I don't think Apple was the first in either MP3 players, or mini computers. But they must have some brilliant marketing, because iPods and online music now account for about 1/3 of their business.

Personally, I'm not impressed. I've got a RIO CALI MP3 player that takes up to 1GB SD cards (which works out to over 10 CD's worth of songs). That is plenty of music for me, and I don't have to worry about the HDD bouncing around when I jog. Plus I paid less than 100 bucks for it.