Apple made a simple design choice in 2001 that sent it into the stratosphere

Screenshot/YouTube

October 23, 2001 is an important date for Apple. It's the day the iPod was first unveiled to the world. 

Finally, the music-loving public didn't have to collect stacks of CDs and lug around bulky players. Instead, they could store their library in a device no bigger than a deck of playing cards. 

But as revolutionary as Apple's iPod was at the time, perhaps the company's greatest innovation was the chief accessory that accompanied each device and has been sold with many Apple products in the 15 years since: those all-white earbuds.

Before Apple came along, headphone cords were black. That's just how it was, because nobody really had a reason to make them a different color. But Apple, ever-preoccupied with people recognizing and lusting after its brand, found a reason. 

The problem Apple saw was that, unlike its computers whose logos were on full display, the iPod lived in people's pockets. No one could tell you were listening to an iPod just by the sight of your black headphones. So what did Apple do?

Well, this.

Screenshot/YouTube

As psychologists and business experts have acknowledged since iPod's release, the decision to make its earbuds all-white sent Apple's cache as an uber-cool company into the stratosphere.

"Telltale white earbuds indicate to passersby that the bearer ascribes to certain notions of coolness and style," evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad wrote in "Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences" in 2011. The iPod user "engages willingly in some degree of conspicuous consumption, has the necessary resource control to afford a portable Apple device ... and presumably enjoys music."

As Saad points out, "that's a lot of information content for less than an ounce of plastic and wire." 

Screenshot/YouTubeApple followed up the iPod's release with a huge advertising campaign highlighting the white headphones. Blacked-out silhouettes danced over tropical-colored backgrounds, all while listening to the tunes playing through their earbuds. More than ever, consumers saw Apple's commitment to standing out and thinking differently.

The company got its money's worth with the idea, running the ads for more than five years between 2003 and 2008 as Apple released new generations of iPods.

Today, there's no guarantee someone with white headphones is secretly using an Apple product. Apple users may find third-party models more comfortable or non-Apple users may prefer to hang on to an old pair.

That may change in the future, however, as Apple has hinted at plans to ditch the existing headphone jack and use the lightning port instead. If that ends up being the case, the all-white earbuds will once again — at least until other manufacturers get in on the game — be unique to Apple products.

Whatever the future of Apple's ports will be, the initial decision to go from black to white was a revolutionary feat of design. All it took was a simple color change to transform music from a casual leisure activity into a competitive status symbol. 

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