The Zune struggled with a limited music store, clunky software and poor timing

Explore an illustrated history of the iPod

The Apple music player entered listeners' pockets in 2001 and underwent several hardware redesigns alongside the release of sister products, including the iPod Mini, Shuffle, Photo, and Nano. In 2022, Apple discontinued all iPod iterations in favor of the iPhone.

In high school, Mark Zuckerberg rejected Microsoft's proposal to buy his music suggestion software for $950K

Mark Zuckerberg and Adam D'Angleo built a website called "Synapse," which created playlists for users based on their listening preferences and an algorithm to suggest new songs, in September 2002.

Microsoft developed the Xbox to compete with Sony's all-in-one entertainment hardware

The video game console originated as a side project between four DirectX developers, from whom the console's original name, "DirectX Box," derives. These developers sought to counter Sony's PlayStation product line, which they saw as capable of capturing all entertainment markets by playing games, CDs, and DVDs.

Watch Steve Jobs unveil the first iPhone in 2007

During his Macworld San Francisco 2007 keynote address, Jobs claimed Apple had reinvented the phone by integrating phone capabilities with internet access and music playback from its iPod product line. The multitouch display eliminated the need for a stylus or keyboard hardware typically found on other smartphones.

The first smartwatch was made by Microsoft in 1994

Coproduced by Timex, the Timex DataLink 150 featured a small LCD screen and could transfer data to and from a Windows PC. Like the Windows XP Tablet that launched in 2002, the smartwatch did not sell well, and both products are considered to have been released before their time.

Spotify took 18 years to reach profitability; 70% of revenue goes to rights-holders

The music streaming company lost revenue for years as it sought to grow, but once it went public, investors pushed the company to expand into podcasts, cut costs, and prefer passive mood listening via algorithmic curation to increase value. Users have mixed feelings about using it.

IPOs that failed

Plenty of private companies fail once they try to go public. Failing can mean shares sell for less than their initial asking price on its IPO date, or it can look like a company pulling out of the IPO process at the last minute. Some companies with failed IPOs include Pets.com, Etsy, and Robinhood. Learn more about these companies and others here.

By 2005, Microsoft may have made as many as 12,000 millionaires

Stock options given to early employees also created four billionaires, including Bill Gates, who became the then-youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 31. As of 2025, Microsoft employs about 228,000 employees, including more than 50,000 at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Steve Jobs once explained why iPhones can’t be made in the US

In 2011, then-President Obama asked Steve Jobs, “What would it take to make iPhones in the United States?” Steve Jobs said it wasn’t a viable option, explaining that overseas factories had far outpaced the US’s in terms of skill and speed.

View an illustrated history of Microsoft Solitaire

Included in Windows 3.0 in 1990, to help first-time computer users become familiar with using a mouse, the game featured a dozen unique card back designs. The Windows XP library of preinstalled games added Spider Solitaire, which became the most-played game on Windows PCs by 2005.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

The Rolling Stones were paid $3M to have 'Start Me Up' in the Windows 95 promo

The fee was part of Microsoft's $300M advertising and promotional campaign for the operating system, which featured the Start button for the first time. The company also filmed sitcom-style infomercials featuring "Friends" TV stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry.

The first Coachella lost $1M

Coachella is now the premier live music festival in the US, but it almost didn't survive its financially catastrophic first year, which featured extreme heat and attracted only 50,000 attendees. The festival did not return until 2001—thanks to entertainment company AEG, which purchased Goldenvoice and provided the capital needed to continue.

Bands largely disappeared from the charts in the 21st century

Chris Dalla Riva analyzed 65 years of Billboard charts and found that bands (even those that don't play instruments) severely declined in the 21st century, largely replaced by solo artists.

The payments tool Zelle was created by big banks to compete with apps like Venmo

Zelle is an alternative to Venmo, where people can pay each other back for expenses like apartment utilities or dinner. But its origin story has more to do with big finance than small transactions.

Guitar Hero introduced a generation of gamers to rock music

The rhythm-based video game was a surprise hit when it was released in 2005. Even more surprising was the renewed interest in classic rock hits from the likes of Black Sabbath, Queen, and David Bowie.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles

Although the quartet was already a sensation in Great Britain, Capitol Records turned down the opportunity to release "Please Please Me" and "From Me to You," licensing them instead to a smaller independent label in Chicago.

Atari's 'Pong', VCRs, and CD players all launched at CES

This roundup highlights major tech milestones at CES, including the launch of the Nintendo NES in 1985, the DVD in 1996, and the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift in 2013.

Tesla open-sourced all its patents to speed up industry adoption of electric vehicles

The company employed a disruptive strategy to transform the transportation market, but early struggles, including leadership shifts and near bankruptcy in 2008, threatened its efforts to bring electric vehicles to the mainstream.

Threads offers sleek design but fails to deliver X's unique user experience

Despite its smooth setup, Threads lacks the algorithmic depth and cultural edge that made X (formerly Twitter) feel essential to longtime users. The overlap with Instagram contacts creates a less authentic space, limiting the raw, real-time energy people loved on X.

Warren Zevon's sardonic takes landed him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Warren Zevon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025. Political writer Andrew Walworth highlights Zevon's keen interest in international politics, which often found their way into his memorably wry lyrics.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Multiple business choices may have hindered Sears’ financial success

There’s no shortage of potential culprits for Sears’ death, from hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, to Amazon, to the 2008 stock market crash.

Warner Bros eventually released 'The Black Album' in 1994

After years of relentless bootlegging of the notoriously deleted album, Prince and Warner Bros. finally released the album in 1994—for just two months. As part of a promotional campaign, the record label took out a full-page ad in Billboard announcing that the first 1,000 fans to turn in their bootlegged copies would receive official, legal copies of the album.

The Human Genome Project was forced to accelerate due to a private competitor

Despite a 15-year target when it began in 1990, the Human Genome Project faced competition from Celera Genomics when it entered the sequencing race in 1998. Celera's aim to complete the human genome in three years pressured the HGP to complete their sequencing several years ahead of schedule.

Kanye abruptly left Nike in 2013 and took his Air Yeezys to Adidas for $10M

In 2009, Kanye West became the first non-athlete Nike produced a signature shoe for. However, Kanye left Nike for the company’s rival, Adidas, just a few years later. Kanye said Nike was stifling his creative vision, and he felt like he wasn’t getting enough royalties.

The Reevo hubless ebike, the industry's great failure

The Reevo hubless e-bike came out in 2020, touted as the bicycle of the future with no hubs or spokes, a GPS tracker, a fingerprint reader, and a uniquely futuristic look. With less than 3,000 sold, you've likely never seen one, but this bike reviewer shows off the bike's nightmarishly loud noise, terrible brakes, failed smartphone pairing, and more. Watch the full review here.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.