iPod Turns 10 Years Old Today

[guch20]

It puts the predictions about the first iPod in perspective. It wasn't a runaway hit, not nearly, and the second-guessing of those comments based on what happened years later is disingenuous.

But talking about what would have happened if certain things hadn't been done is pointless since those things were done and the product took off like crazy. Obviously, Steve Jobs and Apple knew what they were doing or they would never have entered the market and iterated repeatedly.

 

[JabbaII]

You're misinformed about the technology. Apple does release products preemptively compared to the maturity of the technology.

1. iPhone: 3G wasn't as mature when the iPhone was released. The networks weren't ready, it wasn't as widespread and it drains batteries worse than it does today. Sure, people wanted it on 3G, just like people wanted the 4s to be 4G. It just wasn't the right time.

2. MBA: The processors it used aren't the same as used in the regular macbooks.The CPUs were custom in the first-gen models because what Apple wanted didn't exist. Apple (as well as other mfgrs) created a market for low-power CPU's. That is why it is a successful core-i3 based product today.

3. iPad: If memory serves, it had over 200 ipad-apps ready at launch. And I am guessing the "less features" was the lack of phone. Go ahead. Hold one up to your head.

You need to remember, not every product is instantly understood. The "first gen products tended to be underwhelming" statement is just uninformed FUD.

If you want to talk about first to introduce the tech
1. First 3G network was in Japan in 2001. By 2002 3G there were commercially available 3G phones.

2. MBA (introduced 2008) vs. Sony Vaio X505 (introduced 2004)
$3,999 for carbon fiber edition. Never really took off with that price/performance plus ergonomic issues.
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/sony_vaio_X505.htm
10.4" screen, .38" to .8" thick, 1.73 lbs

3. iPad - PC tablets has been around for quite sometime before iPad. Some are even pressure sensitive. Tech was mature, just no one thought of putting it in a package like the iPad. Everyone was thinking stylus + tablet. HP had a "touch" PC but don't think that did well.

Others were first to market but not been able to "get it right" (i.e. you don't read about it in the newspapers). You do not hear about these because they all flopped or were all primitive at the time.

Apple is always good at picking the right time to join the party, have a plan, vision and joined with a much more complete package (user experience as they call it).

 

[thenerdal]

Do people still buy Shuffles? Apple should just get rid of the shuffles or rename the new Nano as the shuffle and keep the 5th gen nano design.

 

[guch20]

If you want to talk about first to introduce the tech
1. First 3G network was in Japan in 2001. By 2002 3G there were commercially available 3G phones.

2. MBA (introduced 2008) vs. Sony Vaio X505 (introduced 2004)
$3,999 for carbon fiber edition. Never really took off with that price/performance plus ergonomic issues.
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/sony_vaio_X505.htm
10.4" screen, .38" to .8" thick, 1.73 lbs

3. iPad - PC tablets has been around for quite sometime before iPad. Some are even pressure sensitive. Tech was mature, just no one thought of putting it in a package like the iPad. Everyone was thinking stylus + tablet. HP had a "touch" PC but don't think that did well.

Other manufacturers were first to market but not been able to "get it right" (i.e. you don't read about it in the newspapers). You do not hear about these because they all flopped or were all primitive at the time.

Apple is always good at picking the right time to join the party and joined with a much more complete package (user experience as they call it).

But he said Apple enters markets early compared to the maturity of the technology, and he's right. Your points don't address that; they only show you know how to do a Wikipedia search.

As he stated, 3G was not the widely-used standard it is today, even if it was introduced in 2001.

The iPad wasn't the first tablet, but it was the first good and the first useful tablet, and has become the envy of the industry, and as the original poster stated, Apple entered when the tablet market was still in its infancy. In fact, the only reason it's matured at all is because of the iPad.

 

[SVegard]

So...is it 100% cinfirmed that the classic will go away now?

 

[flottenheimer]

My 2nd gen iPod is still alive and kickin'. It is currently used for telling bedtime stories in my daughters room.

Apples success with the iPod changed everything.

 

[coolfactor]

The first iPod did suck for a $399 product in 2001 dollars.

Sounds like the bitter view of someone who couldn't afford one. Yes, it was expensive, but it also brought a great user experience to the scene, something that was sorely lacking in the competition.

 

[InuNacho]

Happy birthday clickwheel, you are now dead.

 

[ABernardoJr]

If you want to talk about first to introduce the tech
1. First 3G network was in Japan in 2001. By 2002 3G there were commercially available 3G phones.

