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RE: iPod - happy 13th birthday today!

Posted by Dave_K on October 23, 2014 at 16:41:51

In Reply to: iPod - happy 13th birthday today! posted by mkuller on October 23, 2014 at 14:24:44:

I have an appreciation for industrial design, and the iPod is one of the best examples of good design so far this century. I love mine, except...
iTunes is one of the worst things to come out of Apple ever. Love the device, hate the app.

Anyway, I wouldn't give Apple too much credit for popularizing MP3 players or popularizing downloaded music. MP3 players had already caught on before the iPod. Remember Rio? And Napster had already turned almost everyone with a internet connection into an MP3 downloader.

When the iPod was announced, I remember that Apple had been promising a big announcement that day, and Apple-centric forums were speculating about new MacBooks or a successor to the Power Mac G4 Cube. When they found out it was an MP3 player, the reaction was something like WTF??? Fairly disappointed. Also, it was $400 and Mac-only, at a time when Apple had something like 2% market share, and so a lot of people thought it was going to fail.

But the 5GB capacity, about 1000 songs worth, that was really something unique. Many people could put their whole music collection on it.

Apple was hoping the iPod would be the lure that would draw new users to the Mac platform. But I don't think it really worked out that way. As I recall, the early iPods didn't sell very well, and it wasn't until the iTunes store picked up steam and the Gen 4 iPod offered full PC & USB support that sales really took off. The expansion of Apple stores into most major metropolitan areas probably had a lot to do with it also.

My first iPod was a Gen 5 and I still have it. It sounds pretty good with ALAC files or even 256k AAC files, it can drive moderately inefficient IEMs or cans, and with 80GB storage it still holds a lot. Until recently, I was using it every time I fly and often on the train or at work. But the battery only lasts a couple of hours now so it's basically retired. Although lacking in storage, my phone is good enough for my needs now. My wife has had a couple of Nanos and a couple of Shuffles that she uses for workouts. They are good products. Except for iTunes...

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