When Apple released the original iPod in 2001, it was a game changer. Portable music players capable of playing MP3 files had been on the market for a few years, but all were constrained by the meager limitations of affordable solid-state flash storage at the time. Apple created a far superior value proposition by leveraging new 1.8-inch hard drives from Toshiba, letting the iPod launch at a competitive price with 5 gigabytes of storage when most of its competitors were topping out at 128 megabytes.
In time, as Toshiba's 1.8-inch hard drives improved and Apple's iPods evolved, that capacity ballooned to 160GB before the original iPod, eventually renamed the iPod Classic, was discontinued in 2014 due to difficulty finding parts as well as the device's dwindling market share.
The old-school iPod became iconic, and during its lifespan, there were various special edition versions of both the iPod Classic and the other products in the line. Some, like the U2-themed iPod released across a few generations of the iPod, are pretty memorable, while others, like a very limited "Family Guy"-themed edition, are pretty obscure. Among the more obscure variations is a genuine curiosity: The iPod+HP, which was basically just an iPod that also carried HP branding and stands out because Apple doesn't normally partner up like that. Let's take a look at how and why the iPod+HP came into existence, how it was received, and how long it lasted.