People who want to disconnect from smartphones and younger users who may not be allowed to use iPhones and Android devices at school are making old-school iPods popular again. Apple doesn’t make new models, but used iPods in good condition sell on marketplaces like eBay despite their limitations. The original iPod cannot connect to streaming services and you need to transfer the tracks to the music player for offline listening.
Older users may be familiar with Apple’s slogan “1,000 songs in your pocket” that the company used for the original iPod in 2001, a way of showing how generous that 5GB capacity was compared to alternative MP3 players, but younger iPod owners may worry that it won’t be enough for all their favorite music today, when the base iPhone 17 model comes with 256GB storage. If you were wondering how many original iPods you would need to match the cheapest iPhone 17, the math is very simple. You would need 51.2 iPod to get 256 GB of storage space for music.
Apple also released a 10 GB iPod in spring 2002, billing it as a music player that allowed users to store 2,000 songs. It would take 25.6 units to reach the 256GB storage capacity of the iPhone 17. The iPhone 17 is also available in a 512GB version, while the iPhone 17 Pro models go up to 1TB and 2TB of storage capacity, depending on the model.
In the years since the release of the original iPod, Apple has released other iPod models with varying storage capacities. The first generation iPod shuffle was available in a 512MB variant. At the other end of the spectrum are the 160GB iPod classic, launched in 2007, and the 7th generation iPod touch (2019), which came in a 256GB option.
Was 5 GB enough?
Most basic smartphones sold in 2026 have 128 GB or 256 GB of storage space. Apple’s entry-level MacBook Neo laptop comes in 256GB and 512GB versions. Comparatively, 5GB doesn’t seem like enough for a mobile device, even one limited to music playback. But 25 years ago, the original iPod’s 5GB storage was considered cutting-edge. It wasn’t just about the 1,000 songs you had in your pocket. The music player featured a mechanical hard drive that allowed owners to use it as a portable storage device for documents, photos, and videos. The 10 GB model that followed supported contact storage, allowing users to carry up to 1,000 names and addresses with them. Additionally, Apple said at the time that the FireWire port allowed the device to transfer an entire 1,000 songs in 10 minutes, which was 30 times faster than typical USB MP3 players.
A traditional flash drive sold around 2001 might have 32 MB or 64 MB of storage space, 156 times or 78 times smaller than the 5 GB capacity of the original iPod, respectively, and thousands of times smaller than the 256 GB of storage in the base iPhone 17. An iBook laptop sold by Apple in 2001 came with 10 GB of standard storage, which could be upgraded to 20 GB. The iMac desktop computer released in July 2001 offered up to 60 GB of storage. Among the smartphones available around the launch of the original iPod, a Nokia 9210 Communicator offered 16 MB of built-in memory, of which 2 MB was available to the user. The device supported 16 MB memory cards.
Can the original iPod still hold 1000 songs?
Even though iPods are seeing renewed interest among some buyers, Apple’s claim of 1,000 songs won’t necessarily hold up for a device with 5GB of storage, unless the user still has songs encoded at 128 Kbps. This was the quality of the song used by Apple to calculate the storage capacity of the iPod. A 4-minute piece of 128Kbps AAC music would require approximately 4MB of storage space. This is how Apple reached the “1,000 songs in your pocket” estimate for the iPod.
Fast forward to 2026, and the base storage for a mobile device like the iPhone 17 isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Apple encodes songs in 256 Kbps AAC, double the bitrate of songs from 2001. A 4-minute song would require about 8 MB of capacity, meaning an original 5 GB iPod can provide users with enough storage for over 500 songs. That’s still a good amount of music available to play offline. Again, Apple Music subscribers who own the base iPhone 17 can download more than 500 songs to the handset to listen to music even when an internet connection isn’t available.
Finally, to put things into perspective, the 256GB iPhone 17 costs $799, while the original 5GB iPod was priced at $399. However, given their rarity, first generation iPods are being offered for as much as $599 on eBay as of this writing.
