April 30, 2004: Steve Jobs Dismisses an iPod with Video Support

by Chris Seibold Apr 30, 2011

The iPod still lacked color and photo support but portable video players were scheduled to debut within a year. The question everyone wanted an answer to was: Will the iPod be playing video too?

Steve argued, at the time, that music was a passive activity and that watching a movie required more attention and focus. The true value of the iPod, Steve said, was as a music player, a device that you can comfortably use just about anywhere. He summed up his feelings about "do everything" devices by saying:

"You know, our next big step is we want it to make toast, I want to brown my bagels when I'm listening to my music. And we're toying with refrigeration, too."

With the introduction of the ROKR, iPod Photo and video enabled iPod, Steve clearly changed his mind. Some will say the video aspect had to wait until Apple figured out a way to make a buck (or $1.99) on content but, whatever the reason, Steve Jobs famously dismissed the idea of a multifunction iPod this week in 2004.


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  • “You know, our next big step is we want it to make toast, I want to brown my bagels when I’m listening to my music. And we’re toying with refrigeration, too.”

    Hey, it explains why all the iPods were “refrigerator white”!... ;-]

    I guess they gave up the idea… Wait… There are black fridges! “Music has never been so cool.” Fabulous!

    Frosty Grin had this to say on Apr 30, 2006 Posts: 33

  • If he dismissed the video iPod maybe they are working on an iPod that will toast bagels and refrigerate?

    Graham had this to say on Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 24

  • Steve clearly changed his mind.

    He didn’t change his mind.  Unless he didn’t know what his engineers were doing or unless they can set land speed records for developing hardware, Steve was lying through his teeth.

    Beeblebrox had this to say on Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 2220

  • “You know, our next big step is we want it to make toast, I want to brown my bagels when I’m listening to my music. And we’re toying with refrigeration, too.”

    What happened was: Steve went to Best Buy and saw those new-fangled refrigerators with the TV monitors built into the door. He said “Eureka!” and the refrigerated iPod (sans refrigerator) was born.

    strangway had this to say on Apr 30, 2008 Posts: 1

  • I wonder whether he believed that at that time - or whether he wanted his competitors and the market to believe it then.

    Howard Brazee had this to say on May 05, 2008 Posts: 54
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