ipod

Apple has fessed up. They did not invent the iPod.  It was the invention of  a British citizen 30 years ago who patented his prototype.

In 1979, Kane Kramer who is now 52, took out a worldwide patent for a media player that looked very similar to the iPod. It could however only play 3.5 minutes of music. He named his”iPod” IXI and planned to make it storage capacity larger as technology advanced.

In 1988 Kramer ran into problems when he kneeded to renew the patent for £60,000 so his idea went to the public domain. He is now a struggling furniture salesman and not entitled to receive any money or recognition from Apple.

This information all became available, when Burst, a patent holder company sued Apple, claiming the iPod infringed on its patents. Apple then flew Kramer to the U.S. to give evidence that he was the iPod’s inventor by showing his original 1979 IXI drawings.

Billions of dollars have been made by Apple since October 2001 when the Ipod was unveiled.  Since then 163 million have been sold.

"I was up a ladder painting when I got the call from a lady with an American accent from Apple saying she was the head of legal affairs and that they wanted to acknowledge the work that I had done," Kramer told the Daily Mail.

"I must admit that at first I thought it was a wind-up by friends. But we spoke for some time, with me still up this ladder slightly bewildered by it all, and she said Apple would like me to come to California to talk to them."
The dispute was settled out of court. Kramer was questioned by lawyers for 10 hours.
"I can't even bring myself to buy an iPod for myself," he told the newspaper.

Kramer has recently closed down his struggling furniture design store and is negotiating  with Apple to receive compensation for the company’s use of his drawings.  He has only been paid a fee by Apple for consultation work related to the trial.