You're either trolling or not old enough to remember what the portable player scene was like in 2001. Burned CDs on portable cd walkmans were the norm. Minidisc

You're either trolling or not old enough to remember what the portable player scene was like in 2001. Burned CDs on portable cd walkmans were the norm. Minidisc was high tech. 2/4GB of onboard memory + expansion slot was typical. "Anti-skip protection" was still a feature worth mentioning. The iPod's storage capacity was massive in comparison to nearly everything else. The firewire connection made uploading huge amounts of music crazy-fast in comparison to the old USB connections other players were using. Look at digital players of the same vintage -- stupid complicated interfaces & displays -- the clickwheel was a revolution in UX. So much so that it remains, largely unchanged, on all but touchscreen ipods.