the 40GB model on both the standard iPod and the iPod photo and but replaced it with a 30 GB model for the iPod photo while the standard iPod was now only available in 20 GB.

In July that year, the iPod and the iPod photo got merged into one product and the monochrome display finally was put to rest on the iPod. The new colour screened iPod was now available in 320 GB and 40 GB models.

 

This same year saw the release of one of the most popular iPods ever, the iPod nano. Sadly this meant the early demise of the iPod mini which actually was doing quite well in the market. The new nano was the slimmest music player ever and the secret to that was it used flash memory just like on the shuffle. The nano also had a colour display and could show images and album art in all their glory. It had a click wheel as well, just all the others before it. The glossy finished nano was available in two colours, black and white and was available in 2 GB and 4 GB capacity.

The year 2005 saw the release of one more iPod, the 5th generation model that finally gained the ability to playback videos, a first for any iPod. The new iPod (commonly called iPod video) had a 2.5", 320 x 240 color display. It could playback movies in VGA resolution at 30 FPS in H.264 format. Apple also updated the iTunes software to playback videos and soon videos and TV shows started appearing on the iTunes Music Store for downloading and playing on the iPod. The 5th generation iPod was also slimmer and smaller than before and was now available in 30 GB and 60 GB capacities.