2. MBA (introduced 2008) vs. Sony Vaio X505 (introduced 2004)
$3,999 for carbon fiber edition. Never really took off with that price/performance plus ergonomic issues.
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/sony_vaio_X505.htm
10.4" screen, .38" to .8" thick, 1.73 lbs

3. iPad - PC tablets has been around for quite sometime before iPad. Some are even pressure sensitive. Tech was mature, just no one thought of putting it in a package like the iPad. Everyone was thinking stylus + tablet. HP had a "touch" PC but don't think that did well.

Others were first to market but not been able to "get it right" (i.e. you don't read about it in the newspapers). You do not hear about these because they all flopped or were all primitive at the time.

Apple is always good at picking the right time to join the party, have a plan, vision and joined with a much more complete package (user experience as they call it).

You make good points, but the person you quoted was saying the markets weren't matured. Having one item or one iteration of the particular product/feature years back does not necessitate that the market has matured.

I don't necessarily think Apple is good at choosing the "right time" to join the party all the time, I mean that's arguably the case at times as you pointed out, but I tend to think that it is more about Apple knowing how to turn the market and lead it their way. They don't just incidentally choose a time where the market is turning and find success, because that would imply that the market would have gone that route had Apple not entered at all. Instead, it's Apple that takes these markets and validates it in the consumer market (the way the iPod became the "definition" of an MP3 player, the iPhone changed the way phones behaved and looked, the iPad revitalized the tablets and made them relevant, etc.).

 

[coolfactor]

I remember looking at that thing and thinking, "300+ just for music? That's never gone sell"...man was I wrong.

I remember watching the Keynote and thinking that an "mp3 player" just didn't fit with the Apple that I knew. I failed to realize that it was just one step in a much longer journey that Apple was already laying down for itself.

 

[crazy dave]

So...is it 100% cinfirmed that the classic will go away now?

No. It simply hasn't been updated in awhile, so people on the forum are positing that it will go away soon. However, Apple has not announced that it will kill the line and they probably would've done so at the iPod event if they were going to kill it this year. So there is probably at least one year left if not more for the classic.

 

[redkamel]

The original ipod wasn't all THAT great, but it eventually became a winner for a few reasons
1. simple to use
2. lots of storage, small space
3. GOOD SYNC SOFTWARE

What apple seems to understand and other companies seem not to is that people don't really want to screw with menus and settings. This is the reason they have strict compatability guidelines and requirements...but I'll be damned if I have ever had to reset the settings on my router in over 2 years, change my Airplay speaker settings in 1 year, or do anything after I set up my mac programs once using a simple walkthrough.

Apple has been lately adding more menu use as a requirement...for example, while setting up cloud sync/wi fi sync with my iphone was super easy, adding wi fi sync in addition to cloud was a little confusing...when it should have been enabled by default.

I wonder why you would say that, and I never understood why people seemed to like those usability horrors. The first usable iPod was the iPod Touch. The Click-Wheel interface was a nightmare to use - those old iPods only worked okay when they were connected to a computer and controlled by iTunes.

um...you found the click wheel confusing?

rotate to move cursor
play=play or enter
play while playing=pause
left=back song
right=next song
menu= back one menu

In fact the ipod touch is a nightmare because I have to move my thumb all over the screen and I have to look down at it when I am using it. Not to mention that if the screen breaks its busted, while the ipod just needs to be barely readable.

They need to make a 10 yr anniversary ipod clickwheel with 128gb solid state, wifi and cloud sync, clickwheel, super slim body, looooong battery life, and a nice little color screen. That would be awesome.

 

[SVegard]

No. It simply hasn't been updated in awhile, so people on the forum are positing that it will go away soon. However, Apple has not announced that it will kill the line and they probably would've done so at the iPod event if they were going to kill it this year. So there is probably at least one year left if not more for the classic.

I'm considering getting one and droping the iPhone so I can have a old fashion mobile and a dedicated musicplayer.

There is another thing to the storage that none in this forum talks about. The size of the files. I mostly use songs converted to Apple Lossless from CDz. Those take up a lot more space. And just for the theoretical purity I would like to just add wav files...

But then it struck me...would a classic use more power with larger files?

 

[flottenheimer]

Do people still buy Shuffles? Apple should just get rid of the shuffles or rename the new Nano as the shuffle and keep the 5th gen nano design.

I guess they do. I, for one, bought two for my kids (aged 5 and 8). Filled them with all their favorite music and bought two cool pairs of Coloud headphones (Hello Kitty + Marvel Punisher) to boot. Super easy to control, they have since used them problem-free for hours and hours. It is one of their favorite "toys".

With its low price and easy controls the iPod Shuffle is still a great entry product in my opinion.

