I had many of the original iPods from the 1st gen on. Recently bought a refurbed 5th gen out of nostalgia and it’s got a new battery and 256gb flash drive fitted. Working on re-ripping the CD collection!
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My first one was a blue Creative Zen Nano Plus 
Apple wasn’t very well known and when I was choosing a replacement for my MiniDisc I remember considering this unknown expensive American company versus the Creative Zen, and going with the Creative. The Creative used an AAA battery and was compatible with Windows Media Player, which I was heavily in at the time.
It was a good device, solid and lasted a long time (it took a lot of abuse).
A few years later, I was going travelling round the world and treated myself to a red iPod Nano 3rd generation because it had 8gb space and I’d be able to fit a lot more of my music on it.
That was my first Apple product, and led to me adopting iTunes.
A year later the iPhone 3GS came out and I officially became an Apple nerd
My last one was an iPod Touch. It saved me from buying an iPhone for several years.
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They sell you the razor, then you keep buying the blades.
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I remember people buying those and carrying them alongside their flip phones as PDAs+ that would sync when they got back onto wifi. It saved them from having to pay for a mobile data plan.
Another reason was that for years iPhones were only available in the US through AT&T, and a lot of people didn’t want to switch carriers.
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Or in the UK where the iPod Touch came out before the iPhone was available for us.
I loved my iPod touch, but sold it when I got an iPhone.
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