The iPod’s iconic status was far from guaranteed, according to its inventor.

Twenty years ago today, Apple released the first-generation iPod. While it seems like a home run with the benefit of hindsight, the MP3 player was actually an enormous gamble for a company that was, in 2001, about as far from being a trillion-dollar powerhouse as it’s possible to be.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the iPod, CNET spoke to Tony Fadell, the “father of iPod” to talk about his memories of the time, and it provides an interesting look into the late Apple founder Steve Jobs’ decisiveness.
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