 

[SeanMcg]

Still have mine

I bought a one of the first ones soon after it was released and I still have it. I don't use it much any more, but it still works. My computers have always been Macs (after the Apple ][+), so iPods have always "just worked" in my computing environment.

Of the iPods I have purchased since then, I still have 2 160 GB Classics and a 60GB. The large capacity of the first two is ideal for holding video, and the 60 GB can hold music or data.

I really wish they had kept Firewire on the devices, but I understand why and USB2 is workable. No matter the protocol, the docking port really opened up possibilities. Starting with a 3rd Gen I purchased, I started using them to transfer images from CF cards, before capacities of CF cards really got big. It was much faster to transfer images from an iPod than a USB Card reader.

Happy Birthday!

 

[Fazzy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Happy birthday iPod!
I'm sure they've sold over a billion though?

 

[iBug2]

I remember watching the Keynote and thinking that an "mp3 player" just didn't fit with the Apple that I knew. I failed to realize that it was just one step in a much longer journey that Apple was already laying down for itself.

I remember watching the keynote, and thinking to myself, no way this is something relevant. Next.

And probably 6 months later I was in an IT exhibition and the iPod first arrived in my country so I had a chance to hold the thing in my hand and play with it.
I was sold immediately.

Next day I ordered one from a friend traveling from USA. It was crazy expensive where I lived so I lucked out. And too bad I had actually purchased the most expensive disc-man from Sony during those 6 months. I sold it to a friend though.

 

[krazzix]

And still... after TEN YEARS, that very first iPod transfers my mp3's faster on it then the latest iPod/iPhone/iPad today...

 

[JAT]

I wonder why you would say that, and I never understood why people seemed to like those usability horrors. The first usable iPod was the iPod Touch. The Click-Wheel interface was a nightmare to use - those old iPods only worked okay when they were connected to a computer and controlled by iTunes.

Why do you still come here? I suppose we should be glad you changed your lying sig about liking Apple products. Since you dislike all their products, HATE people who own their products, and wanted to kill their former CEO, I would think you'd just go elsewhere. What a complete waste of our and your time.

The form factor would surely be harmed by the extra hardware required or the battery life would be severely hampered by a smaller battery if they kept all the extra features you say.

And the Touch is down to $199, not much more than the Nano was back then. Anyone wanting those capabilities has simply gotten a Touch these days.

 

[SandynJosh]

Looking Back...

I remember thinking at the time that the iPod was a nice little device but too costly for listening to music. Then I heard that it also could be used to store data (like a thumb-drive of today) so one could carry data around, and that got my interest. The fact that drive manufacturers had been able to shrink a HD down to somewhat the size of a U.S. quarter also impressed me.

It was an exciting time with a lot of amazing things happening, so it wasn't really all that odd that Apple and Steve would go through so much hoopla to introduce and promote the iPod. A few years later I was in Chicago and every train stop on the loop was advertising the iPod with their iconic dancing silhouettes with the white earphone cords.

All that said, I love iTunes and use it but have never owned an iPod or any other similar device.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

That's almost 83,231 units sold per day for 10 years!

A total failure, right???

Evolution:
From a simple but complete mp3 player to an amazing portable computer with a media player.

 

[rudigern]

People are "disappointed" that whatever they release didn't meet some wild speculation, but then realize that it's a great product. It happened with the iPod, the iPhone, the MacBook Air, and the iPad. All were roundly criticized by many "experts."

I think it comes down to people still thinking that fast / more specs = better device, Apple brings something out that doesn't meet those expectations so people whine. Then once people get past that they realise the software is what makes it so good.

 

[SandynJosh]

I miss my old U2 red iPod it was so sweet in red.

Toward the end of the Zune's life, MS had knocked off the "red" look and they still couldn't make that imitation iPod sucker sell. Here's a salute to the Brown Zune, the only product I know of that made the world go, "WUT??"

 

[unlinked]

That's almost 83,231 units sold per day for 10 years!

A total failure, right???

Evolution:
From a simple but complete mp3 player to an amazing portable computer with a media player.

Big change from 376,000 a year to 83,000 a day.

 

[MrMoore]

The iPod got me to go Mac full time. I wanted the iPod so badly. At that time I was using a Creative Nomad, but it was bulky. I bought the iPod to use with an old spare Mac my work gave me. After trying to get the iPod to work with Windows. (X-play program and MusicMatch), I decided to get an iBook. Been Mac full time since. The halo effect worked on me.

Happy birthday iPod.

---still using a 4th gen iPod nano connected to an iHome device for the bathroom.