I've followed Apple all my life and never heard of HP iPods!

It was a weird win-win for Apple if I remember correctly. They were able to sell more iPods, get iTunes installed on all HP machines, and block HP from creating a rival music player. I honestly am not sure what HP got beyond the logo on the back of some iPods and the ability to try and associate themselves with a popular and cool product.

I think HP in that era was definitely trying to be more "popular and cool." Not sure how much it really helped though.

HP of the era was falling apart and making stupid acquisitions.

Would that have been pre-apple store, an effort to use HP's distribution/sales channels to get iPod into, like CompUSA or CircuitCity?

Jobs was extremely pragmatic, which is why for all his fault Apple would always come up with a desirable technological solution. Most things said about Jobs are pop culture caricature derived from peoples talking shit about him (mostly because of success jaleousy).

Did you know him?

Are you idiotic? I can play the game too.

> And the iMac's catch copy was "BYODKM" at the very start

I think you meany Mac mini there. It was definitely built as the gateway into the Mac ecosystem. Swap your tower for a Mac mini, and keep using the rest of your old hardware.