Apple has made an estimated £89 billion in profit from the iPod, which has single handily transformed the music industry. Rather than buying records of CDs, music fans are now downloading their music in MP3 format from websites such as Apple’s own iTunes, and playing them on their Apple iPod MP3 players.

However, it was a Briton who invented the iPod, which Apple has finally admitted, yet he won’t receive a penny of Apple’s £89 billion profit.

Kane Kramer left school when he was 15, and invented the iPod technology 30 years ago, yet has never received any money from his world beating invention. In fact, he’s so short of money that he was forced to sell his own home last year and is living with his family in a rented house.

Sketches that Kramer designed back in 1979 look startlingly like the iPod we know today. It wasn’t until the firm Burst.com tried to sue Apple claiming they held the patent on the iPod that Apple admitted it was Kramer who had invented it. He even gave evidence in the trial between Apple and Burst.com.

Kramer originally held the patent but after a boardroom bust up in 1988 he couldn’t afford to renew the patents in 120 countries, which would have cost £60,000. This meant the design became public property, and the iPod was born.