iPod Mini: The debut of the click wheel

January 2004 - 4GB, $249

Some might see the iPod Mini as an important step for the iPod because it was the first time the product line split into more than one device. While it was small for its time, the bulky Mini still had a spinning hard drive. Its real innovation was the click wheel, an ingenious marriage of capacitive touch-and-click controls that became the backbone of every iPod to follow, until the rise of the iPod Touch. The click wheel is still on the iPod Classic today.